Muslim Leader Honored With Human Relations Award

(AP) LOS ANGELES A Muslim leader received an award Thursday from the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations, despite criticism from several Jewish organizations over harsh comments he made about Israel.

Dr. Maher Hathout, 70, retired cardiologist who serves as chairman of the Islamic Center of Southern California and a senior adviser to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, received the John Allen Buggs Award at a luncheon at the Millennium Biltmore hotel.

The award, named for the commission's first executive director, was given to Hathout for being "an inspired and tireless voice for greater interfaith understanding and alliances" over "many decades," the commission said in an announcement Aug. 22.

The decision drew bitter criticism from some Jewish leaders who called the Egyptian-born Hathout an extremist because of comments he made at a Jerusalem Day rally in Washington, D.C., in 2000.

Hathout said at the time, "We did not come here to condemn the condemned atrocities committed by the apartheid brutal state of Israel because butchers do what butchers do and because what is expected from a racist apartheid is what is happening now."

Hathout conceded earlier this year that his remarks had been "harsh." He said they sprang from anger over the way Israeli authorities were treating Palestinian protesters in the West Bank and Gaza Strip during the intifada.

Some Jewish organizations -- including the American Jewish Congress, StandWithUs, American Jewish Committee, The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles and the Zionist Organization of America -- loudly came out against the award.

Others, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, stayed out of the fray, while some Jewish community leaders, including rabbis, joined the Muslim and Christian community leaders and clerics who rallied to Hathout's defense, hailing him as a bridge builder.

There were no protests against Hathout, who advocates the emergence of a distinctly American Muslim identity, at the luncheon, which was attended by about 300 people, commission spokeswoman Ava Gutierrez said.

The Commission on Human Relations reaffirmed Hathout's selection in a meeting last month, when four commissioners voted to grant him the award while five abstained. The second vote was prompted by a complaint from the Zionist Organization of America that the first had violated California's open meeting laws.

The commission's re-affirmation prompted a 1995 recipient, Steven Windmueller, interim deal of Hebrew Union College, to return His John Allen Buggs Award.

Other receipients of awards at the annual John Anson Ford Human Relations Awards Luncheon included producer R.J. Cutler, the recipient of the Courage Award for his work on the FX programs "Black/White" and "Thirty Days" and attorneys with the Jones Day law firm, who received the Corporate Award for their pro bono work in an effort to reclaim the commission's Web site domain.

Also honored were the Multi-Ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network, Black AIDS Institute, Communities for Educational Equity, the National Conference for Community and Justice of Southern California, and We Care for Youth.

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