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Published weekly during the academic year by the Office of Communications and Marketing, 3699 Vestal Parkway East, Vestal, N.Y. 13850.John Hachtel, associate vice president of communications and marketing; Anita Knopp Doll, director of communications; Marty Doorey, editor; Katie Ellis, Janice Endrissen, Gail Glover, Susan E. Barker, Karen Fennie, John Hartrick, Ingrid Husisian, Sandra Paniccia, Susann Thiel, contributing writers; Evangelos Dousmanis, photography; Libby Graves, webmaster. Phone 607-777-6366. COMMENTS: Email Inside. BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

BY MARTY DOOREY

While religious beliefs have fueled the conflict between Muslims and Jews in the Middle East, they could also provide the starting point for a solution, two speakers said at a forum Thursday.

“All religious traditions can be used as a powerful tool for human good,” said Omid Safi, assistant professor of philosophy at Colgate University. “Religious beliefs can also be used to justify violence and terror.”

Safi and Allan Arkush, associate professor and chair of Judaic studies, outlined the spectrum of religious beliefs among Jews and Muslims in the region and how they relate to the differing political positions.

Safi, a Muslim from Iran, said the use of religion to advance political outlooks is a recent phenomenon in the Muslim world that came about after Muslims felt that Western political models and socialism failed them.

In spite of the recent politicization of Islam — or depending on your viewpoint the Islamization of politics — Safi noted “Muslims and Jews lived together in much greater harmony for 1,400 years than they have in the last 50 years.”

In fact, he said, Jews had it harder in 15th century Christian Europe than they did in 15th century Islam, in terms of women’s rights, property rights and the ability to practice their religious beliefs undisturbed. He added that it was Christian Europe that, under the influence of Inquisition, exiled both Muslims and Jews from Spain.

Arkush agreed that the question of religious influence on politics and foreign policy does not have a single answer, but the question could allow for as many answers as there are political factions.

That aside, Arkush said a majority of Jews believe that Israel is the rightful home of the Jews, and that the current Israeli political climate fosters a belief that religious beliefs should influence political and foreign policy.

Even with that strongly held belief, Arkush said there are issues about the boundaries of historic Israel and whether the security of the homeland demands that the entire historic area be under Jewish control. The greatest question among Jews, Arkush said, focuses on whether areas acquired since the Six Day War in 1967 — the West Bank of the Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights — should rightfully be incorporated into the Jewish state.

Arkush said many in Israel believe that the territories captured in the 1967 war are God-given patrimony. “This is not a marginal view,” he said.

He also noted that many of the early Zionists who started the movement toward a homeland for the Jews early in the 20th century saw the homeland as a secular, multi-religious, multi-ethnic state — not as an exclusive religiously guided Jewish state.

With such a breadth of opinion, Arkush, like Safi, said groups with political agendas can find support in religion. Arkush noted that such viewpoints echo outside of Israel giving them greater influence.

While both speakers said groups with extreme political agendas could find elements of religion to endorse their activities, they also pointed out that religious traditions can be used to support peace seeking.

Safi said the Palestinian cause, especially as advocated by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, was broadly secular and nationalistic in nature and broad enough to allow for compromise with Israel on many issues. Safi added that the PLO under Yassir Arafat was beset with corruption and was undemocratic. “But he’s 73 years old,” he said of Arafat.

Arkush agreed that the broad spectrum of Jewish views on the subject left room for negotiations, although he admitted that questions concerning the Palestinians’ “Right of Return” to pre-1948 property and Jerusalem were especially difficult.

In response to questions from the audience regarding the internationalization of Jerusalem, Arkush said, “More and more we see people who speak of an undivided Jerusalem as a fiction. It is a Jewish city and it is an Arab city.”