Jewish Community Relations Council Honors Muslim Woman

May 29, 2010

Author: Tim Townsend

Source: St. Louis Today

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/keepthefaith/story/58E3D19DC2C471DF86257731008168FD?OpenDocument

If you hadn't noticed, things aren't going so well between Jews and Muslims in 
some parts of the world. In St. Louis, that's not the case. In St. Louis, Jews 
are honoring Muslims.

About 235 people gathered for lunch in a ballroom at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in 
Clayton on Wednesday for the annual meeting of the Jewish Community Relations 
Council of St. Louis. This year, the organization gave its most prestigious 
award to a Muslim woman for the first time since the award was founded in 1989. 
More than three tables were filled by St. Louis Muslims.

Ghazala Hayat, a St. Louis University neurologist, is well-known in local 
interfaith circles. She was the first Muslim woman to be president of the 
Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis and still serves on that 
group's board. She was also chairwoman of the Greater Islamic Foundation of St. 
Louis.