June 3, 2005

Different Diasporas for Jews and Muslims

To the Editor:

While Sander L. Gilman's project is timely and intriguing, there are several fundamental problems with his comparison ("The Parallels of Islam and Judaism in Diaspora," The Chronicle Review, April 8).

First, the two communities in diaspora have very different relationships with the nation-state. The Jewish diaspora began before the formation of some nation-states. ... The Muslim diaspora, however, began long after the establishment of secular, democratic European