Muslim Contractor from Palestine Volunteers to Help Jewish Community Build Synagogue

by Teresa Neumann : Oct 19, 2007 : AP Staff-AP

(Fayetteville, Ark.)—A Jewish community in Arkansas, without a place to call their own, have bought land in Fayetteville to build a synagogue they will call Temple Shalom. What is newsworthy about this particular synagogue is that a Muslim contractor from Palestine, Fadil Bayyari, has volunteered to help, waiving his contractor's fee for the job.

Temple Shalom founding member, Jeremy Hess, said he felt that the two religions—Judaism and Islam—made them "cousins" of a sort, and was thankful for Bayyari's help.