Rachel Pomerance, Religion News Service

The national director of the Anti-Defamation League said Friday (Oct. 27) that dialogue with moderate Muslims is a “pipe dream” because “there’s nobody to talk to.”

The comment by the ADL’s Abraham Foxman came after a challenge to Foxman’s keynote address at the ADL’s annual meeting in Atlanta. Foxman spoke about the dangers of Islamic extremism and, in particular, a nuclear Iran threats that he said the world has appeased as it did with Nazi Germany.

After the speech, Seymour Reich, president of the Israel Policy Forum, a think tank that urges U.S. involvement in brokering Arab-Israeli peace, pressed Foxman to focus more on finding moderate Muslims with whom to dialogue.

“There’s nobody to talk to yet,” Foxman replied.

The ADL conditions dialogue with Muslim groups on their rejection of terrorism in all cases. But Foxman said he has yet to find one group to accept those terms.