COPENHAGEN – They celebrate Ramadan and Hanukkah together, guard Jewish cemeteries on the anniversary of Kristallnacht and are discussing a tour to Poland and visit to Auschwitz. It’s the first of its kind in the world: a Jewish-Muslim motorcycle club that roams the highways of Denmark, promoting coexistence between religious minorities.

Instead of skull patches on their leather vests, as some biker gangs have, the members of MuJu & Co. MC Danmark wear a symbol that unites both Jews and Muslims: the hamsa, a palm-shaped amulet symbolizing protection. The Jewish-Muslim club designed its own version, replacing the eye in the middle of the amulet with a motorcycle wheel.

For years, people associated motorcycle clubs in Denmark with Hells Angels and Bandidos – two rival gangs that clashed violently throughout the 1990s. However, they are far from being the only such clubs in the country. In fact, there are well over 200 biker clubs in Denmark, according to the National Danish Motorcycle organization, and seeing bikers traversing Denmark’s highways is a common sight during the spring and summer months. But there are none quite like MuJu & Co.

It was co-founded in 2019 by Dan Meyrowitsch, a 60-year-old Jewish epidemiologist at the University of Copenhagen, and 44-year-old Muslim and medical doctor Sohail Asghar. The two have been friends for many years and always shared a passion for motorcycles.

“It actually started as a joke,” Meyrowitsch recounts. “I suggested to Sohail, who is now the vice president of the club, that we should start the world’s first Jewish-Muslim motorcycle club. But he loved the idea right away and suggested we establish it as an old-school motorcycle club, with a club patch, leather vests, and a traditional club structure and hierarchy,” he adds.

https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium.MAGAZINE-jews-and-muslims-ride-for-peace-in-this-unique-motorcycle-club-1.10527267