At a time when many American Jewish leaders hold back from entering into dialogue with Muslims for fear of appearing to condone terrorism, a leader of the Bukharian Jewish community has boldly stepped into the breach.

Boris Pincus, an Uzbekistan-born chemist who immigrated to the US in 1991, is promoting an ambitious agenda involving dialogue and cooperative projects with Islamic clerics in Central Asia and with moderate Muslims across the United States.

In recent months, Pincus has established contacts with a number of sheiks and heads of Muslim schools in New York and across the country. A number of these Muslim leaders endorse recognition of Israel and contend that Jews and moderate Muslims should be allies in confronting the Wahhabi strain of Islam - propagated by Osama Bin Laden and the Saudi royal family - which they term the greatest peril the world, faces today.

Pincus, the founder and president of the American Association of Central Asian and Caucasian Countries, an organization with a predominantly Bukharian membership, was the driving force behind an appearance last October of Uzbeki Muslim clerics at the Beth Gavriel Bukharian Synagogue in Forest Hills, the heart of New York\'s Bukharian community.

Several days later, in collaboration with the Morris Schaefer Branch of the Workmen\'s Circle, Pincus moderated an event at the Rego Park Jewish Centre at which the heads of two Muslim schools in Queens and the imam of a Manhattan mosque participated in a discussion with a Bukharian rabbi, New York Daily News reported.

Pincus\' plans for 2005 include arranging a conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, with the support of the nation\'s president, bringing together Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious leaders from around the world. He also hopes to facilitate speaking tours by what he terms \"moderate\" Muslim spiritual leaders to decry the dangers of Wahhabism and the need for Muslims to build ties with Christians and Jews.

Two prominent Islamic leaders have accepted Pincus\' invitation to take part in the speaking tours: Sheikh Muhammed Hisham Kabbani, chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, and Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, secretary-general of the Rome-based Italian Muslim Association.

In an interview, Pincus, 57, a silver-haired man with a broad smile and gracious manner, articulated a message combining a hard-edged endorsement of military actions against Islamic terrorism, stressing a need for increased dialogue and understanding between Jews and Muslims.

\"America must fight hard against Islamic terrorism, whether in Iraq, Gaza or here at home, but we must remember it is impossible to solve the problem of terrorism with rockets and bombs,\" he said.

\"All of the terrorists attacking us today may be Muslim, but the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists but regular people who are mainly concerned with feeding their children. We have to find a way to reach them with a message of hope before many more of them become radicalized.\"

Pincus was born in Uzbekistan and at the age of 17, he moved to Moscow, where he received a Ph.D. in chemistry. In 1991, he moved to Dallas where he took a position with National Chemsearch Corporation.

Pincus, who moved to New York in 2000, acknowledges that his outreach campaign has a long way to go, but contends, \"We have already demonstrated that it is simply untrue to say there are no moderate Muslim leaders who are ready to say openly that they oppose terrorism and accept Israel. This is important for Jews to hear.\"