Religious Leaders Urge the County to Spare Human Relations Panel : Rally: Speakers at a gathering say the body plays an important role in promoting tolerance.

A coalition of religious leaders on Wednesday urged the Board of Supervisors to restore funding to the Human Relations Commission, warning that the panel’s demise could precipitate increased religious intolerance and conflicts among ethnic groups.

“Just as there is preventive medicine, this is preventive maintenance for society,” Dr. Muzammil Saddiqi, director of the Islamic Society of Orange County, said of the commission. “It is very important that it continue because it acts as a guide to areas of potential trouble.”

Saddiqi was among more than a dozen county religious leaders who gathered at the Chapman College Fellowship Hall to show their support for the 11-member commission, which supervisors have selected for elimination as a budget-cutting measure. The commission has a staff of six and receives about $307,000 a year from the county.

The proposal has sparked an outcry among social and religious leaders, particularly in the county’s minority communities, whose members see the agency as an effective voice against intolerance and oppression.

Supporters have organized a number of rallies and press conferences for the commission before the Board of Supervisors adopts a final budget on Aug. 27.

Religious leaders on Wednesday urged county officials not to give in to “political expediency” by ignoring what the long-term effects of eliminating the commission would be.

“I would liken the commission to the soul of Orange County,” said Rabbi Bernard King of Temple Shir-Ha Ma’Alot in Newport Beach. “There are a lot of things that could be cut in this time of budget crunch, but they would be gutting that which is working for the best of relationships and values in the community.”

Several of the speakers noted that the commission has provided practical guidance for religious leaders in the county, establishing lines of communication between blacks and Jews and between the Jewish and Arab communities, particularly after the 1985 assassination of Orange County Arab leader Alex Odeh. (That homicide has yet to be solved.)

“I got a call shortly thereafter from Rusty inviting me to participate in a dialogue . . ,” King recalled, citing an action by commission Executive Director Rusty Kennedy. “It certainly forestalled what could have been a very serious situation.”

Others urged the supervisors to take note of the county’s changing demographics and of the need for a county-sponsored agency to meet those changes.

“One of the most positive comments that has been expressed by everyone is that the commission is a demonstrable, proactive effort of the county to deal with discrimination and foster communication between various ethnic and minority groups,” said Msgr. Jaime Soto, vicar of Hispanic affairs for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange.

“The commission expresses the best that the overwhelming majority who live in Orange County feel about their community, not the image of a few years ago of being a mostly white, Protestant community,” King added.

Other religious leaders at the rally Wednesday were the Rev. Shaunee Eminger, chaplain of Chapman College; Msgr. Lawrence Baird, also of the Roman Catholic Diocese; the Rev. John McReynolds of Second Baptist Church of Santa Ana; Fathers John Lenihan and Ed Poettgen, St. Boniface Catholic Church, Anaheim; Father John Paul Hopping, St. Callistus Catholic Church, Garden Grove; the Rev. Robert B. Shepard, Anaheim United Methodist Church; the Rev. Gail Schoepf, Orangethorpe Christian Church, Fullerton; Sister Carmen Sarati, Sisters of St. Joseph, Orange, and Rabbi Allen Krause, Temple Beth El, Mission Viejo.

Expressions of support for the commission will continue today with a morning rally at the Westminster home of Ted and Bea Heisser, who were targets of a cross-burning in 1988.