Archive for the ‘Interreligious Movement’ tag
Ancient Texting: The Urgency of Muslim-Jewish Dialogue
By Marshall J Breger, Rabbi Jack Bemporad and Imam Abdullah Antepli
From Huffington Post
A profound event quietly took place this last week: Jewish rabbis and scholars in halacha (Jewish law) met with Muslim imams and scholars in sharia (Muslim law) to discuss how improved understanding and interpretation of the foundational texts, upon which their respective religious laws are based, can help bring the two communities together. The uniqueness of this coming together cannot be over-emphasized.
Though scholarly, this coming together was not just some Ivory Tower undertaking. Ancient religious texts are profoundly influential in our daily lives today. From the Golden Rule to the Ten Commandments and everything in between, our laws, society and understanding of each other are guided, and at times held captive, by the ancient texts of the Abrahamic faiths. So how they are interpreted today is crucial.
In response, an unprecedented gathering of 40 of the country’s foremost minds in sharia and halacha met in a closed-door conference in New York. The October 30 inaugural meeting of the “Muslim Jewish Scholars Conference” will be an ongoing bridge-building effort between the two communities. The conference brings together Jewish and Muslim scholars, rabbis and imams, university professors and chaplains who otherwise have little opportunity to talk to each other. It will provide an opportunity for Muslim and Jewish scholars to talk with each other openly about their respective views of their own traditions; and to talk about pressure points between their communities.
Pope Meets With Holy Land Rabbi, Imam, Druze
By Nicole Winfield
From Huffington Post
VATICAN CITY — A delegation of Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Druse religious leaders in Israel met Thursday with Pope Benedict XVI in a high-profile display of their efforts to promote interfaith peace initiatives in the region.
The Council of Religious Leaders in Israel was created in 2007 in Jerusalem to bring together Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders in Israel to raise awareness about the need for interfaith dialogue and cooperation in the Holy Land.
The audience with the pope was designed in part to boost the profile of the council, which counts among its members representatives of Israel’s Islamic, or Sharia courts.
Sheik Kiwan Mohamad, who heads an association of some 500 imams in Israel, said the fact that the council exists was proof that people of different faiths can live together peacefully, even amid the political unrest in the Middle East.
“Islam is a religion of peace that loves life and condemns any act in the name of religion against the very principles of the religion,” he said. “The people who act in this way are selfish; they do so for themselves and out of personal motives and interests.”
Has Religion Driven Us Apart or Drawn Us Together?
Paul Brandeis Raushenbush
from Huffington Post
Two religious responses from the days immediately following the attacks of 9/11 demonstrate how religion has been both a divisive and unifying force in America over the last ten years.
The first was from Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell who assigned blame for the attacks to God who, they explained, was angry at America because of Gays, Feminists and the ACLU, among others. While fires still smoldered at Ground Zero, Falwell and company were ironically fanning the flames of discord and division by blaming God and liberals instead of religious extremism.
The second response was different. As soon as reports made clear that the terrorists claimed allegiance to the fundamentalist Islam of Osama bin Laden, many feared violence might be directed toward the American Muslim population. Yet in the days after 9/11, reports came from all across the country that Christians, Jews, and other people of faith had called local mosques to offer support and solidarity. Instead of turning against Muslims, the religious community rallied for their fellow Americans of a different faith tradition.
These two examples show the simultaneous yet divergent directions that religious practice and thought has taken in America in the last ten years. 9/11 made it clear that religion, which had been ignored in global political calculations and overlooked by the media for decades, was still a force, and perhaps the force in people’s personal and communal lives.
While many still hold that religion is essentially divisive, since 9/11 it has been clear that religion has been an overwhelmingly positive force to bring people from different backgrounds together within American society.
Getting Stuck in Clay: An Interfaith Reflection
by Kelly Figueroa-Ray from State of Formation
This is my first trip to Europe. I’ve had the chance to rent a bike and tour around the beautiful English countryside that surrounds Madingly, a small town (there is only a few homes, a pub, town hall and a church) right outside of Cambridge, England.
One day when biking I pulled off on a “public bridleway.” This is a new and fascinating phenomenon for me as a person from the United States; these pathways criss-cross through otherwise private fields and property, connecting for the public small towns and roads that can be reached by foot and often by bike. After about 100 yards of bumping down the path, the bike refused to move any further.
As I inspected my bike, I realized that my wheels were covered in the dirt of the field. Upon closer investigation, I realized this was not just any dirt but the finest clay England’s farmland had to offer. After carrying my bike back to a grassy patch, I spent about 20 minutes scraping the stuff off with my bare hands. As I felt the clay between my fingers, I realized something: Now I know the feel of England’s dirt (at least the dirt near Madingly). It was sort of like the clay I have used in pottery class, the kind that comes in as a brick in a plastic bag — brown, slippery, sticky and heavy.
In Madingly I’ve been participating in an intensive summer interfaith program hosted by the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme. This program has brought together Jews, Muslims and Christians from the around the world, including 10 Ibadhi Muslims from Oman, most of whom had never met a Jewish person before this conference.
All 25 of us were dropped into “the princess castle,” a designation ascribed to Madingly Hall of Cambridge University by my 3-year-old daughter during one of our late night FaceTime chats.
For us, this hall and its gorgeous gardens and grounds began as neutral territory; it has now become our home.
During the week, we attend lectures on the three faiths and practice Scriptural Reasoning. There are deep and sincere questions that are raised during these sessions: What does faith mean to Christians? Why do the Omani Muslims often wear hats? What does it mean to be a prophet in the Jewish faith?
Mixing it up in Motor City mosque
by Jeremy Sharon from the Jerusalem Post
Detroit Muslims, Jews and Christians join together in health-care drive.
An interfaith group of Muslims, Jews and Chaldeans teamed up on Tuesday to provide health-care services to the working poor and those without medical insurance at the Muslim Center Mosque and Community Center in Detroit.
“We’re helping the people who show up to this clinic and fulfilling a need within the community,” said Robert Cohen, the executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Detroit.
“We’re also trying to build trust and build relations between the Jewish and Muslim communities in the city.”
The Interfaith Health Fair was organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Detroit and the Council of Islamic Organizations of Michigan and ran for four hours on Tuesday afternoon.
Around 100 doctors, nurses, social workers and medical students performed standard medical screenings, took blood samples, recorded patients’ medical histories, and provided them with guidance on any necessary follow-up, through a one-onone consultation with a physician.
There are approximately 68,000 Jews living in the Detroit metropolitan area and anywhere between 150,000-200,000 Muslims.
Victor Ghalib Begg, chairman emeritus of the Council of Islamic Organization for Michigan, said that it was crucial for the Muslim and Jewish communities to have good relationships.
“We live with the Jewish community as neighbors, our doctors work together in hospitals and our kids go to school together. This initiative is helping provide an important service to people who have no medical insurance but it’s also bringing our communities closer together – Muslim, Jewish, suburban and inner-city,” said Begg Tuesday’s health-care fair was the second such event, the first having taken place in November last year…
4,500 couples participate in Indonesian interfaith marriage ceremony
By Kathy Quiano from CNN
More than 4,500 Indonesian couples tied the knot at a Jarkarta sports stadium on Tuesday, in what the event’s organizers claim was the world’s largest interfaith wedding event.
The couples were married in Islamic, Catholic, Protestant, Buddhist and Hindu ceremonies – with each participating in whichever rites were appropriate. The event’s organizers said the mass wedding was aimed at helping poor couples who couldn’t afford to pay for their own weddings.
A humanitarian organization, Pondok Kasih Foundation, initiated the event and worked with Jakarta’s government and private sponsors to stage the mass wedding.
In a press release, organizers said the event was focused on promoting Pancasila, Indonesia’s state philosophy, which encompasses five basic principles that include belief in one God, just and civilized society, unity and democracy.
“Our value of Pancasila is facing increasing challenges,” the release said. “Our harmonious society is facing increasing threats from extremism and disturbance of public peace.”
Indonesia has seen an uptick in violent attacks from radical Muslim groups in recent years and some human rights groups warn of a general rise in religious intolerance. The Setara Peace and Democracy Institute has recorded a significant rise in attacks on religious minorities.
“We can all be united despite our differences in belief,” the organizers’ statement said, “and we can make a difference in our community that is in need…
Faith groups call for greater efforts to promote tolerance
by Tim Devaney from The Washington Times
Religious leaders and activists from a variety of faiths called for tolerance of one another and said the U.S. government should step up efforts to fight faith-based discrimination and persecution around the world.
“Everyone should have the right to believe or not believe,” said Suzan Johnson Cook, who was confirmed this year as the State Department’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. “That is their God-given right.”
Several speakers at the daylong conference “Stop Religious Persecution Now,” held at The Washington Times, spoke in favor of a bill before Congress proposed by Rep. Frank R. Wolf, Virginia Republican, that would boost the State Department’s role as an advocate for religious freedom abroad.
Provisions of the bill would give U.S. Foreign Service officers new training on promoting religious freedom, shine a brighter spotlight on countries identified as restricting religious liberties and reauthorize the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
Among those at the event were Christians, Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. Other religions also were represented. Speakers and participants included lawmakers and administration officials, religious freedom advocates and representatives from such groups as the Center for Understanding Islam, the Hindu America Foundation and ChinaAid.
The event was co-sponsored by the U.S. chapter of the Universal Peace Federation and The Washington Times Foundation.
The faith activists said there was strength in unity in the fight against religious discrimination…
Anju Bhargava: An Interfaith Journey
from Odyssey Networks
Interfaith harmony requires first recognizing boundaries — our own and those of others, says Anju Bhargava, founder of Hindu American Seva Charities, an Odyssey member. Then, harmony requires respecting differences and finding ways to support each other. Bhargava was a member President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships from 2009-2010.
Interfaith service at Washington National Cathedral promotes religious tolerance
by Isaac Arnsdorf from Washington Post
As worshipers entered Washington National Cathedral for Sunday morning’s service, some crossed themselves and some took photographs, some wore ties while others wore shorts and a few even wore yarmulkes.
In the center aisle, in place of the baptismal fountain, candle-lit stands bore three books: a Bible, a Torah and a Koran. When a visitor asked a nearby usher what to do, the usher replied: “This is a totally different service than what we usually do. There’s no wrong answer.”
Instead of Communion, the service featured readings from each of the three Abrahamic faiths, part of a project to promote religious tolerance through similar interfaith services at about 70 churches nationwide. The effort aimed to counteract negative stereotypes and hostile rhetoric targeting American Muslims in the past year, notably the controversy about plans for an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York and the burning of a Koran by the Rev. Terry Jones in March in Florida.
“What we have done together in this great cathedral this morning, along with others in similar services in houses of worship across our nation, can alter the image and substance of our nation, as well as our religion,” said the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, one of the organizations that sponsored the project. “Today’s beautifully written liturgy, informed by Islam, Judaism and Christianity, declares unambiguously . . . we are not scripture burners, rather, scripture readers.”
A local rabbi and imam joined Gaddy and the cathedral’s Episcopal clergy on the dais to share their messages of mutual understanding and respect…
Burr Ridge Zoroastrians construct sculpture for Dalai Lama’s visit
By Sandy Illian Bosch
from The DoingsClaredonHills
Preparations are under way for the Dalai Lama’s July visit to Chicago, and a Burr Ridge organization is part of the plans.
The Zoroastrian Center of Chicago, located at 8615 Meadowbrook Lane in Burr Ridge, is one of 12 places of worship chosen to prepare sculptures to be used during the Dalai Lama’s public talk July 17 at the UIC Pavilion.
The Theosophical Society in America and Jim Lasko of Redmoon Theater have chosen 12 Chicago area religious organizations to design and create an icon of another faith.
The Zoroastrians were busy Sunday creating a cross, not only to represent the Christian faith, but also the parallels between the two religions.
“It signifies our togetherness,” Rohinton Rivetna, spiritual leader of the Zoroastrian Center and Hinsdale resident said. “We want to understand each other.”
Each organization is assigned an artist to help with their sculpture’s design. Jillian Gryzlak of Chicago is helping the Zoroastrians decorate the Christian cross with flowers, splintered wood, wooden ovals painted in varying fleshtones and light.
“I didn’t make any of these decisions,” said Gryzlak. She said the design is a collaboration of ideas that came from talks she initiated with members of the Burr Ridge temple.
Gryzlak said she began work on the cross by meeting with members of the Zoroastrian community.
“We defined belief,” she said, and used those definitions to design the sculpture.
“This was really developed in our time together,” Rivetna said.
Stacked wooden ovals are painted in varying colors of brown, tan and cream — colors representing the many cultures that have used the cross as a symbol of their faith throughout history…
