Tri-Faith News and Updates

Sukkot is a Jewish Festival being celebrated this week to mark the final harvest of the year.  This year the Union for Reform Judaism is urging everyone to spend some time learning more about our food supplies, to consider how we can live healthier and greener lives while being ever more appreciative of God’s bounty in our lives.

The Union for Reform Judiasm publishes a daily reflection called “Ten Minutes of Torah”, which covers Torah passages from a wide variety of perspectives.  To subscribe to the daily email go to http://www.URJ.org.  The Torah is the first five books of scriptures sometimes referred to as the Old Testament by Christians.  Because it is a fundamental scripture to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, studying Torah is something all people of the Tri-Faiths are called to do.

This statement by leaders of the three Abrahamic communities in Boston was issued January 12, 2009 and was published in the Boston Globe by a columnist who writes on religion.  It was passed on to us by one of our board members.

Its thoughtfulness and the breadth and stature of its signers are extraordinary, representing the best version of our religious traditions and communities.
We strongly recommend that in your own community, you take this statement with its list of signers to your own congregation for discussion and signing, and to interfaith leaders where you are. Then go to the local media and ask them to do a major news story about the statement’s adoption in your locale.

With blessings of shalom, salaam, peace - Rabbi Arthur Waskow
__________________________________________________________
AN INTERFAITH DECLARATION FOR PEACE

We, members and leaders of the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian communities in Greater Boston — all having deep and symbolic ties to the land and peoples of the Middle East — are anguished by the events unfolding in Israel and Gaza. Recognizing the legitimate needs of all peoples, including all those living in the Middle East, for dignity, peace, safety and security - regardless of religion, race, or national origin — we issue this joint statement with the hope and belief that our interfaith voices will be heard clearly, above the din of war.

As guiding principles -

We acknowledge the long, complex, and painful history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.We acknowledge the wide range of deeply-held beliefs, and intensely-felt narratives on all sides.We acknowledge that all sides are capable of assigning blame to others, and asserting justification for their cause.We observe that violence by any side begets more violence, hatred, and retaliation.We deplore any invocation of religion as a justification for violence against others, or the deprivation of the rights of others.We decry any use of inflammatory rhetoric that demonizes the other and is intended, or is likely, to promote hatred and disrespect.We believe the conflict can be resolved only through a political and diplomatic solution and not a military one.

In the face of many competing narratives, we recognize that the overriding common need of the peoples of the region is the prompt implementation of a just and lasting peace. Toward that end, and particularly in response to the current hostilities,

We call upon the United States and the international community immediately to intercede to help reestablish a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, toward the goal of a permanent cessation of hostilities

We call upon Hamas immediately to end all rocket attacks on Israel, and upon Israel immediately to end its military campaign in Gaza

We call for an immediate end to all strikes on civilian centers and citizens, both Israeli and Palestinian. We call for lifting of the blockade on Gaza as to all non-military goods, for an immediate and significant increase in humanitarian aid to address the needs of the people of Gaza, and for all parties involved to join in taking responsibility to address those human needs

We call on all parties involved in the conflict to work sincerely and vigorously toward a just and lasting peace that addresses and promotes the national aspirations of both the Israeli and Palestinian peoples

We call on President-elect Obama to make clear that as President he will urgently assert US leadership to achieve a comprehensive diplomatic resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts

Through this joint statement we affirm our commitment to engage with one another, even, and especially, during times of great stress. We also affirm our common humanity and our common belief — as Jews, Muslims and Christians — that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must cease, that there is no military or violent solution, that all human life is valued, and that all parties must cooperate to make the peace — a just and lasting peace desperately needed and deserved by all the peoples of the region.”

Signed:
Salwa Abd-Allah, (executive council, Muslim American Society of Boston (MAS Boston), Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC)),Tariq Ali (president, Harvard Islamic Society)
Hossam Al Jabri (president, MAS Boston-ISBCC; trustee, Interreligious Center for Public Life (ICPL)),Rev. Jim Antal (president, Massachusetts conference of the United Church of Christ)
Dr. Abdul Cader Asmal (past president, Islamic Council of New England and Islamic Center of Boston/Wayland; trustee, ICPL),Rabbi Albert S. Axelrad (chair, Center for Spiritual Life, Emerson College; Hillel director emeritus, Brandeis University),Diane Balser (executive director, Brit Tzedek v’Shalom),Dorothy C. Buck (director, Badaliya),Rev. Nick Carter (president, Andover Newton Theological School),Dris Djermoun (president, Islamic Center of Boston), Diana L. Eck (professor of comparative religion, Harvard University),Imam Talal Eid (founder, Islamic Institute of Boston; chaplain, Brandeis University),Ashraf Elkerm (board chairman, Islamic Center of Greater Worcester),Rev. Terasa G. Cooley (district executive, Massachusetts Bay District of Unitarian Universalist Churches),Mercedes S. Evans (Committee on Contemporary Spiritual & Public Concerns, St. Paul Catholic Church/Cambridge),Imam Abdullah Faruuq (Mosque for the Praising of Allah/Boston)
Michael Felsen (president, Boston Workmen’s Circle), Lisa Gallatin (executive director, Boston Workmen’s Circle),Zekeriyya Gemici (president, MIT Muslim Students Association)
Rabbi David Gordis (president emeritus, Hebrew College; founding director, the National Center for Jewish Policy Studies),Rabbi Arthur Green (rector, Hebrew College’s Rabbinical School)
Rev. Raymond G. Helmick (instructor in conflict resolution, Boston College)
Arnold Hiatt (philanthropist; former chairman, Stride Rite Corporation),Rev. Jack Johnson (executive director, Massachusetts Council of Churches),M. Bilal Kaleem (executive director, MAS Boston-ISBCC),Anwar Kazmi (executive council, MAS Boston-ISBCC),Alexander Kern (executive director, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries),Nabeel Khudairi (past president, Islamic Council of New England),Idit Klein (executive director, Keshet),Margie Klein (co-director, Moishe/Kavod House),Mary Lahaj (Muslim chaplain, Simmons College),Geoffrey Lewis (attorney; former president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston),Imam Taalib Mahdee (Masjid Al-Quran/Boston),Rev. Bert Marshall (New England director, Church World Service),Jerome D. Maryon (president, Committee on Contemporary Spiritual & Public Concerns, St. Paul Catholic Church/Cambridge),Michael J. Moran (Pax Christi Massachusetts),Sister Jane Morrissey (Pax Christi Massachusetts),Merrie Najimy (president, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee of Massachusetts),Imam Khalid Nasr (Islamic Center of New England/Quincy),Imam Basyouni Nehela (Islamic Society of Boston/Cambridge),Rashid Noor (president, Islamic Center of New England/Quincy),Rabbi Sara Paasche-Orlow (director of religious and chaplaincy services; Hebrew SeniorLife),Rabbi Barbara Penzner (Temple Hillel B’nai Torah/West Roxbury),Rev. Rodney L. Petersen (executive director, Boston Theological Institute),Dr. Asif Rizvi (president-elect, Islamic Council of New England),Rabbi Victor Reinstein (Nehar Shalom Community Synagogue/Jamaica Plain),Rev. Anne Robertson (executive director, Massachusetts Bible Society),Qasim Salimi (president, Boston University Muslim Students Association),Robert M. Sarly (trustee, ICPL)
Rev. Mikel E. Satcher (pastor, Trinity Baptist Church/Arlington),Adam Seligman (professor of religion, Boston University),Rabbi Sanford Seltzer (chair, ICPL),Enid Shapiro (trustee, ICPL),Bishop M. Thomas Shaw (Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts),Alan Solomont (philanthropist; chairman, Solomont Bailis Ventures),Rabbi Toba Spitzer (Congregation Dorshei Tzedek/Newton)
Rev. John K. Stendahl (pastor, Lutheran Church of the Newtons),Sidney Topol (philanthropist; former chairman, Scientific Atlanta),Rabbi Andrew Vogel (Temple Sinai/Brookline)
Bishop Peter D. Weaver (New England conference of the United Methodist Church)

The Shalom Center, 6711 Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19119.
e-mail at: office@shalomctr.org
http://www.shalomctr.org

Eboo Patel, a leader in interfaith relations focusing on youth, wrote a thoughtful piece this week in response to current events in the Middle East.  This is a short excerpt — the link to the complete story is below.

“Muslim and Jewish organizations once considered it a matter of pride to engage in a communications blockade of organizations “on the other side”. The basic line I’ve heard from both sides is, “We can’t talk to people we have such fundamental disagreements with.” And so interfaith groups break apart. Friendships between Muslims and Jews are strained. And we revert back to shouting our own talking points louder and louder.

But, slowly, it seems that some people are realizing that increasing the volume on your own talking points and trying to drown out the other side is not a strategy for getting to a solution.

A senior American Jewish official told me yesterday “Jews and Muslims in America should be modeling positive relationships here, and hoping that pattern offers a way forward over there.”

I emailed with senior officials of the Islamic Society of North America yesterday and they expressed a similar sentiment. In fact, point five of ISNA’s press release on the Gaza situation says the following: “Engage in informed dialogue with other Americans, especially Jewish Americans, so that religious differences do not become a source of civil discord and division ….”

My guess is that the idea of continuing positive engagement with people on the other side is probably gaining ground within Muslim and Jewish organizations, although it’s still very much a minority attitude (inertia is a powerful force).

And so we’re looking at a very small step towards a potentially big win.

The win isn’t just a rewriting of the respective playbooks that Muslim and Jewish organizations use when the Middle East conflict heats up. It’s the recognition that, if we want to actually solve the conflict, Muslim and Jewish groups should be writing a new playbook together - because they’re on the same side.

The first phone calls Jewish and Muslim officials should make when bombs explode over there are not to organizations within their own religious community, but to reasonable people in the other community.

The first line should be, “I’m on the side of coexistence, and I bet you are too. What public statements can we collectively make, what press releases can we cooperatively issue, which helps the side of coexistence defeat the demon of conflict?”

That’s a play that could change the game. ”

Read the complete column here:

http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2008/12/same_old_middle_east_playbook.html

Our own Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha is one of those new models of how we can work together and continue to commit to finding new solutions to age-old problems by behaving in new ways.

We just received this email from the Midwest Islamic Foundation, the organization in charge of the Musallah in Millard.  I spoke with Bilal Khaleem who gave me permission to share it on this site. 

The response of the Foundation Board is to say ”We pray to Allah to keep us all safe and to guide the persons responsible for this act to the right path. Ameen.”  To which we add “Amen.”

For those unfamiliar with the term, a musallah is a house of worship used for the five daily prayers.  It is like a mosque, but a mosque is a permanent location, while a musallah can be in rented space or a building which is being financed.  Once the organization owns the property outright, it can be converted to a mosque. The Midwest Islamic Foundation is closely connected with the Islamic Center of Omaha.

Here’s the email we received:

Assalamu alaikum brothers and sistersThe Millard Musallah was vandalized on Tuesday 10/21/08. A big rock was thrown through the glass door and shattered the front door. Alhumdolillah, no person was injured but the property was damaged. See

http://omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2798&u_sid=10465833. for details.I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement immediately. We have contacted the FBI to see if this is a possible hate crime. About two months ago a car was vandalized near the Islamic Center of Omaha when all four tires were slashed.

We pray to Allah to keep us all safe and to guide the persons responsible for this act to the right path. Ameen.

Wasalam
Bilal A. Khaleeq.
Abdullah Yaseer
Abdul Hikmat
Midwest Islamic Foundation, Inc
5135 Marshall Dr.
Omaha, NE 68137
402 707 1225
402 917 2111

Mark your calendar now for March 27, 2009.  The Tri-Faith Initiative of Omaha, NE will be hosting a major event that evening featuring national leaders of the three faith partners — Reform Judaism, Islam and Christianity.