Articles in this category were in Latest IRENICA but are now no longer current news.
Erica Good, New York Times, Sep.16, www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/us/fbi-chided-for-training-that-was-critical-of-islam.html?_r=1
Arab-American and Muslim groups deplored on Friday the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s use of training material that characterized the prophet Muhammad as a “cult leader” and linked Muslims’ religious devotion to a potential for violence.
“It’s really troubling,” said Abed Ayoub, the legal director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
Joe DSowd, Plainview, Sep.16, plainview.patch.com/articles/sikh-faith-often-misunderstood
In the Western World, members of the Sikh faith are misunderstood, often thought of as a sect of other faiths, local members say. To counter those misconceptions, the Sikhs are very open about their beliefs and conduct regular community outreach programs.
Paul Knitter, Huffington Post, Sep.15, www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-paul-f-knitter/a-buddhist-response-to-christian-fanaticism_b_964072.html
Earlier this year, my wife Cathy and I spent eight days being gently rushed around the South Korean peninsula as part of a project aimed at promoting a more fruitful dialogue between Buddhists and Christians. So there I was, in the midst of this Christian violence, a septuagenarian Christian scholar from New York arrives in Korea to talk about the value and need of Buddhist-Christian dialogue and to speak about my recent book “Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian.” To talk about dialogue and academia in the midst of such conflict had the semblance of urging relaxation in the midst of an earthquake. Still quaking, the Chogye Order of Korean Seon (Zen) Buddhists held to their invitation and asked this foreign Christian to come and talk.
Eric Yoffie, Washington Post, Sep.10, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/after-sept-11-four-tasks-for-religion/2011/09/10/gIQA9h4kHK_blog.html
Ten years ago this weekend, a terror attack changed the world and changed America forever. It left Americans frightened and dismayed, and filled American hearts with bewilderment and enduring rage.
We stand here today as representatives of America’s great religious traditions. What has been our role in healing our nation?
I suggest that we have had, and still have, four major tasks.
Our first task is to help America remember the victims and to offer their families comfort and healing. Our second task is to educate about the meaning of 9/11. Our third task is to resist with all of our might the view that the extremist fringe that carried out and supported this violent act is the voice of Islam in America or in the world. And our fourth and final task is to offer hope, and faith.
So I end with the hope – that is our common hope – that Muslims, Jews, and Christians will not permit fanaticism to grow or prejudice to harden; that as the sacred day of 9/11 approaches, we will honor the memory of those who died by teaching our children to honor life; and that here, in America, as seekers of God and children of Abraham, we will refuse to grant a victory to those who work to divide us; that here in America, we will reclaim our common heritage and find a common path.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie is president of the Union for Reform Judaism.
Elizabeth Tenety, Washington Post, Sep.8, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/what-have-we-learned-about-religion-post-911/2011/09/08/gIQALgZPCK_blog.html
As the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks approached, On Faith reached out to some of the world’s most influential religious leaders and thinkers to ask about faith in a post-attack world.
On Faith asks:
What have we learned about religion in the past 10 years? What was the spiritual impact of 9/11?
Below are excerpts from our expert roundtable. Click through to read the individual essays. (Other contributions can be accessed via the Washington Post article here)
Heather M. Higgins, CNN, Sep.10, religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/10/ground-zero-mosque-moving-forward/
While all eyes are on lower Manhattan, nearly 200 people gathered more than 100 blocks north of Ground Zero on Friday night to honor 9/11 families and to recognize a decade of interfaith work at the Interchurch Center.
“Tonight we want to commemorate the event and we are going to honor 10 families who lost victims on 9/11. Five are Muslim, five are not Muslim, to show that we share the pain, we share the hope, we share the prayer,” said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.
He hosted the event, In Good Faith: Stories of Hope and Resilience, along with the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) and the Interchurch Center.
September 11 raised the profile of Islam in the U.S. and, according to Rauf, it caused the Western world to pay attention in a way that made Muslims the subject of intense suspicion. His goal is to build an American Muslim identity and enhance multi-faith dialogue.
The event highlighted bridge-building projects and began with a harmonic recitation from the Quran by Ali Karjoovary.
“We need a national healing around 9/11 and our hope is that we can achieve it,” Rauf said. “And no matter how you slice it, I believe this healing will require the help of religious voices and American Muslims.”
Mary Grace Lucas, CNN, Sep.11, religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/09/11/multi-faith-911-prayer-vigil-calls-for-tolerance/
Hundreds gathered in Washington Sunday to share an interfaith moment together in remembrance of the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The morning vigil service, planned over months by staff at the Washington National Cathedral, integrated chants, prayers, music and traditions from across the religious spectrum.
The event was one of several organized by the Washington National Cathedral over the weekend.
“We feel like our events say to the world that faith is an element [of commemorating 9/11],” said Steven Schwab, spokesman for Washington National Cathedral.
A reading during the service mentioned the biblical Tower of Babel and subsequent scattering of peoples and languages over the earth.
Other readings, prayers, and reflections contemplated love, conflict, grief, and the idea of finding a single truth in differing viewpoints.
“These attitudes and relationships have a crucial bearing on justice. Justice is not about following the law. It’s about how we treat each other,” said local Hindu leader Dr. D.C. Rao.
“Without understanding and respect, there can be no justice.”
Mercy and tolerance were two other key theme as leaders took the podium to share thoughts on living in a community of vastly different religious and non-religious perspectives.
“Faith is mercy. Mercy is love for humanity. A love for humanity is to believe that human life – all human life – is sacred,” said Imam Mohammed Magid of the All Dulles Area Muslim Society.
Razak Ahmad, Reuters, Sep.12, in.reuters.com/article/2011/09/12/idINIndia-59282520110912
A raid on a church by Muslim authorities has raised religious tension in Malaysia and could cost Prime Minister Najib Razak votes in an election set for 2013 but which many expect to come much earlier.
The raid has sparked an angry verbal battle between Christians and the majority Muslims, forcing Najib to seek what may be an elusive peace between the ethnic Malays and minorities, both of which believe the government isn’t doing enough to safeguard their rights.
Conservative Muslims want the government to crack down on what they say is growing boldness by Christians to try to convert Muslims, which is an offence in Malaysia, while ethnic minorities worry their rights are being eroded.
Paul Brandeis Rauschenbush, Huffington Post, Sep. 6, www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-raushenbush/911-religion_b_949688.html
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.
WCC news, Sep.7, www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/general-secretary/statements/ten-years-after-911.html
Remembering the thousands of people killed in the coordinated assault on 11 September 2001 in the United States of America, and its unfortunate consequences in Afghanistan and Iraq, World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit sends out a message honouring the victims, and promoting a culture of peace.
“On behalf of the council, I assure all those who have been affected by violence and inhumanity – in the United States and throughout the world – of continuing prayer and solidarity on the part of the fellowship of churches we constitute,” says Tveit stressing that “Terrorism in all its forms – whether committed by individuals, groups or states – is to be condemned.”
In his message, Tveit reaffirms churches’ commitment towards dialogue among people of different faiths, promoting a culture of “just peace”, which is also a key topic for the upcoming WCC 10th Assembly in 2013.
