Posts Tagged ‘ Muslim ’

Haifa’s Holiday of Holidays festival embraces differences

December 24, 2011
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Judith Sudilovsky, ENInews, Dec.22. www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5370

Both Christmas lights and Hanukkah dreidels (spinning tops) are appearing as decorations as the northern Israeli port city of Haifa throws a multi-faith party on December weekends.

Now in its 18th year, the Holiday of Holidays — which also includes the recently-celebrated Muslim Eid al-Adha — is meant “to share the differences and honor them,” said Assaf Ron, director of the Beit Hageffen Jewish-Arab Center which organizes the festival along with the Haifa municipality.

This year, Israeli-Arab singer Mira Awad will share a music stage with Israeli-Jewish singer Rami Fortis as well as with other Arab and Jewish bands. “There will be a real European holiday feel to it with lights and Santa Claus and spinning tops. That is the spirit of Haifa,” said Ron in a telephone interview. Police estimated some 60,000 people attended the festival over the 17-18 December weekend.

“We want to show Jews, Christians, and Muslims that we can celebrate our holidays together, we can be together in a big open venue, mix together, and not feel strange or fearful,” Ron said.

Read the complete article here.

Egypt’s Christians wary of too much foreign support

December 24, 2011
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Tom Heneghan, Reuters, Dec.21, af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL6E7NK3KL20111221?sp=true

The Arab Spring has increased pressure on Egypt’s Coptic Christians, with attacks on churches and bloody clashes with Muslims and the military. Many foreign Christians feel driven to help.

Pope Benedict, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams and other church leaders have spoken out in defence of the Copts, indigenous Christians who make up 10 percent of Egypt’s mostly Muslim population of 80 million.

In Europe and North America, governments have denounced the violence and called on Egypt’s armed forces to guarantee equal rights for all citizens, especially religious minorities. Church groups have collected funds to send to Egyptian parishes.

Worried Christians in Egypt say attacks on them have multiplied in recent years, starting even before former President Hosni Mubarak – seen as a defender of their rights – was swept from power in February by the Tahrir Square protests.

But they are wary about getting too much support from abroad, fearing a backlash from Muslims who could resent special attention to a minority at a time when all Egyptians are suffering economic hardship and political uncertainty.

“We’re not afraid of anybody. We don’t want help from anyone,” Rev. Antonius Michael declared as he handed out blessed bread after Mass in a Coptic Orthodox church in Old Cairo.

“It’s not to our benefit to have loud voices overseas talking about Christians,” said Ramez Atallah, general secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt.  “It’s a great benefit to us to have loud voices abroad talking about a more universal bill of rights for all Egyptians.”

Read the complete article here.

Reflections on an interfaith service in Zuccotti Park

November 20, 2011
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Katherine Clark, Reuters, Nov.16, blogs.reuters.com/faithworld/2011/11/16/occupy-sacred-space-reflections-on-an-interfaith-service-in-zuccotti-park/

A small group of diverse religious and community leaders gathered in Zuccotti Park this past Sunday to lead an interfaith service at Occupy Wall Street. Organized by staff at the Interfaith Center of New York, we had asked the participants – representing Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh traditions — to meet on Zuccotti’s northeastern steps for the afternoon service. These services have been taking place at the park in Lower Manhattan every Sunday for the past few weeks, so we thought we could easily meet up by the Interfaith Center sign there.

It was not so easy after all. Upon arriving, we saw tha t claiming a spot amidst the abundance of tents and other Occupy activities would require a tremendous amount of patience and creativity. Our sign was lost amidst notices for the community library, the “basics of anarchy” pamphlet table, a laughter yoga session and a gentleman sporting a multi-colored outfit and sign proclaiming, “Outer Space or Bust; Goodbye Earth People.” Eventually, however, we found one another. Within a few minutes, an interested crowd gathered on the steps. Our makeshift sacred space began to take shape.

Hindu monk Rasanath Das opened the service with a standing meditation, providing a rare moment of peace amid the clamor of surrounding mic checks, drums, chants and street noise. The meditation set the tone for an inspiring service that featured leaders from a variety of faith traditions – Rev. Dr. Traci West (United Methodist), Dr. Tejal Kaur (Sikh), Rev. Earl Kooperkamp (Episcopalian), and Annie Rawlings (Presbyterian) — each of their messages being amplified through the “human microphone.” Since real amplifiers aren’t permitted in Zuccotti Park, speakers at Occupy Wall Street to deliver their message in succinct sentences that the surrounding crowd repeats, allowing a wider audience to hear.

Some 36 hours after our interfaith service had concluded, the New York Police Department (NYPD) evicted everyone from Zuccotti Park. The space was vacant for the first time in two months. There are those who hope that this movement is based solely on geographical location and that dispersing protesters and dismantling their tents will have the same effect on their ideals.  This is not the case for the Occupy movement, or for the multi-faith leaders who stand in solidarity with it. To quote countless Twitter feeds since Tuesday morning, “you cannot evict an idea whose time has come.”

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The Big Interfaith Tent at Occupy Oakland: Faithfully Engaging the 99%

November 20, 2011
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Laura Rose, Huffington Post, Nov.18, www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-laura-rose/interfaith-occupy-oakland_b_1101997.html?ref=religion

Fourteen members of the Interfaith Tent at Occupy Oakland locked arms in front of the tent and were arrested early Monday morning as the police raided the encampment. It is not surprising that our words and actions have been reduced to a few sound bites and fleeting images by the mainstream media, but there is a deeper, better story to be told.

Our Interfaith Tent is Big — spatially and spiritually. The tent has been a sacred space of solace at the encampment, but it has also provided a spiritual canopy for an interfaith coalition of Indigenous Elders, Buddhists, Christians, Muslims and Jews in solidarity with the Occupy Movement, locally and globally.

One sure sign that people of faith are called to create a sacred space is that after the police raid on the Oakland encampment, the only tent standing was the Interfaith Tent. It stayed until noon, the hardest to tear down.

Read the complete article here.

Pakistani parliament criticizes murders of Hindus

November 20, 2011
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Anto Akkara, ENInews, Nov.16, www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5286

Pakistan’s parliament on 15 November condemned the killing of three Hindu brothers at a medical clinic in what observers said was an unusual show of support for religious minorities.

The National Assembly observed a minute’s silence in solidarity with the families of Ajeet Kumar, Naresh Kumar and Ashok Kumar, who were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on motorbikes in Shikarpur in Sindh province on 8 November.

“It is a positive development that all the political parties have condemned this shocking killing in one voice,” Michelle Chaudhry of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance (APMA), told ENInews on 16 November. “The demand for a parliamentary inquiry into this massacre shows that atrocities on minorities have reached alarming levels,” said Chaudhry, spokesperson for the organization founded by Shahbaz Bhatti, the minister for religious minorities who was assassinated last March.

“Non-Muslims are citizens of Pakistan and any form of violence against them is absolutely not acceptable … We are Pakistanis; our religion is a personal matter,” said the APMA. Nearly 95 percent of Pakistan’s 180 million people are Muslims while Christians, Hindus and other minorities account for five percent.

Read the complete article here.

Why the world needs faiths

November 20, 2011
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Tony Blair, Washington Post, Nov.17, www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/why-the-world-needs-faith/2011/11/17/gIQAf0d5UN_blog.html

There will be no peace in our world without an understanding of the place of religion within it. The past decade has seen many convenient myths which disguised the importance of religion, stripped away. Many thought: as society progressed, religion would decline. It hasn’t happened.

Then there are those that insisted that as the Arab Revolution knocked over long established regimes and created movements for democracy, so those societies’ religiosity would take second place to the new politics. It hasn’t happened. Religion is fundamental to those societies and if anything, in the foreseeable future, will become more so. And do we seriously think the issue of Jerusalem can be resolved without at least some discussion of its religious significance to all three Abrahamic faiths?

The virus of terror based on a perversion of the proper faith of Islam, shows no signs of abating. But it is not only the acts of terror that should alarm us. It is the extremism that promotes persecution of religious minorities too. The challenge is that much greater where human dignity is not respected and freedom of religion denied. This results in a general oppression of people of faith. It means we must support Muslims in Gujarat, India; non-Orthodox Christians in Moldova; Bahai’s in Iran; Ahmadis in Pakistan; all Christians in North Africa; Hindus in Sri Lanka; Shi’a in several Sunni majority countries, and other places.

The basic point is this: On every side, in every quarter, wherever we look and analyze, religion is a powerful, motivating, determining force shaping the world around us.

Read the complete article here.

Interfaith gathering for world peace at Assisi

November 1, 2011
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Eric Lyman, ENInews, Oct.27, www.eni.ch/featured/article.php?id=5244

In the Vatican’s most wide-scale effort yet to reach out to other faiths, Pope Benedict XVI today welcomed Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, African tribal faiths, and even atheists and agnostics to call for world peace.

Benedict presided over a meeting of more than 300 religious leaders in the Umbrian hilltop town of Assisi, the birthplace of Saint Francis, timed to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a one-day prayer for peace that took place at the same spot, called by Pope John Paul II amid the tensions of the cold war.

The meeting had more participants and was more inclusive than the earlier event; the participation of monks from mainland China and four non-believers was part of Benedict’s effort to reach out to atheists and agnostics. But it featured fewer recognizable faces than the 1986 gathering, during which the Dalai Lama and Mother Teresa joined John Paul in prayer.

Read the complete article here.

Speed-faithing: speed-dating from a religious point of view

November 1, 2011
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Manya A. Brachear, Chicago Tribune, Nov.1, www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-talk-speed-faithing-20111101,0,5799441.story

For those who want to hook up with a Hindu, there is speed-dating at an Old Town neighborhood lounge on Wednesday.

But for those who want to meet a Muslim, Buddhist, Christian or Hindu and get to know a little about their faith, there will be a speed-faithing event Tuesday at Dominican University in River Forest.

Designed by students, the event which follows a public lecture by Interfaith Youth Core founder Eboo Patel, will rotate participants through five-minute conversations about their beliefs. Long enough to establish common ground, short enough to avoid offense, said Cassie Meyer, director of content for the Interfaith Youth Core who co-teaches a course on interfaith literacy with Patel.

“You’re not trying to say everything about your religion before you switch,” she said.

Nor should you, she said. Just like speed-dating, talking about religion can be scary.

“The stereotype of speed-dating is you have two minutes to judge someone,” she said. “There’s something to be said for speaking really quickly off the cuff about something. You’ll have a chance to be thoughtful, but you don’t have a chance to obsess about it.”

Instead of seeking particulars, participants will be urged to ask more general questions: Do you think interfaith cooperation is important? What compels you to serve others? How and when do you pray, reflect or meditate?

Read the complete article here.

‘Muslim’ Nations and The Problem of Christian Persecution

October 23, 2011
By

Qasim Rashid, Huffington Post, Oct.19, www.huffingtonpost.com/qasim-rashid/the-problem-of-christian-persecution_b_1012010.html

Some so-called “Muslim” nations have a problem.

It is not America, Europe, and no, it is certainly not Israel.

The problem is persecution, and in this case, of Christians. Some fourteen centuries after Prophet Muhammad wrote, “Christians are my citizens, and by God, I hold out against anything that displeases them,” Christian persecution has become a norm in these Muslim majority nations. While persecution in even one nation is too much, the problem is far beyond just one nation.

Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, a Christian father of two sits on death row, inhumanely incarcerated in Iran for his “crime” of converting to Christianity from Islam. Yes, the Qur’an forbids punishment for apostasy, but tell that to the Iranian government. And though Islam does not sanction the mixing of mosque and state, be careful about saying that out loud — you may be charged with apostasy.

And the problem persists. Asia Bibi, a Christian mother of five sits on death row in a putrid Pakistani prison — literally tortured — for her alleged blasphemy of Prophet Muhammad. Yes, the Qur’an forbids punishment for blasphemy, but tell that to the Muslim clergy. And though Islam does not sanction any sort of priesthood, be careful about saying that out loud — you may be charged with blasphemy.

And the problem still persists. A human rights watch reports that a 12-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan was kidnapped, raped, forcibly converted to “Islam” and forcibly married to a Muslim before she finally escaped. When her parents went to the police, they were advised to “return the girl to her rightful husband,” ignoring the kidnapping, rape, forced conversion and forced marriage. Yes, the Qur’an protects the rights of women and children, condemns rape, forbids inheriting women (let alone children) against their will and forbids compulsion in religion. But, tell that to a people who worship the almighty dollar instead of the Almighty Deity. And though Islam demands absolute justice in all affairs, be careful about saying that out loud — if you cannot be bribed in Pakistan, you might find yourself buried six feet under.

And yet, the problem still persists. In Indonesia, over 50 Christian churches have been forcibly — and illegally — closed under extremist pressure. Contrast this with Prophet Muhammad’s Charter that states, “No one is to destroy a house of [the Christian] religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims houses.” Prophet Muhammad also foretold Islam’s spread to Egypt and reminded Muslims that their spiritual grandmother — Hagar, wife of Abraham — was Egyptian. As such, Muslims were specifically admonished to respect and honor Egyptian Christians. Quite obviously, Egyptian Coptic Christian persecution stands in stark contrast to Prophet Muhammad’s guidance.

Read the complete article here.

Turkey’s Elephant in the Room: Religious Freedom

September 30, 2011
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Susanne Gusten, New York Times, Sep.28, www.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/world/europe/turkeys-elephant-in-the-room-religious-freedom.html?_r=1&ref=religionandbelief

With his triumphant tour of the countries of the Arab Spring this month, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to set up Turkey on the international stage as a role model for a secular democracy in a Muslim country — as, in his words, “a secular state where all religions are equal.”

The only trouble is that he has yet to make that happen for Turkey.

The relationship between religion and the state, ever the sore spot of Turkish identity, is one of the most explosive issues of the debate on the new constitution that Mr. Erdogan has pledged to give the country in the new legislative term that opens Saturday.

That debate will have to deal with the elephant in the room: the total control that the state exerts over Islam through its Religious Affairs Department, and the lack of a legal status for all other religions in a predominantly Sunni Muslim society.

“Turkey may look like a secular state on paper, but in terms of international law it is actually a Sunni Islamic state,” Izzettin Dogan, a leader of the country’s Alevi minority, charged at a joint press conference with leaders of several other minority faiths last week in Istanbul.

Mr. Dogan is honorary president of the Federation of Alevi Foundations, which represents many of what it claims are up to 30 million adherents of the Alevi faith, an Anatolian religion close to Sufi Islam but separate and distinct in its beliefs and practices.

“The state collects taxes from all of us and spends billions on Sunni Islam alone, while millions of Alevis as well as Christians, Jews and other faiths don’t receive a penny,” Mr. Dogan said, referring to the $1.5 billion budget of the Religious Affairs Department. “What kind of secularism is that?”

Read the complete article here.