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World Interfaith Harmony Week
February 1-7
          "Interfaith harmony is not just about dialogue among religious leaders," says URI (United Religions Initiative) Acting Executive Director Debra Bernstein. 
          "It is also about ordinary people finding common ground and working side-by-side to heal their communities politically, socially, economically and environmentally."
           Learn more about World Interfaith Harmony Week.

          

 

Interfaith News
World Interfaith Harmony Week
February 1-7


"Interfaith harmony is not just about dialogue among religious leaders," says URI (United Religions Initiative) Acting Executive Director Debra Bernstein.

"It is also about ordinary people finding common ground and working side-by-side to heal their communities politically, socially, economically and environmentally."

                        Learn more about World Interfaith Harmony Week.
Appeals Court blocks Oklahoma ban
on Islamic law
        On January 10, an appeals court said Oklahoma's ban on the consideration of Islamic Shariah law in the state's courts "is likely unconstitutional" and kept in place an injunction against the voter-approved measure.  The Denver-based court ruled 3-1 that the rights of an Oklahoma City Muslim, Muneer Awad, likely would be violated if the ban on Shariah law takes effect.

        Awad sued to block the "Save Our State" constitutional amendment, approved by 70 percent of Oklahoma voters on Nov. 2, 2010.

        Awad contended the measure stigmatizes him and others who practice the Muslim faith, limits results Muslims can obtain from the courts, and would prevent his last will and testament from being probated in Oklahoma because the will has references to Shariah law.

        Awad, head of the Oklahoma office of the Council on American-Islamic relations, said the amendment is among 20 similar pieces of legislation introduced in state legislatures nationwide.
 John August Swanson's triptych celebrates Christmas and Epiphany,
with the three Magi (left), the manger and the shepherds.
Epiphany
On January 6, Christians celebrate a festival called Epiphany.  The day introduces a season of the church year with the story of the Magi who followed a bright star, finally reaching the manger where Jesus was born.  This day - indeed, the season of Epiphany - is often a time when Christians say a blessing on their home.  It may be a simple prayer, or might include prayers in every room of the home.

In an eastern European tradition, a visual blessing may be inscribed with white chalk above the main door; for example in 2012:  20 + CMB + 12.  The numbers change with each new year.  The three letters stand for either the ancient Latin blessing Christe mansionem benedica, which means, "Christ, bless this house," or the legendary names of the Magi (Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar).

Adapted from Pastor Steven Wilco's letter
to the people of Immanuel Lutheran Church, Amherst MA,
where this blessing is inscribed above an entrance to the nave.

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Interfaith Notes
Leymah Gbowee of Liberia, who shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize with
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia and Muslim Activist Tawakkol Karman of Yemen

In New York City last fall, Ms. Gbowee said:

          It's time for you Christians to stop getting on planes to Rwanda to teach children to read when down the street in Brooklyn, children cannot read.  Someone told me that in this country they spend 98-point-something billion dollars per year on philanthropy.  They must spend that money outside [the United States] because I know organizations in this country that can't find rent just like me in Africa. 

           It's time to do justice in our communities.  If there's anything to be learned from the Nobel Prizes it's that the three women who won them didn't set out to conquer the world.  They set out to change their societies first, and that's the message for all of us. 

          Do peace and justice at home.  Do peace and justice in your backyard.  And spread your experiences outside.

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A Bronx Tale
          
When the congregants of an Orthodox synagogue could no longer afford their rent, they found help in the local mosque.

Years ago, when the Young Israel Congregation was running clothing drives for needy families, one of the recipients was Sheikh Moussa Drammeh, the founder of the Al-Iman Mosque, who was collecting donations for his congregants, many of whom are immigrants from Africa.
           By 2007, the Jewish congregation had become Chabad of East Bronx - but so few of the mostly elderly parishioners remained that they had to close the synagogue.   When Drammeh learned of their plight, he immediately volunteered to accommodate them at the Muslin center - for free.
           "They don't pay anything because these are old folks whose income are very limited now," said Drammeh, adding that he felt it was his turn to help the people who had once helped him and his community.  "Not every Muslim likes us, because not every Muslim believes that Muslims and Jews should be like this," Drammeh said, referring to the shared space.  But "there's no reason why we should hate each other, why we cannot be families."  Drammeh in particular admires the dedication of the Chabad rabbis, who walked 15 miles from Brooklyn every Saturday to run prayer services for the small Parkchester community.
                                                         [Adapted from Tablet magazine]

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January 23, 2012 - Before the start of the first Egyptian parliament session since the ousting of former President Hosni Mubarak, members of the parliament stand and pray for the souls of the victims who died during the revolution.

                                                                                                                                                 Asmma Waguih - Getty Images - TIME

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Sarah Rice - Getty Images - TIME          

January 20, 2012 - Pressing upward from beneath a translucent black shroud, Occupy Wall Street protesters in San Francisco form ghostly faces as part of a rally outside the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  The group proposed a 28th Amendment to the Constitution that would outlaw corporate personhood.

Throughout the United States, interfaith clergy minister to Occupy groups.