Information and commentary on interreligious issues and events in Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay Area, Nationally, and worldwide.

It’s always wonderful to see people from my own tradition, Baptists, advocating for respect and understanding of other religious traditions. Baptists historically have been champions of religious liberty and the separation of church and state, and it is entirely consistent for Baptists to stand at the side of other religious groups.

At the 20th congress of the Baptist World Alliance last week in Honolulu, a workshop titled, “Christian and Muslim Siblings: Children of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar” was led by Nabil Costa, executive director of the Lebanese Baptist Society in Beirut, and Robert Sellers, professor at Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene, Texas.

“The vilification of Christianity by Muslim extremists in order to justify militant jihad and the need to convert an ‘immoral’ West to Islam is alive and well,” Costa wrote. “In the same way, political and media voices in the West have used long-standing prejudice against Islam in order to paint a vile picture of a religion that is part of an ‘axis of evil’ and bent on the destruction of a so-called ‘free world.’”

Noting the case of Ergun Caner, former president of Liberty Baptist Seminary (Jerry Falwell’s school), who was recently forced to resign after it became evident that he had been falsifying his previous life as a “Muslim,” Costa noted:

“Based on the Bible’s teaching against slander…we cannot accept that wrong information continues to be propagated about Islam and Muslims. Too many self-proclaimed and self-styled ‘experts’ on Islam have emerged in our circles since September 11, 2001. They have been received and their teaching embraced and idealized in our churches simply because their discourse has been feeding our phobias and they are confirming our suspicions. In other words, they are tickling our ears and captivating our hearts,” said Costa.

Costa and Sellers challenged Baptists to avoid stereotyping and misrepresentation of Muslims, and to seek out a new future with their “spiritual siblings.”

• BWA Leaders Lament Christian Vilification of Muslims, Offer Constructive Way Forward (Ethics Daily)

Plans are moving forward for the creation of a new multifaith organization in the South Bay. At a meeting last week at Antioch Baptist Church in San Jose, the planning team charged with the task of framing a process for creating the organization proposed that it be called the Silicon Valley Interreligious Council.

The Council will not supplant any of the existing multifaith entities and efforts, but will work with them to build interreligious relationships of respect and understanding, and create opportunities for education and shared action involving not only the religious communities of the valley, but other guiding institutions as well — educational, governmental, and private sector.

The Council will be the center for efforts related to the Partner City Network. Silicon Valley was named as the “Inaugural” member of the Partner City Network of the Parliament of the World’s Religions at the global gathering in Melbourne in 2009.

A diverse group of individuals and organizations from the many religious traditions of the South Bay have been meeting monthly since early this year to chart the directions for future collaboration. In recent meetings, they have hosted the Executive Directors of several multifaith groups in the Bay Area: the Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County, Marin Interfaith Council, Peninsula Clergy Network, and the San Francisco Interfaith Council. In each session, participants have learned about the promise and challenge of interreligious cooperation.

Reports and background documents related to the process of developing the Council can be found at the SouthBay Interfaith website: www.southbayinterfaith.org. Interested people are especially invited to respond to the Questionnaire About Interfaith Organization, and the Draft Guidelines for Building Interreligious Relationships.

• Partner City Network, Parliament of the World’s Religions
• Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County
• Marin Interfaith Council
• Peninsula Clergy Network
• San Francisco Interfaith Council

Sometimes Jon Stewart of the Daily Show has the most insightful commentary on issues and events in the news. Here, for example, is his recent commentary on how Fox news works to stir up hostility toward Muslims in the US:

In his Baccalaureate address to the Stanford Graduating Class of 2010, Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, shared the story of Brother Wayne, one of those people “who live at a slight angle to the universe, who see the world through kaleidoscope eyes. Others in this line include historical figures from St Francis of Assisi to Shams of Tabriz, literary characters from Zorba the Greek to Don Quixote.”

Patel described how Brother Wayne and Stanford University figured significantly in his own decision to create a youth interfaith movement:

It occurred on this piece of earth twelve years ago, almost to the day. Brother Wayne sent me to an interfaith conference at Stanford University in June of 1998. “They are all very spiritual people,” he said of the senior religious leaders and theologians who gathered to draft documents and plan further conferences – “but they are spiritual and over sixty.” That was Brother Wayne’s way of articulating urgency. In his soft way he was saying: If religious extremism is a movement of young people taking action and interfaith cooperation continues to be a movement of older people talking, we lose.

And he challenged the graduates to be a little “crazy” in working to improve the world:

I think maybe I’ve become a little crazy myself. In fact, I’ve learned to iterate on craziness. Here’s my most recent one. Previous generations created new social norms. Civil rights is a social norm. Environmentalism is a social norm. Human rights is a social norm. All thanks to young people. Why can’t this generation make interfaith cooperation a social norm?

• A Brother Wayne of Your Own (On Faith, Washington Post)
• Interfaith Youth Core (Chicago)

Members of the local Bait-ul-Baseer Mosque in Milpitas were stunned last week by the attacks on two Ahmadiyya Muslim mosques in Lahore, Pakistan by members of the Pakistani Taliban. Over 70 were supposed dead, victims of grenades and automatic weapon fire against the crowds of worshipers gathered for the regular Friday services.

The Ahmadiyya have suffered persecution for many years, due to their unorthodox beliefs– they affirm that their founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, was the long-anticipated “Promised One,” who championed Islam’s true values. Their motto is “Love for All, Hatred for None,” and members of the local community have been regular participants in efforts to build multifaith understanding and appreciation.

In an official statement from the national headquarters in the US, the community declared:

Those Muslim groups responsible for the attack have broken cardinal rules within Islam, such as the Quranic directives, “And create not disorder in the earth” (7:57) and “whosoever killed a person …it shall be as if he had killed all mankind” (5:33). Islam condemns violence and the taking of innocent lives, and the Ahmadiyya Muslim community rejects any claims from those who do so that they are following Islamic principles.

There is no place for violence of any kind in Islam, and Islam has no need for those who resort to violence in a so-called defense of their faith. “Reverence for life is a part of Islam,” said Nasim Rehmatullah, Vice President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA. “The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community calls on the Pakistan government and other influential parties to dispense justice in the area.” The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community sends condolences to the families of the victims of the tragedy.

• Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, USA
• Al Islam (official website)
• Silicon Valley members of Muslim sect mourn relatives killed in Pakistan attack
  San Jose Mercury News

Interfaith Center at the Presidio

Since 1996, The Interfaith Center at the Presidio has been headquartered in the Presidio Post Chapel in San Francisco. Built in the 1930′s, the Post Chapel served as a de facto interfaith place of worship as military service personnel of many different faiths and traditions were welcomed into the space.

The Chapel features eleven stained glass windows designed by Willemina E. A. M. Ogterop and contributed by various veterans organizations. They highlight virtues typifying military character – Courage, Mercy, Martyrdom, Loyalty, Justice, Truth, Reverence, Honor, Sacrifice, Motherhood, and Daring. Courage was contributed by the American Legion; Loyalty was contributed by the Grand Army of the Republic; Justice was contributed by the Spanish American War Veterans; and Truth, Reverence, Honor, and Sacrifice, were presented by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. The three chancel windows represent Hope, Love, and Faith.

Memorial plaques adorn the walls of the sanctuary, marking the passing of soldiers who served at the Presidio. A granite memorial to Army chaplains was erected in front of the Chapel in 1973. Two years later, a Memorial Garden was dedicated. In 1986, a memorial to Vietnam Veterans was dedicated adjacent to the garden.

On Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, at 1:00 pm at the Chapel, the Interfaith Center at the Presidio will host its annual service that brings together various faiths to remember and celebrate those who have given their lives for us. The homily, “Honoring the Dead – Supporting the Living,” will be given by Bucky Peterson. Col. Peterson is a retired U.S. Marine now working with California State University on behalf of veterans seeking higher education. The Sausalito Presbyterian Choir will sing under the direction of Ralph Hooper. Refreshments start outside at noon, the service an hour later. The public is welcome to attend.

* A Map and Directions to the Post Chapel can be found at the ICP website.
* The Interfaith Center offers a 24 hour video feed from the Post Chapel.

The Dalai Lama is visiting in New York this week, and Odyssey Networks is making available videos of his talks:

If you’re up early on Sunday morning, you might want to watch KPIX Channel 5. At 5:00 am (it’s OK just to set your DVR!) on Sunday, May 23, KPIX will air a program about the recent “Madrasa-Midrasha” class that was sponsored by the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley several Jewish and Muslim groups, including our local Islamic Networks Group,

The class name was derived from the Arabic and Hebrew words for “place of study,” and involved students from the GTU and the general public in weekly study of the Torah and Qur’an and the commentary texts from Judaism and Islam. Each week, guest lecturers from both Jewish and Muslim perspectives would lead the discussion, focused on issues of common concern: social justice, gender, sacred space, art, music, Jerusalem and business ethics.

Other sponsors of the class in addition to the GTU and ING included  Lehrhaus Judaica and the Progressive Jewish Alliance on the Jewish side and the Zaytuna Institute of Islamic studies.

Sunday morning’s broadcast on Madrasa-Midrasha will include interviews with the GTU Center for Islamic Studies (CIS) Director Munir Jiwa; Center for Jewish Studies (CJS) Director Naomi Seidman; CJS student Tricia Gibbs, M.D.; and CIS colleague Ameena Jandali. Sr. Marianne Farina, C.S.C., Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology, hosts the show.

• Jewish-Muslim study course grounds interfaith dialogue in sacred text (JTA)
• New classes aim to bring Jews, Muslims together for study (J Weekly)

On Saturday evening, May 29, 2010, from 7:00 – 9:00 pm, the San Jose Friends’ Meeting (Quakers) will be hosting an interfaith activist from Southern California along with local religious leaders to explore the work of interfaith and the implications of global interreligious cooperation on local communities.

The theme for the gathering will be “Building a Local Interfaith Movement, with a Global Perspective.” Main speaker for the evening is Anthony Manousos of the Santa Monica Friends’ Meeting, who has been active in interfaith work and attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne last December. He will be joined by a panel of local leaders: the Rev. Ellen Grace O’Brian, Founding Minister and Spiritual Director of the Center for Spiritual Enlightenment, San Jose, and member of the Board of Trustees of the Council of the Parliament; Zahra Billoo, Program and Outreach Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an activist attorney committed to social justice and community; and Rabbi Elisheva Salamo of Keddem Congregation, Palo Alto, who taught Jewish culture at Catholic high schools and also attended the Parliament.

Preceding the program will be a vegetarian dinner, from 5:30-7:00. For more information, call Donna at 650.428.0832. The public is warmly welcomed to attend. A flyer for the event is available here.

Location: San Jose Friends’ Meetinghouse, 1041 Morse Street, San Jose (directions). Ample free parking in large lot across the street.

ING, a locally based international organization, issued a statement yesterday that condemns the attempted bombing plot in New York, cautions Muslims against extremism, and recalls the constructive interfaith work that Muslims have engaged in. ING began in 1993, offering education about Islam and Muslims in schools, congregations, and other public arenas. In recent years, ING’s program has expanded into developing an Interfaith Speakers Bureau, which provides education about the major religious traditions in our communities.

Here’s the ING statement:

ING Condemns NYC Plot and Supports Efforts against Extremism (San Jose, CA 05/05/2010) -

ING (Islamic Networks Group) joins American Muslims and all Americans in voicing outrage at the latest in a string of attacks or plots in recent months that have been perpetrated by Muslims. Saturday’s plot to explode an SUV in Times Square was foiled due to the bravery of New York residents – including a Senegalese Muslim Aliou Niasse, who was the first to notice the smoking car – and the swift work of law enforcement agencies. Plots or attacks such as this that target innocent people are nothing less than hiraba, an Arabic word that means “sowing corruption on earth.” Hiraba is strictly condemned by the Qur’an in the strongest terms, as is the taking of innocent lives, one of the most egregious crimes in Islam. We support all efforts to both counter the ideology that twists Islamic teachings and sanctions prohibited actions, and prevent the reoccurrence of such heinous acts. We applaud the efforts of organizations such as the Muslim Public Affairs Council which is working with law enforcement agencies in concrete ways to combat extremism through its recommendations in a report titled, Forging an Effective Counterterrorism Enterprise between Muslim Americans and Law Enforcement.
For those who are still not clear about the Islamic position on terrorism, we reference the numerous and repeated statements and condemnations of Muslim scholars across the world since 9/11. A small sampling of such statements includes:

• A position paper by the largest American Muslim membership organization, Islamic Society of North America, titled ISNA Position Against Terrorism and Religious Extremism.
• Videotaped statements by American Muslim scholars titled, American Muslim Scholars Speak Out Against Religious Extremism or Terrorism.
• Religious edicts or fatwas by the following groups and scholars:
  • American Fiqh Council titled: Fatwa Against Terrorism which was signed by both religious leaders and organizations.
  • Senior Saudi cleric, Salman Al Odeh, who notes that most terror victims are Muslims.
  • A recently released 600 page tome on the topic by Pakistani scholar Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri, which is said to be the most detailed and comprehensive case against Islamic extremism authored by a Muslim

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