|
 In
the midst of the uproar following Pope Benedict XVI’s comments about
Islam in a September 12 speech at the
University
of
Regensburg
, voices of mutual respect and connections
among Jews, Christians, and Muslims are more important than ever. On
September 17 our Abrahamic KINSHIP initiative welcomed more than twenty
women to an interfaith tea at the home of Steering Committee member the
Rev. Lynne Bleich Weber, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Atonement
in Tenafly and Chair of the Ecumenical and Interreligious Commission for
the Diocese of Newark. We spoke about the aspects of our different faiths
that mattered deeply in our lives, finding a lot of common ground: the
sense of God’s oneness, the value of every human life and all creation,
the need for women’s voices in the struggle for peace and justice.
Of
course, encounters among the daughters of Sarah and Hagar always highlight
the rich diversity of our traditions as well. As facilitator, I marveled
as our circle stretched to hold the tension among the profound monotheism
of Islam, Kabbalistic teachings about the Shekhinah (as one Jewish woman
put it, “God’s feminine soul”), modern conceptions of “positive
energy,” Christian interpretations of the Holy Spirit, and even talk of
Hindu polytheism and the Buddhist teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh. One of my
favorite moments was when a segue about the role of women ended with a
Muslim woman’s observation that in Islam, “paradise is at the Mother’s
feet.”
As one Christian woman
wrote afterwards, “I was amazed to see this group of women, coming
together in our busy lives to acknowledge our common need to create our
own priorities in this mad world. I was proud of myself and God for
calling us together and grateful to Interweave for facilitating this
experience for all of us.”
 This
fall, our KINSHIP network is privileged to welcome two distinguished
Muslim speakers at Interweave: Anisa Mehdi, an Emmy-Award winning journalist, and Eboo
Patel, founder and director of
Chicago
’s Interfaith Youth Core.
“Words
are powerful,” Medhi says. “They can save lives or destroy them; make
truth of falsehood and weave tapestries about our society, our safety and
who our enemies are.” For over twenty years Mehdi
has woven a tapestry of words and images as a
reporter, writer, director and producer in print, radio, and television.
She will speak at our Fall
Luncheon October 18 on “Muslim Jersey Girl: Growing Up Muslim in
America
.” A resident of
Maplewood
, Mehdi is also adjunct professor of
Communications at
Seton
Hall
University
and founder and president of Whetstone
Productions, a production and consulting company. Among her productions
are “Inside Mecca,” a 2003 National Geographic Special and “Muslims,”
a 2002 Frontline special. For a
dozen years she was Arts and Culture Correspondent for the New Jersey
Network News (PBS). She is also an avid flutist with the Livingston
Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Board of Trustees of the
Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey in
Madison
. She is at work on a documentary film, “Monks
and Muslims: Finding Faith in Algeria,” and a biography of her father,
the late Dr. Mohammad T. Mehdi, head of the American Arab Relations
Committee and National Council on Islamic Affairs.
Our luncheon theme
honors an interfaith initiative inspired by the once-a-generation
confluence of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the Jewish High Holy Days,
and the Christian celebrations of the Feast of St. Francis of
Assisi
and Worldwide Communion Sunday. Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders and
organizations are celebrating this seasonal overlap as “The Peace of
Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah” by praying, learning, and working together to
protect human rights, heal the earth, and achieve peace in the regions
where our shared ancestors sojourned.
 Such
goals are at the heart of Eboo Patel’s work with the Interfaith Youth
Core: strengthening relationships between young people and their faith
communities and reducing interfaith conflict by bringing them together for
social action and service. “Globalization
makes all of us intimates,” he says. “Who is flying the flag of
coexistence? Who is telling the story of pluralism? Who is pointing out
that they are us?” Patel
will speak on
“A City Set on a Hill: The
Promise and Challenge of an Interfaith
America
”
at
two identical symposia: Monday, December 11 in
South
Orange
and
Tuesday, December 12 in River Edge. A Rhodes Scholar who received his doctorate
in the sociology of religion from
Oxford
University
,
Patel admires Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, Dorothy Day of the
Catholic Worker, and the poetry of Walt Whitman.
He
is a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, the OpEd pages of The
Chicago Tribune and many other publications. He is the co-editor of Building
the Interfaith Youth Movement and is currently writing a book on the
role of religious youth in the 21st Century.
Last February,
following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in Western
newspapers, Patel wrote, “Viewing the world as sets of absolute
principles at odds with each other plays into the hands of those who are
working day and night to entrench the clash of civilizations and make it
as bloody as possible . . . The two sides think they are battling each
other, but their volleys serve mostly to destroy the dream of a common
life together.” Help build that dream at Interweave this fall.
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