Love for Jesus Can Bring Christians, Muslims TogetherBy Ibrahim HooperWord Count: 569
[Ibrahim Hooper is National Communications Director for the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil liberties group. He may be contacted at: ihooper@cair.com ]
“Behold! The angels said: ‘O Mary! God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him. His name will be Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, held in honor in this world and the Hereafter and in (the company of) those nearest to God.’”
Before searching for this quote in the New Testament, you might first ask your Muslim co-worker, friend or neighbor for a copy of the Quran, Islam’s revealed text. The quote is from verse 45 of chapter 3 in the Quran.
It is well known, particularly in this holiday season, that Christians follow the teachings of Jesus. What is less well understood is that Muslims also love and revere Jesus as one of God's greatest messengers to mankind.
Other verses in the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the direct word of God, state that Jesus was strengthened with the “Holy Spirit” (2:87) and is a "sign for the whole world.” (21:91) His virgin birth was confirmed when Mary is quoted as asking: “How can I have a son when no man has ever touched me?” (3:47)
The Quran shows Jesus speaking from the cradle and, with God’s permission, curing lepers and the blind. (5:110) God also states in the Quran: “We gave (Jesus) the Gospel (Injeel) and put compassion and mercy into the hearts of his followers.” (57:27)
As forces of hate in this country and worldwide try to pull Muslims and Christians apart, we are in desperate need of a unifying force that can bridge the widening gap of interfaith misunderstanding and mistrust. That force could be the message of love, peace and forgiveness taught by Jesus and accepted by followers of both faiths.
Christians and Muslims would do well to consider another verse in the Quran reaffirming God’s eternal message of spiritual unity: “Say ye: ‘We believe in God and the revelation given to us and to Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and it is unto Him that we surrender ourselves.’” (2:136)
The Prophet Muhammad himself sought to erase any distinctions between the message he taught and that taught by Jesus, who he called God’s “spirit and word.” Prophet Muhammad said: “Both in this world and in the Hereafter, I am the nearest of all people to Jesus, the son of Mary. The prophets are paternal brothers; their mothers are different, but their religion is one.”
When Muslims mention the Prophet Muhammad, they always add the phrase “peace be upon him.” Christians may be surprised to learn that the same phrase always follows a Muslim’s mention of Jesus or that we believe Jesus will return to earth in the last days before the final judgment. Disrespect toward Jesus, as we have seen all too often in our society, is very offensive to Muslims.
Unfortunately, violent events and hate-filled rhetoric around the world provide ample opportunity for promoting religious hostility. And yes, Muslims and Christians do have some differing perspectives on Jesus’ life and teachings. But his spiritual legacy offers an alternative opportunity for people of faith to recognize their shared religious heritage.
America’s Muslim community stands ready to honor that legacy by building bridges of interfaith understanding and challenging those who would divide our nation along religious or ethnic lines.
We have more in common than we think.
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TN: MEMBERS OF DESTROYED MOSQUE START ANEW - TOPWKRN, 12/10/08
Ten months after a Maury County mosque was destroyed in a hate crime, members have a new building to worship in.
For days after the mosque was defamed and set ablaze, Daoud Abudiab and other members picked through the charred rubble, hoping to save what few items were still recognizable.
"Unfortunately, we were not able to salvage any of that," he told News 2.
They bought a new building in July, but it needed a lot of work and $45,000 in donations was spent on much needed renovations.
"It's a good thing that we have been busy trying to get [the new] place renovated and ready and I think it took our mind off what happened," Abudiab continued.
He said although months have passed, he can't help but drive by the old lot where 10 years of worship burned to the ground in a thoughtless act of hate. (MORE)
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THE APPROPRIATE RESPONSE TO ISLAMIC TERROR - TOPLawrence Kulak, 5 Towns Jewish Times, 12/11/08“Moreover, the only way to deal with Islamic terrorists is the same way in which they deal with their victims. Muslims believe in the literal interpretation of the Biblical doctrine of an eye for an eye, and they do not have respect for anything perceived as a lesser standard of justice. They killed our innocents, and unless we kill theirs, they will go on killing ours.”
SEE ALSO:
FACEBOOK SHUTS DOWN "PRO-GENOCIDE" GROUP - TOPMarshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb, 12/11/08
A fast-growing new group of Facebook users from Bosnia called on Facebook to shut down another group on the site that celebrates the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims by the Serbian army in Srebrenica. It appears that the group has been shut down while we wrote this story about it, the link to the group now redirects users to their profile pages with no explanation. Was that the right way to handle it? We're not sure.
Reuters wrote this morning about the Serbian group that reportedly describes itself as "For all those who think that Muslims are best on the spit and while swimming in sulphur acid". The anti-Muslim group's membership grew 20% to more than 1100 people since the Reuters report was published. (MORE)
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VIDEO: CAIR-MI REP AT BORDER PROFILING NEWS CONFERENCE - TOP
View the video here.
The ACLU of Michigan now has a hotline travelers can call to report racial profiling at international border crossings. My TV 20's Jorge Avellan has more.
Dawud Wallid (CAIR-MI):
"Mothers being handcuffed in front of their children in question for undue periods of time and then federal authorities coming to the persons home, even to work places asking questions based upon peoples travel plans."
SEE ALSO:
CAIR-MI: NEW HOTLINE FOR PROFILING AT THE BORDER - TOPWWJ, 12/10/08
It's a new effort to help those who have been racially profiled at border crossings.
The American Civil Liberties Union says the FBI has implemented new guidelines that will allow agents to profile individuals for searches based on race and ethnicity at borders across the United States. The Detroit branch of the NAACP, ACCESS, CAIR and ACLU Wednesday launched a new hotline to report issues.
Dawud Walid, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said since the September 11th terror attacks there's been an increase in profiling, particularly focused on American Muslims at borders.
Walid claims personal property such as wallets and laptops have been taken from people, searched and -- in some cases -- have had information removed.
To file formal complaints, call: 1-313-578-6832 or click here.
---CAIR: HOTLINE SET UP FOR REPORTING SUSPECTED PROFILING AT THE BORDER - TOPGregg Krupa, Detroit News, 12/10/08
A coalition of community and civil right groups announced today the establishment of a telephone hotline and Internet address for quick reporting of any incidents of suspected profiling at the U.S.-Canadian border.
The groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union-Michigan, citied the continual difficulty some Muslims and people of Arab and South Asian descent encounter at border crossings. They also said they would call upon elected officials soon to:
End the seizure of laptops and cell phones at the border without probable cause.
End the repeated detentions of U.S. citizens re-entering the United States from countries in the Middle East.
Hold hearings on the various issues at the border.
Exercise oversight of the FBI, which has been operating under new guidelines in national security cases since Dec. 1.
Beyond the concerns that Muslims, Arabs and South Asians have expressed about what they contend is profiling at the Ambassador and Blue Water bridges and the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, the FBI on Dec. 1 established new guidelines authorizing a wide range of new investigative techniques, which it intends to initiate without evidence of wrongdoing. (MORE)
-----CAIR-MI: CASE VS. FBI CHIEF, FORMER AG REVIEWED - TOPAssociated Press, 12/11/08
Supreme Court justices voiced concern Wednesday about including former Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller in a lawsuit that claims prisoners detained after the Sept. 11 attacks were abused because of their religion and ethnicity.
Yet the court offered no clear indication that it was prepared to order Ashcroft and Mueller removed from a suit filed by Javaid Iqbal, a Pakistani Muslim who spent nearly six months in solitary confinement in New York in 2002.
The case will help determine when Cabinet officers and other high-ranking officials can be sued over allegations that lower-level government workers have violated people's civil rights.
Iqbal, since deported from the U.S., says Ashcroft, Mueller and others implemented a policy of confining detainees in highly restrictive conditions because of their religious beliefs or race.
"We are very hopeful, as the American Muslim community, that President-elect Obama will make good on his promise in restoring habeus corpus," said Dawud Walid of the Council on American Islamic Relations-Michigan. (MORE)
SEE ALSO:CAIR-LA: PROTESTS OVER JERUSALEM MUSEUM OF TOLERANCE SPREAD - TOPBrad A. Greenberg, Jewish Journal, 12/10/08
For years, the Simon Wiesenthal Center faced protests and lawsuits over its plans to build a Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. The legal challenges, which had halted construction, faded last month after Israel's Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in favor of the project. But the protests against the Los Angeles-based human rights organization continue. In fact, they have taken a new turn, spreading from the confines of Jerusalem to a wide array of groups in the United States.
Last month Israeli writers in Ha'aretz and The Forward sought to put the controversy on the broader American Jewish agenda. Here in Los Angeles, three Jewish leaders signed onto a letter from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that called upon the organization to stop construction of its Center for Human Dignity, a $250 million campus designed by Frank Gehry, which will include a museum, conference and education centers and a library and theater.
At issue is not the museum itself but the three-acre plot of land upon which it is being built.
For the past half century, the land, which was given to the Wiesenthal Center by the city of Jerusalem, has served as a multistory car park, where more than 1,000 Muslims, Christians and Jews parked daily.
But beneath the land lie Muslim remains that are hundreds of years old. Although the cemetery hasn't been used in at least 50 years and has long since been declared mundras -- no longer sacred -- by Muslim authorities, critics of the Center for Human Dignity have charged the Wiesenthal Center with being intolerant in its quest to build a Jerusalem version of its West L.A. museum.
"Building a Museum of Tolerance atop the cemetery, unlike the admirable goal of furthering tolerance and understanding, will only add to the existing pain and suffering of Palestinians and Israelis, irreversibly damage relations between Muslims and Jews worldwide and sow new feelings of animosity and division for generations to come," Hussam Ayloush, the director of the Los Angeles CAIR office, wrote in a letter signed by Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs of the Progressive Faith Foundation, Sydney Levy of Jewish Voice for Peace and Rabbi Haim Beliak of Jews on First. (MORE)
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SOUTH FLORIDA MUSLIMS USE BUS ADS, HOTLINE TO COUNTER "OBSESSION" DVD CAMPAIGN - TOPMiami New Times, 12/11/08
Remember when a copy of the DVD Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West -- a film decried as Christian propaganda that seems to suggest Islam leads to terrorism -- was included in a Sunday Herald? And we ripped the daily a new one for not initially explaining the controversial inclusion -- and then later ran an ad for the DVD ourselves (oops, our bad)?
Well, South Floridian Muslims sure do. And the local chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has launched a campaign to counter the propaganda. Perhaps you've noticed buses in Miami-Dade and Broward counties with ads reading, "Islam. Got Questions? Get Answers."
The listed number is for a hotline where experts on the religion answer any question a caller might have about Islam. CAIR has already run similar campaigns in Chicago and New York -- the above photo is of a Chicago bus -- and South Florida was chosen after Obsession was widely distributed here.
"You could say it's a very humble response in regards to Obsession," Altaf Ali, executive director of South Florida's CAIR chapter, told us this morning. The producers of that DVD spent $100 million distributing it nationwide, he says, but CAIR has used only $60,000, the majority of it from South Floridian donors, plastering this region's buses. "We thought there's a lot of misconceptions about Islam. We wanted to create an avenue for our fellow Americans to learn the truth about our religion." (MORE)
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VA. ISLAMIC CENTER TO JOIN INTERFAITH HOMELESS SHELTER PROGRAM - TOP
This winter, beginning December 2nd 2008, the Dar Al Hijrah Islamic Center is partnering with Volunteers for America and the Fairfax County Government to provide a warm, safe and caring place for the homeless in Northern Virginia. After searching for a house of worship to cover the missing nights in the schedule, Sandra (Sandy) S. Chisholm, Community Interfaith Liaison, Fairfax County Department of Systems Management for Human Services, came to Dar Al-Hijrah's Mohamed Abdelillah, Social Service chairman, and asked him to join the participating area churches in providing temporary overnight shelter for the homeless in Falls Church. Dar Al-Hijrah was quick to take up the call.
"The overnight shelter will be open every night during the winter months and members of our congregation will be providing breakfast for our homeless neighbors each morning, Islam teaches us that it is our duty to care for our neighbors" said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, who serves as Director of Outreach for the center.
Thornell Hancock, Volunteers for America's Development Specialist/Hypothermia Program Co-coordinator for the Bailey's Crossroads Community Shelter and his team will staff the area shelters with the help of community volunteers. Some of the homeless are "the working poor, they may be under-employed or just can't afford the rent in this area and wind-up homeless". says Mr. Hancock, "Some of just made the unfortunate 'life choices' ".
Those in need of shelter must register at Bailey's Crossroads Community Shelter, there they have dinner and then are taken the short van ride to the mosque or other sites. An array of social services, comprehensive health and employment services are provided throughout the night's program. "This program is designed to help people transition from homelessness into permanent housing," says Imam Johari. The program will run until the spring.
CONTACT: Imam Johari Abdul-Malik (202) 345-5233
Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center is one of the largest and most diverse Islamic Centers in the nation. We are committed to serve the community as a place of worship, education and social service.
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NV: A NEW REALITY FOR LAS VEGAS MUSLIMS - TOPPeter H. King, Los Angeles Times, 12/11/08
Masjid As-Sabur, sometimes called "the black mosque" by Las Vegas Muslims, sits on the backside of downtown, amid a mishmash of housing projects, run-down apartments and abandoned lots. Across the freeway looms the Lady Luck casino, its neon sign seeming to mock the neighborhood below.
There is nothing much lucky about this corner of the Crystal City, and a main thrust of the mosque's work involves trying to heal it, with food giveaways, free health clinics, demonstrations against crack houses and the like.
Nonetheless, a visit inside the gated mosque last Friday before prayers found the imam, one month after the fact, still glowing about the election of the nation's first black president.
"The election was everything everybody said it was," said Fateen Seifullah, the 40-year-old imam, or spiritual leader, an African American who spent his early years in the South. "It represents the apology African Americans have been waiting so long for."
In the month since, Seifullah went on, the election "has healed wounds that we didn't even know existed. We didn't know, some of us, that we were carrying that much baggage."
Seifullah offered no whiff of cynicism, struck not a single cautionary note. His unbridled enthusiasm was remarkable, as unexpected as it was informative. I had first met him five years ago in a different context, a more difficult moment. (MORE)
-----IL: HOLIDAYS BRING INCREASED DEMAND FOR GOAT MEAT - TOPWith the meat enjoyed by many immigrant cultures, butchers and farmers are racing to meet increasing want for goatsAntonio Olivo, Chicago Tribune, 12/11/08
As the holiday season hits full swing, immigrants are flocking to butcher shops, meatpacking plants and farms for the food they crave: goat.
Muslims who marked the three-day Eid al-Adha festival that ended Wednesday divided goat carcasses into portions of three—honoring the idea of sacrifice by feeding the poor as well as cooking up the sweetly pungent meat for their families.
Mexicans gearing up for Christmas are pulling out family recipes for birria goat stew. Jamaicans plan meals of jerked goat. And West Africans prepare to use imported burned skin goat to roast on spits or boil in pepper soup.
"There is no comparison!" said Abu Sibou, 42, of the African nation of Mauritania, as he held two sacks of goat meat outside a West Loop packing house. "This is the food we love."
Once a novelty in the Midwest, the demand for goat meat is skyrocketing in Illinois and nearby states, with immigrants from around the globe transforming a struggling livestock industry. (MORE)
-----YOUR SECOND MUSLIM LIFE - TOPZahed Amanullah, AltMuslim, 12/11/08
Looking for more out of your real world life? Finland's cleverly branded Muxlim, a network of English language social media sites, has launched a beta version of Muxlim Pal, a virtual world geared toward Muslims (and non-Muslims), similar to the popular interactive virtual world Second Life or The Sims computer games.
For those of you unfamiliar with virtual worlds (perhaps most of you under 30), these games allow you to adopt an online persona in the form of a customisable avatar in an interactive community with different meeting places, such as beaches, concert halls, and... erm, mosques. Muxlim Pal's Flash-based interface allows users to communicate with each other and perform a number of actions (walking, sitting, eating) that resemble everyday activities.
Muxlim Pal is in trial release only, meaning that functionality, graphics, and virtual space is limited, though a full version with expanded capabilities is expected next year as user input is incorporated. The site insists it is not religious, but rather aimed at promoting a "Muslim lifestyle," though there is obviously a link between the two. In the version online now, your avatar can stop what they're doing anywhere, roll out a prayer mat, and pray. (MORE)