A tribute to Jesus on this Christmas;
This column is dedicated to Rev. Petra Weldes of the Center for Spiritual Living in Dallas. Some of my conversation with her inspired me to write this tribute to Jesus and what it means to be religious.
Continued:http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/12/tribute-to-jesus.html
My Notes:
The National Public Radio invited Rev. Angie Buchanan, a trustee of the Parliament of the World’s religions and Mike Ghouse as an individual to be on the air between 3-4 PM to talk about the Parliament event. It was a good interview and it will be available at http://www.wpr.org/hereonearth/ on Tuesday to download and listen to. Rev. Buchanan gave a wonderful analogy about religions being Islands and the need for the people in each Island to visit and build bridges.
I had a list of things I wanted to say, but due to the format of the interview, I just had to answer the questions they asked.
NPR’s “Here On Earth Program!”
Monday, December 21, 2009 : 3-4 PM
Live interview By Lori Skelton
With Rev. Angie Buchanan and Mike Ghouse
Here are my draft notes…. But the interview went little differently, all the things I wanted to say, could not be said. That is the nature of the Radio Talk Show. Please note I did not check for the grammar, it is simply my draft.
Mike – thank you so much for agreeing to be part of today’s program! These are the questions I know I will have, but I also know that once the audience calls in, the conversation can go in many directions – Lori.
1. Brief history of PWR, brief outline
1893 – Chicago – The first congress at the Columbian exposition
1988 – Formation of the council
1993 – Chicago
1999 – Cape Town, South Africa
2004 – Barcelona, Spain
2007 – Universal forum of cultures – Monterrey, Mexico
2009- Melbourne Australia
The Parliament was created in 1893 – Refer to the document
“The Parliament of Religions is undoubtedly the most noteworthy event of modern times. It has stirred the spirits, stimulated mental growth, and given direction to man’s further evolution. It is by no means an agnostic movement, for it is carried on the wings of a religious faith and positive certainty.” –Paul Carus, 1893
IFAPA announced as the recipient of the 2009 Paul Carus Award
“Interfaith Action for Peace in Africa,” an organization formed in 2002 that brings together representatives from African Traditional Religions, Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews, has been named the recipient of the Paul Carus Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Interreligious Movement by the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.
“IFAPA,” the acronym by which the award-winning group is best known, “models in a creative way, the peace-making potential of the growing interreligious movement,” said Rev. Dr. William E. Lesher, Chair of the Council’s Board of Trustees. “The organizations comprehensive, representing the major religions of Africa and also geographically significant with a continent-wide reach and concern,” he said. IFAPA’s most public activity has been in the area of conflict resolution, having sent interfaith delegations to Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, North and South Sudan and Togo over the last decade. Other IFAPA activities include a women’s project called, “A Mother’s Cry for a Healthy Africa,” and a water project in rural Rwanda.
2) Who attends…how are they chosen?
We invite individuals and communities who are equally invested in attaining the goal – Which was to cultivate harmony among the world’s religious and spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
3) Where was the last Parliament before this one held, what were key themes, did they carry over to this Parliament?
Barcelona, Spain
The theme was same – to to cultivate harmony among the world’s religious and spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
4) Themes of this Parliament
Hearing each other and healing the earth –
Religious harmony, inclusion of the indigenous peoples, women’s rights, women clergy, homosexuality, apostasy, environment and other issues
Giving the space to every human on this planet and hearing them out.
5) How was the city of Melbourne engaged in participating?
It is not only the City, the Australian Government, the State of
Victoria, the City of Melbourne, and the convention center.
The Governor, the Mayor, MP’s attended the event.
6) What is needed to set up interfaith dialogs?
What are some obstacles? How do you measure progress?
First let me talk about the origins of issue – The needs for the dialogue stems from the problems we have and identified with religion.
The problems of the world are ascribed to religion, The crusades, inquisition, missionizing, conversions, holocaust, genocides – Traditionally religion has been ascribed to all the destruction and death… including the 9/11 horror.
Justice gives birth to peace, one feels secure….
Religion is not the source of the Problem, and that is one of the reasons to dialogue.
The deliberate mistranslation of some 60 verses of Quraan to paint Muslims wrong for their own gains: – need to be known.
To be religious is to mitigate conflicts and nurture good will, and the purpose of religion is bring a social, psychological, spiritual and a moral balance to an individual and what surround him or her; life and matter.
7) How do you respond to the notion that “Yes, there are global problems and organized religion is one of them?”
This is one of the biggest misunderstandings we have to over come –
Our Law books
Nuclear Power
Religion
In the United States roughly 1% of the population is in Jails, but the 99% is not, 1.5 Million traffic tickets are given each year, the 199.5 Million don’t get it. Are the law books wrong or the individuals?
Nuclear power lights up Melbourne, the same power in the hands of Bullies can annihilate Baghdad or Kabul and wipe out the civilizations.
Is the problem with New-Clear power or the individuals who abuse it?
When holy books are misinterpreted, is it the book or the individuals?
It is time we blame the wrong doers and not the Religion, blaming religion is escaping from finding the justice, where as finding the culprit individual can bring justice and find solutions.
Religions do not commit murder, bomb Iraq or the twin towers, individuals do and kill 3000 to a Million people.
8) President Carter was a guest speaker; members of the Obama administration were on hand, were other governments represented? How do you engage with government officials and what are they seeking from you?
It is our duty to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our responsibility to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it. We have an obligation to maintain a balance in the society. When we are at peace, we can generate peace and we can expect peace around us. Our words and actions should mitigate conflicts and nurture reconciliation and goodwill.
9) What are your next steps?
Ask not what the Parliament can do for you, instead, ask yourselves, what you can to to cultivate harmony among the world’s religious and spiritual communities and foster their engagement with the world and its guiding institutions in order to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
Sister City programs, take the programs to every City
The international Summit on indigenous people is coming up in 2010
The International Summit on Indigenous Environmental Philosophy will provide a forum for Indigenous thinkers from around the world to gather in a retreat setting to discuss two important questions: – What distinguishes Indigenous Environmental Philosophy from Western Environmental Philosophy? – How should Indigenous Environmental Philosophy be incorporated in the international dialogue on Climate Change?
http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2009/12/indigenous-environmental-summit-2010.html
Programs like “experience the religion” will be initiated in February 2010, comprising ten workshops on the 3rd Sunday of every month
We have to find balance for the society, when others safety is considered, our own safety is guaranteed.
10) How can others become involved?
Log on to http://www.peacenext.org/ and
http://www.parliamentofreligions.org/
and get involved.
Mike Ghouse
~~~
December 3 – December 9, 2009
I want to thank the Memnosyne Foundation and the founder Mary Ann Thompson-Frenk for sponsoring my trip to the Parliament of Worlds Religions in Melbourne, Australia. I really appreciate it. It was an experience of life time.
Dr. Harbans Lal’s continuous encouragement and support was incredible, I am grateful to him to make the attendance meaningful and successful. I thank my friend Adil Khan for being persistent that I should go when I was debating otherwise due to time, school work and the work and other constraints. Yasmeen and my kids Jeff/Fern and Mina kept up with me while I was getting up at 6 AM and stayed until 11 PM daily at the conference center.
Paul Carus award
My gratitude goes to friends who nominated me for the prestigious Paul Carus award including Dr. Harbans Lal, Dr. Basheer Ahmed, Phyllis Curott, Imam Feisal, Rev. Angie Buchanan and Rev. Bill Matthews to carry out the work of building bridges. The encouragement from Eboo Patel, Sada Cumber and Mary Ann is appreciated as well. I have written updates on the Facebook as well as my random diary at http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/
I was one of the nominees for the award and fortunately, the award went to the most deserving to IAPA, “Interfaith Action for Peace in Africa,” an organization formed in 2002 that brings together representatives from African Traditional Religions, Baha’is, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews for their outstanding contributions to the Interreligious Movement by the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.
IFAPA
“IFAPA,” the acronym by which the award-winning group is best known, “models in a creative way, the peace-making potential of the growing interreligious movement,” said Rev. Dr. William E. Lesher, Chair of the Council’s Board of Trustees. “The organization is comprehensive, representing the major religions of Africa and also geographically significant with a continent-wide reach and concern,” he said. IFAPA’s most public activity has been in the area of conflict resolution, having sent interfaith delegations to Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, North and South Sudan and Togo over the last decade. Other IFAPA activities include a women’s project called, “A Mother’s Cry for a Healthy Africa,” and a water project in rural Rwanda.
2014 Dallas
Tatiana Androsov was joined in by Rev. Bill Matthews and Mike Ghouse in placing Dallas for the 2014 Parliament venue. We had meetings with the Parliament executives to discuss about the viability of bringing the event to Dallas. We will be competing with Phoenix, Los Angeles, Bali, Istanbul and Bangkok. The program in Melbourne was borne by the Australian Government, The state of Victoria and the City of Melbourne. I feel positive about it, but we have to do the work and among several organizations in Dallas, we have the combined experience to put an event.
I am delighted that the Parliament gave ample time to the indigenous people from Americas, Africa, India, Indonesia, Australia, Fiji, Philippines, Japan and other areas. We needed to do that and am glad it happened, that really made me happy to acknowledge the ones, who were hitherto ignored by the society.
The theme of the parliament was “hearing each other and healing the earth” and the conference lived up to its theme by including every possible representation of humanity.
Thank you.
Mike Ghouse
~~~
Obama’s Blunder on War
President Obama is wrong in this instance
Congressman Kucninich’ note is a piece of wisdom
Only those who are incapable of a dialogue, only those who are short sighted secure their security through war because that is the only instrument they can understand. I am utterly disappointed in the president for lowering himself to appease the Neocons.
Neocons do not understand the nature of peace. To them peace comes when you oppress the dissenters, or annihilate them altogether. When you inflict suffering on others, the law of Karma goes to work, and brings insecurity and fear in you for the wrongs you have done.
Just war is a deranged ideology, it justifies the animal in humans to murder and annihilate, the president needs to understand religion, any and every religion and the idea of co-existence, to raise above animal instincts of survival.
We are the most powerful nation on the earth, and we should not be abusing it, our power gives us the power to bring peace through peaceful means.
There is a Chinese saying – if you want to eliminate the enemy spend half as much time and money and make them friends. War creates bitterness and insecurity, friendship removes enmity in the long run.
President Obama – you are a religious man, please reflect upon seeking peace through peace and not from bullying. Your and my mentor Martin Luther King has demonstrated that, please don’t get big headed… have the humility to accept your goof up and make a turn around and earn the respect of the world and resist the temptations to be Bush.
Thank you.
Mike Ghouse
# # #
Congressman Kucinich’s Response to President Obama’s “Just War” Doctrine
WASHINGTON – December 11 – “Yesterday, our president mused about the inevitability of war, war’s instrumentality in the pursuit of peace and just wars. It is important for us to reflect on his words, because once we believe in the inevitability of war, war becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Once we are committed to war’s instrumentality in pursuit of peace, we begin the Orwellian journey to the semantic netherworld where War IS Peace, where the momentum of war overwhelms hopes for peace. And once we wrap doctrines perpetuating war in the arms of justice, we can easily legitimate the wholesale slaughter of innocents. The war against Iraq was based on lies. Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan are based on flawed doctrines of counter-insurgency. War is often not just; sometimes it is just war. And our ability to rethink the terms of our existence, to explore the possibility of peace without war, may well determine whether we end war, or war ends us.”
URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/12/11
Ismaili Muslims in Dallas
I read criticism of the Dallas Morning News every so often, we need to applaud them as well for the work they do in bringing the spectrum of Dallas to us. I have met with the editorial staff and genuinely applaud them to include every possible community of Dallas in their pages.
The concept of one nation under God, that we take pledge so frequently needs to be understood thoroughly. It is one of the most unifying and pluralistic phrase that we use in our daily life. God belongs to all of us and he is at the helm of continuance of our existence.
To me, it means, that we have to think, talk and act as one nation, no matter what race, faith, ethnicity or culture we are from, we are under the same umbrella. Our Atheist friends can take comfort that God in this context means, the causer of the big bang, instigator of evolution process, and the creator for those of us who are theists.
I laud the Ismaili Muslims and every ethnic and immigrant American community for the effort they make to be a part of the American story, to be a part of the American society – contributors towards enriching American tapestry. Thank you Dallas Morning News
Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/
Carrollton program lets Ismaili Muslim parents, kids share learning experience
07:49 AM CST on Thursday, December 10, 2009
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/121009dnmetismaili.3c42e82.html
By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News dsolis@dallasnews.com
CARROLLTON – Class springs to attention with the Pledge of Allegiance. Five-year-old Saniya Khoja takes the lead, twirling a red-white-and-blue flag the size of a napkin. Little ones with hands over hearts recite “… one nation under God, with liberty and justice for all.” Then, Saniya and her classmates sing “Are You Sleeping, Brother John?” Voices rise in Arabic greetings. Mothers and a few fathers join in harmony.
Asad Bhimani (right) works with his mother, Asfia Bhimani, on spelling while Sinaan Bardaie (left) and his mother, Rozeen R. Ali, team up on the lesson at the Learning Center for Parents and Children in Carrollton. ” style=”CURSOR: hand” onclick=”return clickedImage(this);” height=120 alt=”Photos by JEFFREY PORTER/DMN” src=”http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/img/v3/12-10-2009.NMC_10ismaili_MAIN1.GJO2O1HJE.1.jpg” width=175 jQuery1260570930058=”7″>
Photos by JEFFREY PORTER/DMN Asad Bhimani (right) works with his mother, Asfia Bhimani, on spelling while Sinaan Bardaie (left) and his mother, Rozeen R. Ali, team up on the lesson at the Learning Center for Parents and Children in Carrollton.
This is an after-school program for Ismaili Muslim children in Carrollton at their social and spiritual center, known as a jamatkhana. And the program emphasizes an essential that public schools have tried to inspire for decades: parental involvement.
“This is the secret sauce,” said Gulzar Babool, the national program director for the Ismaili Learning Center for Parents and Children. “It is what makes it successful.”
The program at the Learning Center for Parents and Children emphasizes early literacy and school readiness and “empowers mothers to assimilate in this community,” Babool said.
Ismailis are a minority within the Shia sect of the broader Muslim world of 1.5 billion. And Ismailis are 10,000 strong in North Texas.
The program is a fusion of traditional and Montessori teaching methods. Montessori methods generally are characterized by the absence of tests and grades and allow for small group instruction.
The Ismaili program places an emphasis on exercise, including yoga, and teaches children Spanish as an additional language. The program takes children ages 3 to 6 years old with at least one parent willing to commit to stay in the classroom with the child.
“They walk with a lot more confidence,” Babool said of the children. “They speak very well. They can talk to older people, as well as their peers.”
Saniya, for example, eyes a photographer taking a photo of her. When he’s finished, she insists on taking the photographer’s notebook so she may spell her name correctly.
In the school’s “discovery” center, a theater of the imagination, she wraps herself in a costume of the adult world. She chooses to be a chef, puts on an apron and poofy white hat at a play stove.
In another classroom, a child is asked to name an object taken from a plastic bin. He looks at it, and, in Urdu, says “chapal.” The class is taught in English.
“Yes, sandals,” the teacher says gently. The little boy runs to embrace his father, who’s seated on the floor and within easy grasp.
“You should never push the child because that diminishes the love of learning,” Babool says quietly to visitors.
Parents can take an extra push, though. In another class, teacher Rukhsana Hussain makes sure mothers stay focused. “OK, Mommies, are you writing it down so you can emphasize it at home?”
In Carrollton, the annual cost for the program is $225 per child. The education program has spread to a dozen other spiritual and social centers of Ismaili Muslims in the United States. Ismaili centers in Plano and Euless have similar programs
Other immigrant groups run after-school programs, such as the Chinese and Koreans. Ismaili Muslim adults are largely immigrant, too, but come from countries as diverse as Pakistan, Tanzania, India and Kenya. That poses more challenges.
So, in Carrollton, at the oldest of four North Texas jamatkhanas, the program has attracted interest and praise within the local school district because of the strong parental link.
“Parents are the first teachers,” says Sanil Sheriff, an elementary teacher in Carrollton. “The earlier you get the parent and child involved, the better. Can you imagine if we could do that more in public schools? That is why we all support PTAs.”
Amynah Juma, a Lewisville nurse attending class with her daughter, said her child Irsya views homework as something to devour, like dessert.
“She is all excited about LCPC homework,” Juma says. “I think it is more because I spend time with her.”
Rahim Shamsuddin runs a barbecue franchise, a demanding job with long hours. But this night, the 40-year-old Pakistani immigrant sits on the floor with his son, who is mapping the United States in miniature.
“I am learning with my son,” he says, “and I like it.”
On the bulletin board is yet another lesson plan from a Saturday school at the jamatkhana. “Poverty/Unemployment. How is it a threat to humanity? How does it destroy human life? How can we defeat it? With the help of what institution?”
The answer is the Aga Khan Development Network, the bulletin board reads.
Despite their small numbers within the Muslim world, Ismailis have a high profile. It’s due partly to the globetrotting ways of their English-speaking, Harvard-educated leader, known as Aga Khan, and the network’s philanthropy of development agencies focused largely on Asia and Africa.
The network includes a U.S. division, the Washington-based Aga Khan Foundation, which listed nearly $188 million in assets in its 2008 filing with the Internal Revenue Service. Each year, Ismailis hold a local charity event, the Dallas Partnership Walk. It raised $550,000 in September.
In October, Aga Khan visited with Texas Gov. Rick Perry to ink an agreement that would expand cultural, health, natural disaster and education exchanges.
“He [Aga Khan] believes education is the most important thing,” Babool says. If you are hit by a disaster, you can rebound with a good education, she says, paraphrasing the Ismaili leader.
“He says that if you have nothing left and you have a good, educated mind, you can start all over.”
ABOUT ISMAILI MUSLIMS
•15 million followers within a Muslim community of 1.5 billion; 10,000 in North Texas
•A minority sect within the Shia branch of Islam
•Spiritual leader since 1957: Karim Aga Khan, who is considered the 49th imam and a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad
•Accomplishment: the Aga Khan Development Network, a philanthropy of development agencies largely focused on Asian countries such as Afghanistan and African countries such as Tanzania
•Notable quote of Aga Khan: “We are often told that increased contact among cultures will inevitably produce a ‘clash of civilizations,’ particularly between Islam and the West. … The true problem we face is what I would call a ‘clash of ignorance.’ ”
SOURCE: Dallas Morning News research
Today’s hightlight was walking in the rain forest near Melbourne, it was an incredible experience of the serenity, the melody of birds cooing and the tranquility of the place… it was indeed uplifiting, and the smell of the flowers, eucalyptus and the sounds of bristling leaves was very very invogarating. May be this how it would fell in the elusive Paradise.
Visited the 12 apostles – 12 upright 100′ diameter mud hills raising straight up from the ocean close to the cliff-lined shores.
Mailed post cards to Yasmeen, Jeff/Fern, Mina/Tim, Adil/Nosheen and Everett/Lilly from a town returning from the Rain Forest.
The Dallas Muslims are pleased not only to visit the Museum, but the first ones in the world to commemorate the Holocaust for the third year now. We all have to learn to share the grief and joys of humanity, we have to fall the old political lines and come to gether on a greater purpose of looking to each other as God’s creation.
The Muslim initiative will bring the 3rd Annual reflections on Holocaust and Genocides on Sunday, January 24, 2010. You are invited to participate www.HolocaustandGenocides.com on 24th, followed by the event on 26th and the Holocaust Museum. I say to Jews, you are not alone my friends, we are with you.
Mike Ghouse
Dallas News:http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/120909dnmetholocaust.337b113ee.html
Dallas Holocaust Museum chooses downtown real estate executive as CEO
01:40 PM CST on Wednesday, December 9, 2009
By BRUCE TOMASO / The Dallas Morning News
btomaso@dallasnews.com
The Dallas Holocaust Museum has selected Alice Murray, a longtime downtown real estate executive, as its chief executive officer.
Murray, who has served as president and CEO of DowntownDallas and the Downtown Improvement District, assumes the newly created post at the museum effective immediately, said Jim Hogue, president of the museum’s board of directors.
Alice Murray
At the request of the board, Elliott Dlin, the current executive officer of the museum, will assume the new title of museum director, focusing on educational, archival and other content-related programs.
The museum — formally known as the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance — is currently housed at 211 N. Record Street in downtown Dallas. It has purchased land for new quarters at Houston Street and Pacific Avenue, adjacent to the Sixth Floor Museum. Planning for a fund-raising campaign to make that move possible is under way, according to the museum.
Dlin will concentrate in part on preparing for the move, Hogue said.
“When the new museum is built, we want it to be recognized as the finest teaching museum in the region, if not the country,” he said.
Murray said of her new job, “I am thrilled, honored and excited to have the opportunity to work with the museum board and staff to take the museum to its next level, especially the construction of a new museum.
“The museum’s mission — to teach the moral and ethical response to prejudice, hatred and indifference — is unduplicated in its importance for all residents of our city and region.”
As a real estate developer, Murray was responsible for the remodeling of the historic Kirby Building on Main Street, which is now residences. She also worked on finishing out the W Dallas Victory Hotel and Residences.
In addition to her volunteer work with DowntownDallas, she has served on the executive committees of the State Fair of Texas and the Trinity Commons Foundation. She was a member of the Mayor’s Task Force on Homelessness from 2004 to 2006.
Founded 25 years ago in the basement of the Dallas Jewish Community Center in North Dallas, the museum moved downtown in 2005. More than 55,000 people, including about 40,000 schoolchildren and their teachers, visit every year.
I was going to visit the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, as it is kind of sacred to me, but decided not to go anyplace as showing my cocern to fellow earthians from the native traditions. I was very committed to the development of Cricket in North Texas and I have done my share as President and recepient of the recognition for the best overall development of Cricket in the Americas.
~~~
Summary of the Parliament visit
I am pleased to share some random notes from the Parliament of World’s relgions. I had 3 presentations and was a moderator for two programs and attended 4 programs a day for seven days.
About 8,000 people, 250 religious traditions, people from 110 countries attended the event. It was so good to see the native people of Australia, Americas, Africa and Oceanic countries were given prominence. I met with several of the people and visiting them this Sunday in their nations within Australia.
It was a pleasure to meet all the big names in Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Jews, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, Wiccan, Pagan and Native traditions. Met with SriSri Ravi Shankar, Amma, Mihir Meghani, Many a Swamijis, Dalai Lama, Bhai Avatar Singh, Dr. Taranjit Butalia, Dr. Tariq Ramadan, Phyllis Curott, Angie Buchanan, Uncle Max (Native), Imam Feisal, Native Clarke, Dr. Muzaffar, Dr. Kaziwini, Dr. Quraishi, Imam Moujahid, Rabbi Lerner, Rabbi Rosen and several Rabbis… Iftekhar Hai….the list is quite big and it was a pleasure that they read my articles. The president of Islamic Association of the State of Victoria, Ahmed Rehab was a great host.
Imam Abul Malik Moujahid
Dr. Imam Moujahid is elected as the chair person of the Parliament of World’s religion, it a great honor for Muslims for him to be honored with this position. This is one of the well respected bodies. It is all about Pluralism and co-existence.