If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
As an American, and as a Muslim, I have found an antidote in strategies and programs that presents an alternative to vilification, a third way toward peace-building and reconciliation.
We need not look far to find the Ravanas of our time... They are us -- at our weakest, basest, and grossest; people of faith, in our darkest moments of hypocrisy.
Having observed the 9/11 anniversary this week, it's worthwhile to pause and recall the multiple significances of September 11th, the birthdays and anniversaries that remind us of life and hope amidst tragedy.
We have made it through the commemorations of the last 10 years and perhaps we can now say that we will never forget. But first, a traffic light to guide us as we become a 9/12 community.
Ever since September 11, I've been asking myself: How does a vision of Christ who has embraced all, including Muslims, influence the way I relate to other people today?
It is my hope that through this blessing practice we can remind ourselves that this is what it feels like to love. This is what it feels like to know peace.
I now look back to that time and that mentality and realize that, while evil most certainly exists, it takes on its greatest form when we so cavalierly ascribe it to those we perceive as different from us.
St. Nicholas Church was founded by Greek immigrants in 1916 and served generations of families and their spiritual needs. Eighty-five years after its founding, the church was destroyed by the falling Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
It is our prayer that this document might be helpful to others in strengthening their commitment to religious pluralism, to justice, and to the healing of our broken and beautiful world.
The Psalms are poems -- and indeed they are exquisite -- but I'm sorry the President wasn't able to keep God out of it. The names of the 3,000 dead would have been sermon and poem enough.
There were few physical similarities among the kids and their experiences -- cultural, social, familial -- were divergent as well. Yet, they shared a common denominator: their birth year, 2001.
Treating world citizenship as a family value can help avoid the crisis mentality parents experienced after 9/11, when, on top of our own fears and insecurities, we suddenly needed to talk to our kids about the world.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, Muslim Americans have spent good amount of our time and resources praying, preaching and marching for peace. Still, Anxiety about Muslim Americans is at an all-time high.
"First you bomb us and now you come suck our blood. What are you gonna do with it, drink it?" These were the words of a young man as I asked people to donate to a 9/11 memorial blood drive.
This year, American-Muslims go on the offensive. Terrorists drew first blood a decade ago. A decade later, American Muslims will draw first blood -- their own -- to save innocent life and take back Islam.
9/12 has its own place in our contemporary times. This was the day when we started having to actively convince people that we were Americans.
