For more on Baku, switch channels to HanifOnMedia. From here in Azerbaijan, the former Soviet republic, I see that my latest InterFaith21 essay, on the Dalai Lama’s message at Florida Atlantic University, is on tap back home in the new March edition of The Coastal Star.
There wasn’t space to mention my late blessed mother taking me to hear the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak years ago at then-Coppin State College in Baltimore. Or the numerous giants I took my own children to hear. But Tibet’s great Buddhist leader left me with good thoughts of what’s to come from the kids in whom he planted his seeds of compassion.
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Tags: Barack Obama·Chiara Lubich·Dalai Lama·Martin Luther King·W.D. Mohammed
February 10th, 2010 · Islam, Muslim
With gracious host Ron Arflin, Abbey Delray South's chaplain.
Georgetown Professor John Esposito’s DVD series laid great groundwork for good discussion with some delightful and inquisitive people. Aneesha and I helped bring to life his well-grounded perspective. We’re due back next week to Abbey Delray South, where last year I served on an excellent interfaith panel. Meanwhile here are some scenes:
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Tags: Abbey Delray South·Georgetown University·John Esposito
“I thought you might find this interesting,” said my friend Husam Amin of the documentary video he sent me. I think you might too. All kinds of insights.
Tags: CNN·Yvonne Ridley
The beautiful smiles of Delray Interfaith Clergy Association members Donna Brueggmann of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boynton Beach, and the Rev. Joanna Gabriel, Unity Church of Delray Beach.
Earlier I shared some scenes from Delray Beach’s 9th Annual Mayors Interfaith Prayer Breakfast. Below is my essay on the event from the new edition of The Coastal Star, which hits the streets in print tomorrow. Next up I hope to share observations on the Dalai Lama’s visit to our area. For now:
Pay it forward: message from Delray prayer breakfast.
It is a basic principle of people of faith that our Maker will judge all. So to suggest which was best among the prayers at a prayer program would be a fool’s errand. Better to report what touched this beneficiary of all the goodwill articulated during Delray Beach’s ninth annual Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast.
Tags: Delray Beach·Mayor Woody McDuffie·Rev. Dr. Waymon T. Dixon
February 2nd, 2010 · Interfaith
Americans in particular are way overdue to upgrade our faith literacy. Common Tables makes it easy. I thank the Rev. Joanna Gabriel for alerting me to the Interfaith eLerts that “arrive just before, and briefly explain the significance of, many of the world’s primary holy days.” It’s how many of us know a bit more today about Japan’s “indigienous, native religion,” Shinto, and its ancient Setsubun-Sai celebration set for Feb. 3. There’s an eLerts archive, and a pretty good blog too. Free, informative. Nicely done, Common Tables.
Tags: Common Tables·Interfaith eLerts·Setsubun-Sai·Shinto
“Last November the Malaysian government refused to release 10,000 Bibles it had seized because they contained the word Allah to refer to God…A few Muslims unfortunately went further and attacked churches, badly damaging some of them. Such actions are condemnable as they contradict normative Islam.”
Appreciation to my friend Imam Enrique Rasheed of Jacksonville for alerting me to this item (“Let ‘God’ be ‘God’!”) in an online publication, The American Muslim. The site is another readily available resource that clearly states — contrary to repeated statements by those who don’t know, and others who don’t want to know — that “Muslims Denounce Terror,” and that “Terror Has No Religion.”
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Tags: Bethesda-by-the-Sea·Dr. Parvez Ahmed·Hebrew Scriptures·Imam Abdul'Haq Muhammed·Ku Klux Klan·Malaysia·The American Muslim·Tom O'Brien
The theme was “Planning, Designing and Implementing Quranic Standards for Living in Model Communities.” Host Imam Hatim Hamidullah of Masjid Al-Haqq in Orlando (below left), and Imam Qasim Ahmed of Tampa, along with Imam Enriqe Rasheed of Jacksonville, led Saturday’s daylong Educational Session.
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Tags: Imam Abdul'Haq Muhammed·Imam Enrique Rasheed·Imam Hanif Khalil·Imam Hatim Hamidullah·Imam Qasim Ahmed
My Dear Friend Mercedes, of the worldwide Christian movement the Focolare, shared this “Diary of a Buddhist” item. I am compelled to do the same. Folks constantly hear me expressing gratitude for the Focolare, for their late foundress Chiara Lubich, and for their Spirituality of Unity. The item below, from a Focolare Asia Tour blog, may again show why — and why I find myself appending Mercedes’ “1″ to my own messages. I love hearing my own spirituality coming back to me in others’ words. And no one I know lives Spirituality and Unity better than the Focolare:
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Mistress of ceremonies Liz Quirantes (R), PBSC President Dennis Gallon, and the PBSC Troubadours onstage to perform "The Star Spangled Banner."
This morning promised yet another chamber of commerce day. But given the lingering coolness in the air, Palm Beach State College President Dennis Gallon made the right call to move the 11th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Breakfast inside the Duncan Theatre on the Lake Worth Campus. The former Palm Beach Community College also made another outstanding choice of keynote speaker. Sheila Johnson, whose credits include part owner of three professional sports teams, spoke in depth of the nexus of sacrifice and deep friendship between Dr. King and another great servant of humanity, Jackie Robinson.
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Tags: Dr. Dennis Gallon·Palm Beach State College·Sheila Johnson·Wendy Link
What a powerful story. Oh, and Branford Neely? What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.
Tags: Brandon Neely·Guantanamo·Ruhal Ahmed·Shafiq Rasul
