Lost in the furor over the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero is a simple fact: The opposition to the center is the strongest argument in favor of it going right where it is planned. By most accounts, much of the opposition is based on an inaccurate conflation of Islam with terrorism, stemming from ignorance about the Muslim religion, culture and people. While troubling, this is hardly surprising in a nation in which a significant minority of Americans believe that our Christian president is Muslim (and so what if he were?).

Jones, a public affairs and government relations strategist, and former executive director of the National Urban League Policy Institute from 2005 to 2010, is refreshingly clear:

Exiling the center to another part of Manhattan will expand and deepen the gulf between the Islamic community and its neighbors. The best way to bridge this gap is to help people understand that their trepidation is based not in reality but born of a myth that has been cruelly exploited. The Islamic cultural center can help span this chasm.

Of course, it’s not fair to expect a minority community to educate the majority, especially when the majority is so hostile to it. Sadly, minorities have long shouldered the burden of proving to the majority that they pose no threat, that they are not inferior and that they, too, deserve everything the majority takes for granted as its due — while patiently enduring misunderstanding and even abuse. They do all this in the face of demands that they are going too fast, pushing too hard and making life too uncomfortable for others.

That was the case in 1963 when white ministers in Birmingham, Ala., accused Martin Luther King Jr. of exacerbating racial tensions by leading protests against the city’s segregation laws. They called his actions “unwise and untimely.” Dr. King responded with his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” in which he wrote: “Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct-action campaign that was ‘well timed’ in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ “

Perhaps because I am a longtime professional news journalist, including the world’s longest serving news ombudsman, I have long seen this as a sad media story, as indicated by recent posts. But we should note that some news organizations, having been swiftboated again by the far-right, are trying to catch up. Also from WaPost:

Mosque debate: New Yorkers take dim view of rabble-rousing outsiders

The story even has this from Republican Rep. Peter King:

“When people say it’s a battle between cultures or it’s about the violence in the Koran, I never buy any of that. You can find as much of that in the Old Testament and the New Testament; for me that is not the issue at all.”

Also Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler:

“It’s only a slap in the face if you think that the people in the congregation are responsible for al-Qaeda,” Nadler said as he sat in his office, where outdated posters, some featuring the Twin Towers, hung on the wall.

A staunch defender of Israel, Nadler said that it is logical that he is fighting for the rights of a Muslim congregation that he said he might very well vehemently disagree with. “Jews, of all people, should know that we have to support religious liberty,” he said. “Because if you can block a mosque, you can block a synagogue…

“I tend to think that Sarah Palin probably doesn’t [understand the Constitution],” Nadler said. “I think that Newt Gingrich is a very bright man; he probably understands it, at least intellectually. But he doesn’t agree with it or care about it enough to avoid trashing the Constitution for political advantage.”

With regard to the Cordoba Initiative’s Manhattan community center: Aside from the fact that, as someone noted, we Americans do not want government (much less Palin or Gingrich) dictating whether we can build houses of worship that are properly zoned, the New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg underscored some essential but sadly overlooked elements:

Ah, the “Ground Zero mosque.” Well, for a start, it won’t be at Ground Zero. It’ll be on Park Place, two blocks north of the World Trade Center site (from which it will not be visible), in a neighborhood ajumble with restaurants, shops (electronics, porn, you name it), churches, office cubes, and the rest of the New York mishmash. Park51, as it is to be called, will have a large Islamic “prayer room,” which presumably qualifies as a mosque. But the rest of the building will be devoted to classrooms, an auditorium, galleries, a restaurant, a memorial to the victims of September 11, 2001, and a swimming pool and gym. Its sponsors envision something like the 92nd Street Y—a Y.M.I.A., you might say, open to all, including persons of the C. and H. persuasions.

Or as reported by Ericka Werner:

The group behind the $100 million project, the Cordoba Initiative, describes it as a Muslim-themed community center. Early plans call not only for prayer space but for a swimming pool, culinary school, art studios and other features. Developers envision it as a hub for interfaith interaction, as well as a place for Muslims to bridge some of their faith’s own schisms.

Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of those killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks. Some of the Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, however, are in favor.

I suspect that one reason for the opposition from some folks still fighting the Crusades is that the center’s healing & reconciliation premise — indeed its very name — undermines the culture warriors by invoking the spirit of the 800-year period in Cordoba, Spain during which Jews, Christians and Muslims enjoyed unparalleled understanding and cooperation, and thrived together in a way the three Abrahamic faiths have not enjoyed since.

Michael Rowe may have said it best, in his “Thoughts on the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ and the Better Angels of Our Nature“:

The ugliest part of fear mongering is that the “they” and “them” being referred to are other Americans.

Last, for those who didn’t see, here’s Keith Olbermann. Also, Jon Stewart, nailing it all down better than any news organization yet, here, here and here.

— C.B. Hanif

First: We continue to pray for relief and the complete recovery of our dear Imam Dr. Nasir Ahmad, of Miami’s Masjid Al-Ansar,  from pneumonia complications.

Second, Miss Tee Jackson continues to deserve kudos for bringing people together with her Bible on the Beach sessions at dawn on Saturdays at the Lake Worth Municipal Beach. See the outline for last Saturday’s third of four planned sessions following the photos below. Once again it was good folks sharing the Good Word in a glorious ocean atmosphere.

There was even more good community life later as The International League of Muslim Women’s South Florida Chapter, of which my wife Aneesha is president, hosted another of their annual Pre-Ramadan Dinners, this time at Masjid Al-Ansar. Imam Nasir was sorely missed. But Imam Melton Mustafa, who also is battling illness, stepped in to help cap off a day of good universal vibrations and good company — not to mention the League members’ good food.

Next stop: the blessings of the fast of Ramadan.

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Bible on the Beach outline 8.7.10

Theme:  Exercise Your Faith

SESSION III Discipline, Repetition and Lunges

With any exercise regiment you have to be disciplined.  In order to reach your goal a set of repetitions are given.  Each day you must work those repetitions to get a different result. Your faith is like a muscle — it grows with exercise, gaining strength over time.

It takes exercise and effort to achieve spiritual faith.

_______________________________________________________

How is your Faith exercised?

Discipline: Before you start and exercise regiment you must decide if you are in it for the long haul.  Your mind must be made up that you will be committed to the cause to get the end results.  Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Repetitions: You have heard the saying, “Do it over and over until you get it right.” I remember when I was little as punishment for slamming the door when I was upset, my mother would make me go in and out of the door until she would tell me to stop.  The punishment for the crime was to teach me how I was supposed to use the door.   And guess what?  I got it. I Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray continually.”

Lunges: Lunge into your purpose.  Get involved.  When God reveals something in Christian service that needs to be done do it!  Don’t let anyone stop you, give it all you got.  The end result is watching the Holy Spirit work through you.  “The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all”   — I Corinthians 12:7.

References: Excerpts from Turning Points Dr. David Jeremiah, Holy Bible NIV

For more knowledgeable folks, it’s always interesting to hear Muslim-bashers try to define what “true Muslims believe.” As their misinformation campaign continues losing traction, the haters become even more desperate for attention — just like other extremists. And it becomes clearer that, thanks largely to our clueless, lazy if not exploitative so-called news media on such matters, plenty of folks simply have little familiarity with Islam and Muslims (and most minorities, religious or non) beyond the stereotypes, while others, still fighting the Crusades, just don’t want to know.

Part of the shame is that such meanspirited pastors not only do true Christians a disservice. They also ill serve the wonderful teacher revered in the Quran as a Word from our Creator, and in whose path sincere Christians try to walk. I know innumerable of the latter as my friends, teachers, fellow human beings and brothers and sisters in faith in the Maker of all.

WWJD? According to the Bible that genuine Christians try to follow, he said love thy neighbor — not burn his book.

— 30 —

Great daybreak class this morning at the Lake Worth Municipal Beach led by Tee Jackson, a wonderful teacher sharing universal principles from her Christian perspective:

“Some of us lift weights, watch our diets religiously and spend countless hours in the gym. Do we display that same determination in our spiritual lives? Do we have that same zeal for exercising our minds, soul and spirit? Since none of us can become godly by osmosis, we need to learn to exercise our faith. It takes exercise and effort to achieve spiritual faith.”

It is from her dedicated work helping ladies on behalf of the Women’s Circle (see here, here and here) that I know “Miss Tee,” as we call her.  When she told me about her 6:00 to 7:30 a.m. gathering, I was determined to support her effort. (Of course, the beach setting didn’t hurt.)

Tee, joined by her friends Gilda, Janice and Carolyn, started off with physical stretching exercises, and ended with a walk along the beach. In between, during her brief session on “How is your Faith exercised?”,  Tee cited scriptural passages and plainspoken wisdom while working through concepts of “Warming Up” (Matt. 7.7), “Stretching” (Luke 5:4) and “Walking” (Matt. 4:4).

“Stretch out on faith,” Tee Jackson counseled in that segment of her presentation. “As I prepared for this first ‘Bible on the Beach’ I had no idea who would come out or if anyone would come but, because of my past experiences of seeing God’s blessings for my faithfulness, I said, ‘Yes Lord I’ll go if I have to go alone.’ In Luke 5:4 we read the story of the disciples who had fished all night long and had no catch. Then Jesus came along and said to them to launch out into the deep and drop your net.”

I left the ocean sounds and breeze energized and inspired. More scenes:

— 30 —

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.”

The publication also refers readers to “a lengthy collection of Muslim denunciations of terrorism, extremism and violence.” It includes “collections of responses to claims about Islam and Muslims, resources about Islamophobia, and general resources on many topics.”

In short, it’s another of the readily available resources that the professional haters, and too many of my colleagues in the news media, in academia and elsewhere, prefer to claim don’t exist, as they focus attention instead on the relatively few extremists, and the even fewer violent extremists among those, who act in contradiction of the Quran, which is unmistakable in stating that:

“Whoever kills a human being, it is as if he killed all mankind. And whoever saves the life of one, it is as if he saved all mankind” (5:32).

Imam Enrique’s e-mail grabbed my attention because the Malaysia subject came up last week during my excellent Bible class at the Episcopal Church of Bethesda-By-The-Sea, where Tom O’Brien currently is guiding us to better understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.

To hear of Malaysian officials snatching people’s Bibles for using “Allah,” as Arabic-speaking Christians obviously do, and as others the world over routinely translate the Arabic for “God,” sounded patently absurd; inconsistent with reason or common sense. Not to mention a contradiction of the Quran, which prescribes:

“Let there be no compulsion (my italics) in matters of religion” (2:256).

I can’t offer enough appreciation for our Bible class, of which O’Brien says: “The art for us is to find that which is timeless and integrate it into our lives.”

Following the logic of a few misguided folks in Malaysia and elsewhere, however, a Muslim should not be allowed to benefit from such a class. To the contrary, I’m a beneficiary of the growth among many in my country who have left that kind of bigotry behind.

To offer a critique of the excellent essay by my friend Dr. Parvez Ahmed and his co-author, it seemed their piece might have communicated better had it been a bit less academic.

“Normative Islam”? I can see Muslim and non-Muslim eyes glazing over on that one. Among the article’s various descriptions for the “Ultimate Listener,” the “one Possibility,” and the references to the fact that “we worship the same God,” I looked for one clearly recognizing that same God as — The Creator. The Maker — of all we know, and the infinite we don’t know. The One Who says in the Quran, in the chapter titled The Hajj:

“Those on Whom ye call other than God can never create as much as a fly, even if they combined together to do so. And if the fly should snatch anything away from them, they would have no power to recover it” (22:73).

My hopefully constructive criticism echoes the recent outstanding Islamic education session during which a noted imam observed that Muslims often ”don’t talk real enough, we’re talking lofty.”

The words were from Imam Abdul’Haq Muhammed of Ft. Myers, a widely recognized public servant and convener of the Florida Conference of Muslim Americans. Imam Haq, as we affectionately call him, urged that in our local communities we “speak real, talk real. Because people are not up there where we think we are.”

Thus the reminder for myself and others to do more plain talking. With that, let me affirm that I long ago got out of the judging business. The quote marks around “Muslims” in the title of this post are meant to emphasize that by definition, we cannot rationally claim a label that our actions contradict.

For example, in speaking to various groups on these kinds of issues, I often point out that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Ku Klux Klan, both claimed the Bible. Both claimed to be following the teachings of Jesus Christ, God’s great Word to humanity, upon whom observant Muslims pray Peace.

In that inconsistency is a reminder: that the One Who made us all is sufficient to judge who truly are Christians. And, similarly, who truly follow God’s revelation to humanity  in the Quran, as well as who is sincere to all the other labels we human beings claim.

(More I21 from The Coastal Star)

A different way of thinking about the Bible — namely through the lens of modern biblical scholarship informed by reason — is the premise of Thomas G. O’Brien III’s 15-week course at Bethesda-by-the-Sea. Each class is a treasure, thanks to his love of the richness of the Bible, his encyclopedic knowledge of its history and his depth of spiritual insight.

“He provides great information in an understandable way without talking down to us,” is how one classmate describes Discovering the Bible: Introduction to the New Testament. O’Brien conducts the two-hour classes on Monday evenings at the historic landmark Episcopal church, just south of The Breakers in Palm Beach.

The very information that might disturb some folks is what he considers the “gateway to a more profound and rewarding understanding of the Sacred,” and a source of meaning about ourselves, our relationships with others and with the rest of creation.

For example, he notes what can be learned from the recommended New Oxford Annotated Bible or other good study Bible, and Kerygma: Discovering the Bible, the workbook used in class: that the Bible is not a history book, science book or even a single book, but a collection of books — 39 in the Hebrew Scriptures and 27 in the Christian Scriptures. That it was written, edited and revised by numerous people over the 1,000-year period between 950 BCE and 150 CE.

“It is a theology book,” his course syllabus attests, “that uses story, poetic language, and metaphor to express truths that are difficult or impossible to express.”

Bethesda’s O’Brien is eminently qualified to put it all in context. After a 30-year corporate law career in New York City and Florida, the Notre Dame and Yale law graduate and former Navy officer earned an M.A. in theology, summa cum laude, from St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach.

He was an excellent student long before that, but, he said, “It was more important to my father, in grade school and in high school, that I won the religion medal, than that I won the general excellence or was valedictorian.”

A licensed lay preacher, honored for his work in interfaith understanding, O’Brien provided two illustrations of how the Bible can reveal itself and lend a stronger sense of meaning to our lives:

“One is the story of what Christians call the near-sacrifice of Isaac. What’s important to me in that story is not whether Abraham actually had a conversation with God in which God told Abraham to go take his only son whom he loved, whether in the Jewish-Christian tradition it was Isaac, or in the Muslim tradition it was Ishmael. What is important there to me is the theological insight that God, the Sacred, sometimes calls upon us to be willing to give up that which we regard as most dear, in order to move to a higher level of appreciation of the Sacred. That’s a story that really comes through to me.”

“In the Christian Scriptures is the story that we find in all of the Gospels about the baptism of Jesus, by John the Baptist. Again, whether or not that happened as a matter of history is not what’s really critical to me.

“What’s critical to me is that all of the Gospel writers understood clearly that Jesus of Nazareth was truly a human being, and that he did not seek to separate himself from other human beings. And all of the Gospel accounts, when they talk about Jesus’ baptism, have him participating with the mass of other people who are seeking, who are called by John’s message of repentance. And here Jesus is presented as someone who would have been a blameless young man, who nevertheless doesn’t separate himself from the mass of humanity, but instead plunges himself in with other human beings.

“That, it seems to me again, is another story, where whether or not the baptism was historical, whether it happened, that’s not what’s important. But the Gospel writers are seeking to convey the theological truth of Jesus’ humanity with us, and conveying that just as the conveying of Jesus’ death, his sharing with us something that all of us human beings have in common: We’re all going to die.

“And the fact that Jesus of Nazareth did die says he was one of us — he was truly a human being. Therefore our relationship with him is our relationship with another human being whose DNA we share.”

O’Brien cites Marcus J. Borg among the writers he’d recommend, including Reading the Bible Again For the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally, and Meeting Jesus Again For the First Time, the Heart of Christianity.

“Another person who has been very influential in terms of my spiritual thinking is Martin Smith. The books that I have read by Rowan Williams, who is the archbishop of Canterbury, like the book Resurrection, have had an influence on me. As an aside, I think Rowan Williams as a scholar and teacher does a much better job than Rowan Williams as the archbishop of Canterbury.”

Although he hasn’t rejected the idea of writing a book himself, for now “I feel that my teaching is how I connect most with people.” He has done that for the Palm Beach Fellowship of Christians and Jews, for Florida Atlantic University’s Lifelong Learning Society and elsewhere.

Tom O’Brien can be reached at tgobrien@comcast.net.

A full listing of the courses to be offered next year at Bethesda will be posted at www.bbts.org, he said. “My plan is to teach the Old Testament,” another free course which he alternates with the current one, “over a 15-week period starting next January.”

My classmates and I hardly can wait.

It’s like this, Humanity:

We’re not where we want to be.

But we ain’t where we was.

In today’s episode we visit more encouraging evidence.

One definition of interreligious dialogue is cooperation and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions.

Nobody does that better, in my experience, than the members of the Catholic lay movement known as the Focolare.

Consider the relations between Focolare members and their friends of other faith traditions, or even no faith tradition, around the world.

Eyebrows invariably rise when I mention that for decades, Focolare members have participated in constructive dialogue with other traditions, just as our Muslim community has under the leadership of “America’s Imam,” the late W. Deen Mohammed.

Moreover, for years in their cozy facility at the papal summer residence in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, the movement has hosted international meetings such as with the Muslim friends of the Focolare.

Last year my wife and I were among the American delegation invited to that meeting. (Here’s the Focolare photo slideshow from our sessions). As always is the case with the Focolare, we were treated like royalty. The only honorable response? To reciprocate even better. It’s all a reminder of how our Creator has ordained we should treat all our fellow human beings.

I’m hardly any great interfaith guru. But when the Golden Rule is expressed, whether in action, language, thought or spirit, I want to gravitate toward it, to share it, to keep the Good spreading. Thus, this InterFaith21 blog.

In addition to acknowledging my parents and countless others, I wouldn’t be here — in this spiritual place to which I have been blessed to grow — without the sacrifices of Imam Mohammed. His unique contributions include introducing our community to the late founder of the Focolare, the Blessed Lady Chiara Lubich, and to her community.

Although they both passed last year, we can see President Barack Obama following their lead. More of us should join in. Rather than arguing and disuniting over the relatively few items on which we (all too often strongly) disagree, let’s change the paradigm to focus first on unifying around the areas where we do agree.

It is in the spirit of learning from each other that I have come to know Focolare members on a local, national and now international level. We have joined countless others who are seeking in sincerity the best of our common human inheritance. “That all may be one,” is how Chiara often expressed the sentiment found in the Bible, Quran and other holy books.

I often have described my dear Focolare friends as followers of Jesus who truly live what that great teacher, on whom we pray peace and blessings, talked and walked.

Recently a friend overheard my description, and identified them even more succinctly: “Gen-u-wine Christians.”