“With reference to a saying of the Holy Prophet, your Imam calls attention to the fact that Muslims are to contribute to the wholesomeness of Christian religious holiday festivals. An indication of the Muslim role in promoting respect for wholesome and sacred celebrations is found in the teaching of Prophet Muhammed, which prohibits arbitrary fasting during the holidays of people of the Book. The purpose serves to preserve and to promote solemn respect for G-d and for the sacred devotion of all people.”

My thoughts in that spirit, in my latest Florida Weekly commentary:

“We need no labels to reflect on traditions, values at Christmas“

The column’s here. See the entire digital edition here. Or keep reading:

Amid all the joys of Christmas, most folks find time for reflection, if only for a moment, seeking meaning in the holiday season. So, dare I wade into the social and political swamp of (yikes!) “meaning” in this winter holiday season?

You betcha. Because despite rampant commercialism, Christmas is a spiritual commemoration of the miracle birth of Christ Jesus, peace be upon him, and of that great teacher’s way of bringing the light into the world.

Of course, a lot of folks these days are scared of spiritual. That’s largely due to the tumult throughout history and throughout the world in the name of spiritual.

Yet the horrors that have been done in Jesus’ name — and those of many other great lights throughout the ages — hardly are representative of them. It’s worth noting that the Bible-totin’, cross-burning Ku Klux Klan and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. both claimed guidance from the same holy book.

One result today is that people increasingly aren’t inclined to consider themselves aligned with any particular religious label. More and more, it seems, people are spiritual independents, so to speak. Not affiliated with any particular… er, party.

And that’s fine. It’s way past time for quibbling over how good people conceptualize their spirituality.

In fact, we’d all be better off if the world could grasp the simple concept that there should be no compulsion in matters of religion.

I’m finding that more and more people, some more actively than others, are trying to learn what other folks are spiritually about — or not — and honor that.

Given the occasion, I keep thinking back to what I wrote a few years ago in a column titled, “This Muslim Honors Christmas.”

“I hardly claim to speak for all Muslims, who are as diverse as humanity. But count me among those for whom this day highlights the spirit of love and humility that Jesus taught and lived, and of whom God says in the Quran (57:27): ‘We gave Jesus the Gospel and put compassion and mercy into the hearts of his followers.’ ”

I mentioned that for decades it has been my practice to bestow ribbon-bedecked bottles of Martinelli apple cider upon friends, a token of both the season’s joy and sober reflection.

I cited, though not by name, my dear now departed friend Stebbins Jefferson’s query: “I thought you didn’t celebrate Christmas.”

I don’t, was my reply, but I honor it because she — and so many others whom God has made the repositories of so much grace and good in America and the world — do.

A lot has changed since then, of course — and little has.

Roberta Popara, associate director of Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center in North Palm Beach, said that being in Iraq for Christmas in 2003 “gave me an opportunity to see how a Christian minority and another culture celebrate one of the most important feast days second only to Easter.”

Most countries don’t observe the cultural Christmas that Americans do, said the Dominican Sister. “Rather the religious significance takes precedent. Even so, in homes and shops there are modest displays for this holiday. Even some Muslim shopkeepers display Christmas lights and images of Baba Noel, as Arabic speakers call our Santa Claus. Special foods such as kibbi and pasha become usual fare for the holidays. There is some gift giving but again, very simple. The Christian community gathers for plays and pageants as well as prayerful observance of the holy season.”

“Even so,” she said, “since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the rise of counter insurgency, holy seasons such as Christmas bring their own fear upon this minority community as certain groups, claiming they are doing God’s will, bring terror and death by targeting Christian churches and gatherings.

“This needs to be understood in balance with the continued experiences of terror for the ordinary Iraqi citizen regardless of religious identity.”

Methinks Muslims and others should be more aware of an episode in the early history of the Muslim community.

Severely persecuted in Mecca, some left to Ethiopia, whose Christian Negus sheltered them. The Meccans pursued, seeking their forced return. The Muslims appealed to the king that they once had been steeped in ignorance, worshiping idols and committing abominations, but had turned to worship only the creator. They recited the opening verses of the Quran’s chapter 19, named for Jesus’ mother Mary, at which the ruler wept.

The Meccans then claimed that Muslims disrespect Jesus, to which the reply came that the prophet taught that Jesus was a creature of God and his prophet, as well as his spirit and his word, which was cast unto the Blessed Virgin Mary. Upon which the king said he would never give up the Muslims to their persecutors.

There’s been way too much suffering among religious folk since. Witness “An Advent Evening of Commemoration and Reflection” for the four U.S. churchwomen martyred in El Salvador on Dec. 2, 1980.

The Dec. 14 advent program, hosted by Pax Christi Palm Beach at St. Ann Church in West Palm Beach, remembered Sisters Maura Clarke, Ita Ford, Dorothy Kazel and lay missioner Jean Donovan.

They had accepted dire risk in choosing to remain and serve as a shield for El Salvador’s persecuted poor. What else would his sincere followers do, than what Jesus would do?

Hearing their stories, my sense is the sisters would have appreciated a moment of levity from several Sundays ago, courtesy of the Rev. Carol Yorke of the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches.

“So, you do know what would have happened if it had been three wise women instead of men, don’t you? They would have asked for directions. Arrived on time. Helped deliver the baby. Cleaned the stable. Made a casserole. And brought disposable diapers as gifts.

Rev. Yorke went on to remind that, “Horror and tragedy do not mean the end of meaning, unless we choose to view it that way.”

Instead, she said, “We can choose gratitude.”

There’s room to remember that meaning of this day and season.

Christmas, as someone once said, is what you make of a reflection of your values, desires, affections and traditions.

With spiritual label or not.

— C.B. Hanif

So the best thing to do is find out what Islam really is about. Talk to a Muslim in person. Read an introduction to Islam (try a fun one like mine). Read Loonwatch to read about the holes in the anti-Islamic rhetoric. Or take a look at the University of Georgia’s informational website on Islam for some quick answers and further reading. If you read the anti-Islam fear-mongering websites, all you’ll learn will be tall tales.

Top Ways 9/11 Broke Islamic Law (and other Informed Comment by U. of Mich Prof. Juan Cole):

Bin Laden is not a proper Muslim, and his actions contravened Islamic law. He is a Jim Jones-type cultist with a fringe, violent People’s Temple. Americans need to stop blaming Islam, and to recognize that most Muslims in the world are their friends, and that American Muslims are patriots and contributors to our well-being. Every time Americans tear down Islam, Bin Laden gets a little bit of what he wanted.

Rabbi Bruce Warshal, Florida Jewish Journal: Shame on America, Jews and ADL. Quibble if you will. But a must-read essay:

To begin, the mosque controversy does not involve a mosque. It is planned as a 13-story community center encompassing a swimming pool, 500-seat performing arts center, gym, culinary school, restaurant and, yes, a prayer space for Muslims, which already exists in the current building…I guess that we are now at the point in America where Jews can have our JCC’s and Christians their YMCA’s, but Muslims are not wanted.

Mosque Hysteria, by the editors of America magazine, the national Catholic Weekly:

But what the “no mosque” pundits cannot deny is the sour contribution they have made to respectful, rational dialogue in U.S. civic life. Words have consequences; rhetoric is not disconnected from action. Mr. Enright may be unbalanced, and what little self-restraint he possessed may have been broken by alcohol. But civic leaders promoting intolerance and fear cannot offer even these excuses. The voices raised against Park51, formerly called Cordoba House, which would be run by precisely the kind of moderate Islamic leadership the United States should be encouraging, have stirred up an unpleasant neo-nativist brew across the nation….Political and religious leaders must cease waffling on this issue and unequivocally support both the right of Muslim citizens to build a place of community and worship—open to all—and the appropriateness of building in proximity to a place where cunning and cruelty took the lives of so many.

The Focolare Movement. I know no more “gen-u-wine Christians,” as one brother described them, than these who truly live what that great teacher Christ Jesus (peace be upon him) taught. Note their unprecedented years of loving relationships with Muslims and others, here in the U.S. and in more than 180 other countries. They are among my teachers and my dear sisters and brothers in faith:

The way of dialogue has emerged as the best way to contribute to the fulfilment of the testament of Jesus: “may they all be one”. This is His plan for unity, for brotherhood and sisterhood in the human family, and the purpose for which the Focolare Movement was born.

Muslims and Islam Were Part of Twin Towers’ Life. Right up until its destruction on 9/11, there was a Muslim prayer room on the 17th floor of the WTCs South Tower. This was essential knowledge for fair-minded folks in the face of the culture warriors’ emotional onslaught. Yet astonishingly our news organizations neglected to share this detail in the weeks of shamefully mislabeling the Cordoba Initiative’s proposed Islamic community center (Quick! Hide the women and children!!!) “THE MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO.” Of the reports I’ve seen, Keith Olbermann’s best reflects my sentiment:

Throughout this stupid, childish, xenophobic debate, there was nobody who mentioned this stunningly relevant fact until (New York Times religion columnist Samuel Freedman) this past Saturday, September 11th…There were two Mosques in Ground Zero the moment it became Ground Zero.

Also, check Jason Linkins’ Anatomy of an Epic Media Failure:

As soon as the media saw themselves a shiny shiny shining thing shining shinily in New York City, they pounced! How perfect! Something for us to talk about during the slow-news summer! I mean, we could talk about the nation’s unemployment crisis, but that would mean we’d have to talk to poor, jobless people, and there’s no currency in having access to a bunch of poors. Right away, they accepted the premise that this was a “Ground Zero mosque,” when it wasn’t. And so, by the power vested in the media, things that weren’t in fact true were accorded the privilege of being “one side of a great debate” and “an interesting point of view.”

More than 10, I know. But I hope you appreciate (and share) some of these.

— C.B. Hanif

I was invited as one of the speakers for Saturday’s impromptu rally, primarily of  Palm Beach Atlantic University students, whose message was that those extremists and haters who claim to be speaking for our Muslim, Christian, Jewish and other faiths are full of it.

A certain Gainesville pastor was on the hot seat. Other folks I won’t mention were mentioned. But the point of these students from the self-styled “Florida’s Top Christian College” was clear. To paraphrase Keelan O’Carroll:

No more will we sit by and let people hijack what we believe, and say hurtful things, and do hurtful actions, in the name of Christianity. No more to using the name of Jesus to further their own political agendas. Jesus tells us not to repay evil with evil, but says to repay evil with good.

To which I’ll add from a Muslim perspective: Nothing can come from good but good. In fact, I experienced nothing but good from key organizers (and sister and brother) Shaunessy and Josh McNeely, of Global Refuge International.

Among the aims of the downtown West Palm Beach rally were to show solidarity among Islam, Christianity and other faiths in rejecting the Gainesville pastor’s Quran burning plan; to provide a chance for local churches to take a stand against Islamophobia and extend hands in unity to our Muslim brothers and sisters in the community; to bring awareness of the extent of suffering among people all over the world, and of how to support the relief work; and particularly to encourage folks to do much more  to help the people of Pakistan in their disastrous emergency. Donations were collected for Pakistan Flood Relief.

Other speakers included Dr. Gerald Wright of PBAU, and Gholam Rahman, my fellow member of the  Muslim Community of Palm Beach County.

In my comments, I noted President Barack Obama’s Friday news conference statement:

I’ve got Muslims who are fighting in Afghanistan. In the uniform of the United States armed forces. They’re out there putting their lives on the line for us. And we’ve got to make sure that we are crystal clear for our sakes and their sakes — they are Americans. And we honor their service.

It happens that I have just returned from observing the recognition given dozens of pioneering Muslim American veterans, also African-Americans, some of whom were forced to take terrible risks to prove their valor, intelligence and humanity, only to have it all disregarded when they returned to the States.

But they ain’t mad, cuz that was then, and this is now. And like them, and our president, I’m expecting good from our fellow American people.

These students were the latest confirmation that, no, we’re not going back to those days of government-sanctioned bigotry. I hope we hear a lot more from them. As I remarked to a lady who I later learned was the McNeelys’ mom, Elaine: With kids like these, our nation, and world, are gonna be alright.

The beautiful day, the smiles, the beautiful hearts and minds were just the latest sign that, regardless of whether we live to see the Master Plan brought to fruition in this world, the Promise of the Maker of all humanity — indeed all of creation — is true.

More scenes:

— C.B. Hanif

This month’s Coastal Star, First Presbyterian Church of Delray Beach’s Rev. Aaron Janklow and the popular TnT — or Twenties ’n’ Thirties — young professionals group he leads:

Young minister succeeding on his mission

And this month’s Look Inside our Places of Worship, the amazing story of the congregation whose serene, picturesque sanctuary once was a Boca Raton Air Force Base chapel:

First Church of Christ, Scientist

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.

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.

“We need to connect more with the history and the spirit of our brothers and sisters that preceded us in faith. Yes, I’m talking about the Christians.” — Imam Faheem Shuaibe

My good friend, Imam Faheem Shuaibe of Masjidul Waritheen in Oakland, CA, has long been one of my favorite teachers. He is knowledgeable and scholarly yet a down-to-earth Muslim, as seen in these seven paragraphs I transcribed from his Jummah khutba (or Friday prayers sermon as today’s media would call it), of July 3, 2009:

“We need to connect more with the history and the spirit of our brothers and sisters that preceded us in faith. Yes, I’m talking about the Christians.

“Why do you think Imam Mohammed wanted us to have a relationship —wants us to have a relationship with the Focolare? I know he wants us and wanted us to be influenced by the spirit of love and obedience that they showed to their scripture and to their prophet and to their leader.

“These are people who by and large — I’m sure they have fakes in their group too — but in the main it represents people who are, ‘I’m going to live the life that Jesus lived. I’m going to love. I’m going to give. I’m going to be the first to love. I’m going to be the first to give.’ These are games that they play when they get up every day.

“A Muslim can learn a lot from a Christian. Prophet Muhammad (s) he said, ‘In the end, myself and Jesus will be seen like this’ (holding up two fingers as one). Now some people take that literally and say ‘OK, he’s gonna come down in Damascus, and there Jesus is gonna be, he gonna have this long sword, gonna break crosses, gonna kill the swine.’ OK, you keep working with that.

“But there’s another potential interpretation of that. Breaking the cross is not an abusive thing; it means the mystery that’s been in it is going to no longer be in effect. Breaking the cross means breaking the riddle, solving the puzzle. Slaying the swine, it means vulgarity in religion. There’s some vulgar things that people say about G-d. Or say in the name of G-d.

“Well when Isa, as we really understand him, returns, he puts an end to vulgarity in religion, and he puts an end to the mystery. And it’s not the man that there’s so many pictures of in this world; that’s not the one. It’s the original human nature aligned with the cause of G-d inspired by the revelation of G-d. That’s when you’ve got Jesus. He’s already returned.

“So it means that we have to have a greater enthusiasm and faith in scripture, like the sincere Christians.”

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.”