The congregational prayer, Friday Night Fish Fry, workshops, breakfast, banquet (during which Azhar Usman’s An Apology to Imam W. Deen Mohammed was read from the program), and more, at FCMA’s latest reunion of Muslims, family and friends from around the state and beyond. (Click on photos for larger view.)
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Here’s a link is to a brochure that includes details regarding the interfaith panel on death and dying (“The End…Or Is Is?”) on which I have been invited to participate March 25 at the First Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palm Beaches. Even more than sharing from a Muslim perspective, I hope to learn a lot from my colleagues — and perhaps from you.
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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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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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“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.
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:
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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.
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“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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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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Hanif on media
Juan Cole: Following Quranic logic to its conclusion
March 17th · Islam, Muslim, Quran
Stumbled across this insight from University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole while researching my talk on the true picture of Muslims with a great group yesterday at Harbour’s Edge in Delray Beach. Cole cites and translates chapter and verse to conclude: “The default in the Quran is therefore not aggressive warfare, something the book repeatedly condemns. Warfare is permitted in self-defense. But the default is to be at peace with those who are at peace with you.” Note the date; another sign of how long “Informed Content” at juancole.com has trumped most major news sources for “Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion.”
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