Sikhs Launch National Educational Campaign

Sikhs in the US, whose distinctive turbans and flowing beards made them targets of hate crimes following September 11, have decided to fight back by educating people about their religion. 

A "Sharing Your Faith with Your Neighbors" program will be launched on November 10 in the US, home to about half a million Sikhs. 

The program was timed to coincide with the birth anniversary of Sikhism's founder Guru Nanak, which was celebrated from November 16 to 19 this year.

Services for the event include singing and reading of verses from scriptures as well as eating the "Langar", a vegetarian community meal served in gurdwaras. Sikhs plan to include their non-Sikh friends and neighbours in the festivities.

Dr. Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Sikh Council, said: "We hope to bring our message to as many people as possible. In addition to other faith communities, we will be inviting elected officials, members of civic groups and police and other law enforcement and support agencies.” He said  "we believe it would strengthen the hands of the police in dealing with future hate crimes if they had greater knowledge of Sikh beliefs and practices."

In the period following the September 11 terror attacks, around 200 hate crimes were reported against Sikhs in the US and other Western countries.

Most Westerners reportedly mistook Sikhs to be followers of alleged terror mastermind Osama bin Laden because of their flowing beards and turbans.

Even Sikh children in the US were affected by this wave of prejudice. Many children were reportedly victimized, taunted and bullied in schools.

Sources from the Sikh Council said though Sikhs had lived and worked in the US for several years, many Americans were ignorant of their beliefs and identity.

Jasjit Kaur Ahuja, the program coordinator for the event, said: "By organizing this program we are simply implementing the ideals of Guru Nanak who envisioned a loving and caring human society in which people respect each other regardless of their differences. This is needed now, more than ever."

Sikhism is the world's fifth largest religion with 25 million adherents, with an estimated 500,000 living in the USA.

Among the many initiatives that are currently underway to bring greater understanding about Muslims and Islam in North America, there is one yearlong campaign that is using two PBS documentaries as springboards for strategic community building, public awareness campaigns and educational efforts on the subject of contemporary Islam, The Islam Project.

The Islam Project has been developed by Active Voice a multicultural, nonprofit team that helps groups use social issue television programs and films as tools for community building and partnership development. (See www.activevoice.net)

One of the documentaries is Muslims, produced by the Independent Production Fund (IPF), a film that seeks to enrich understanding of the multifaceted ways that Muslims live their faith. The other film being used in The Islam Project is Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, produced by Kikim Media and Unity Productions Foundation, “telling the story of the 7^th century prophet who changed world history in 23 years, and continues to shape the lives of more than 1.2 billion people,” according to the filmmakers description of their product. Much of this film’s story is told by American Muslims whose experiences in some way echo Muhammad’s life. Leading scholars and theologians provide additional insights.

You are encouraged to download the facilitator’s guide for The Islam Project that is available at www.theislamproject.org/community_engagement.

NAIN is one of the national partners in The Islam Project; along with the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, the Council on Islamic Education (CIE), the Freedom Forum, First Amendment Center, Hope in the Cities, Initiatives of Change, the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), and the Pluralism Project at Harvard University.

Active Voice screened a preview clip of the two films, Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet and Muslims during the 2002 NAIN Connect in Wichita. A contact list was assembled to keep people informed about the project and the potentials for usage within faith communities. At the conference, Islam Project made a connection with Wichita Inter-Faith Ministries that has led to their participating in the project as a “tier 2” city.

Two NAIN member organizations are among the 10 communities that were invited to participate in “tier 1,” each gearing up for local, strategic and extremely customized events. These local partners are the Interfaith Center at the Presidio in San Francisco and the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, D.C. In San Francisco there was a community/opinion leader event to celebrate the broadcast premier of Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet and the re-broadcast of Muslims. Following the event, Interfaith Center at the Presidio was agreed to serve as San Francisco’s clearinghouse for longer term use of the Islam Project materials. The Center recently received a grant from the Carpenter Foundation to create an Interfaith Academy and resource center for educational materials about different faiths. The Center is very excited to not only have the Islam Project as their first resource for serving the needs of the interfaith and faith communities of the Bay Area – but as a high profile launch opportunity as well.

All NAIN member organizations are invited to participate in The Islam Project.  To get engaged contact:

Active Voice
2601 Mariposa Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415.553.2841
www.theislamproject.org

Experiences of faith based communities in Ohio will provide the framework for developing the theme of the conference, but many of these experiences of faith traditions have been replicated in other local communities throughout Canada, the United States and Mexico, as well as elsewhere around the globe.

Conference planners in the Columbus area have identified eight workshops with a wide variety of presenters. The subjects to be explored in the workshops are: “Organizing Local Interfaith Relations,” “Building Bridges: Understanding Our Neighbors’ Faith,” “UN Document on Ecology and World Religions,” “ Northwest Ordinance and Early Religious Freedom in Ohio,” exploring legal impacts on religious freedom, “Racism’s Impact on the Journeys of Faith, Freedom, and Justice,” “Shifting Individual Rights to Corporation Domination: How Faith Journeys are Mangled in the Process,” “Rights and Roles of Women in the Journeys,” and “Struggles in Publishing a Book on Faiths in Ohio.”

Some of the conference activities will be open to others in the Columbus, Ohio area, such as Dr. Paul Knitter’s keynote address on “Religious Faith and Liberation for All People;” and, also, a lecture by Dr. Rita Gross, a Buddhist active in an international scholarly association of Buddhists and Christians.

The cost of the conference program is being kept as low as possible through the use of grants and contributions. Also, options for housing have been arranged. Hence, the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio has announced the cost for attending the conference will be dormitory room at the University ($229^US), hotel ($280^US), or being a guest in a private home ($109^US). Most meals during the August 9-12 time are included in these costs. It is anticipated that no registration fee, beyond the cost for room and meals will be necessary. These costs, although not including travel, make this an attractive conference to attend.

By Don Mayne, President

In February 2002 the NAIN Board of Directors commissioned a study by Elizabeth Espersen, former president of NAIN and consultant with Meetings In Faith. She contacted NAIN member organizations to gather ideas about the direction in which NAIN should be going, and the kinds of support that member organizations wish to receive from the Network. One of the assumptions in asking Elizabeth to undertake this study was that NAIN could be a stronger, more effective Network if it had a staff person even part-time. We are currently a totally volunteer organization, and some advantages were expected if there could be someone well known in the interfaith field that could represent NAIN and could undertake some office and planning tasks for us.

Further information was gathered from the delegates at the NAIN Connect in Wichita during a Sunday afternoon session. But there isn’t enough time at a NAIN Connect for the Board to the detailed study and planning required for such a development, and the Board agreed to hold a two-day retreat in November to develop our mission and goals for the future and plan the action steps we will need to take. The retreat was in conjunction with the regular mid-year Board meeting that included a morning with the Planning Committee in Columbus, Ohio to review the plans for the 2003 Connect. We will be meeting at Ohio State University, and we look forward to another inspiring interfaith gathering.

Will Baker, a member of the Board of Directors and Director of the IMPACT Coalition in New York, was the facilitator for the planning event. Board members recognized that many new interfaith organizations have sprung up in North America and around the world since NAIN was established in 1988, and we want to continue to support and strengthen local interfaith groups. The real work of interfaith continues to be in local groups where neighbors get together to learn about each other’s faith and to learn to work together on issues that affect us all.

The Board accepted NAINews Editor Joel Beversluis’s suggestion that he continue to work on an interfaith e-zine; and, that former President of NAIN, The Rev. Dr. Charles R. White, be asked to take on the role of editor of NAINews. However, we are still discussing the opportunity and challenges involved in hiring even part-time staff for the network.

 Time was spent discussing proposed by-law changes which will be presented to the August 2003 Annual General Meeting in Columbus, Ohio. After 15 years some of our by-laws vary from our practices, so we will try to revise them to suit our current style of operation.

 NAIN would be strengthened greatly with assurance of financial support over several years. Elizabeth Espersen has produced a plan for NAIN PARTNERS that is being launched this fall. Member organizations and individuals will be asked for pledges of financial support for five years as an investment in “interfaith communication across a continent.” All USA financial contributions to NAIN are tax deductible since we are a non-profit 501(c)3 organization. (Currently, no similar provision is available for contributions from donors in either Canada or Mexico, although that could change in the future.)

 At the 2002 NAIN Connect in Wichita we were pleased to welcome three new member organizations: The Foundation for Religious Freedom of Los Angeles, The Masters School of Dobbs Ferry, NY, and Meetings in Faith of Liverpool, NY. Also, we welcomed four “Friends of NAIN”: Bernard R. Bonnot of Granada Hills, CA, Professor Emeritus K. L. Seshagiri Rao of Columbia, SC, Henry Galganowicz of Philadelphia, and Rev. Dr. Les Stansbery of Columbia, OH.

 Membership renewal forms will be going out shortly to current and former members for the year 2003. Because of risings costs, membership fees were raised to $75US for local and regional organizations and $125US for national and international organizations. Under the leadership of our Membership Chair, Rev. Gloria Weber, we are working to bring more organizations into membership because we believe it will strengthen those organizations to be part of the fellowship of NAIN. Individuals may become “Friends of NAIN” with a contribution of $50US.

Your Board is excited about the 2003 conference that will be held in Columbus, Ohio August 9 to 12. We encourage every member organization to ensure that you are represented at that event. It promises to be another outstanding NAIN Connect.

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 The Rev. Charles R. White, D.Min. has accepted the invitation of the NAIN Board of Directors to serve as managing editor of NAINews, beginning with this current issue. This is to allow Joel Beversluis, who has been editing NAINews,  to focus his attention on development of the internet e-zine that the NAIN Board of Directors has undertaken.

 During the past seven years Chuck White has been pastor of two congregations in The United Methodist Church, although his ordination is in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Weldon UMC and Tehachapi Valley UMC. He is an at-large member of the Interfaith Relations Commission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.

 Chuck and Liz live in a small mountain community, Wofford Heights, about 50 miles east of Bakersfield, California. It is from here that he will be editing NAINews and assisting the NAIN Board of Directors in its communication tasks.

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Kiley Bednar

When I was studying abroad in New Zealand, a couple of my friends and I went traveling over the Easter break.  We planned to go hiking on Easter Day and we wanted to get an early start.  I was having a hard time deciding whether I wanted to go to church because we had arrived quite late and I was completely unfamiliar with the town.  As I was trying to decide, one of my friends, who is Jewish, kept encouraging me to go.  When questioned about her encouragement, she replied that she supports people in their faith, even if it is a faith she doesn’t share, just as she appreciates being supported in her faith.

Since then, I have tried to pass along this support and encouragement as well. In doing this, I have found an enriched and renewed sense of my own faith.   Although our culture is one of the most religious in the Western world, I find that most people shy away from talking about it.  Interacting with people who value their faith and traditions, such as my friend in New Zealand, has lead me to articulate and think about my faith in a new ways. For example, my co-worker is Muslim and recently he was observing the season of Ramadan.  This lead me to reflect on Christian observances that have fallen out of practice in my life, such as observing the season of Advent.  Or by listening to a Jewish youth talk about how social justice is important in his faith tradition, I am connected to the desire for social justice that is articulated in my faith tradition. By being encouraging and supportive of people in their own faith, I have found that I am exploring and valuing my own faith more, as well.

Kiley Bednar, is Program Staff at the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, IL, an organization that seeks to nurture a new generation of compassionate global leaders through the integration of intercultural encounter, social action, and interfaith reflection. As Program Staff, Kiley brings together leaders from faith-based youth groups in Chicago to design and lead service and social action projects inspired by teachings from their different religious traditions.

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By Lucerne Montague

“There is a yearning for something more, something new...the width, the depth, the breadth of god is much wider than we’d imagined, ... we are on the verge of a tidal wage, a landslide.  There is something happening.”  These words of the Reverend Sam Muyskens, Director of Multi-Faith Ministries of Wichita, Kansas, reflect the atmosphere of excitement and anticipation that permeated the meetings of the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN), August 3 to 6, 2002.

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Festival Experiences in Saskatoon

By Robert White

Multi-Faith Saskatoon held it’s 18 th. annual Festival of Faith in November 2002. This Festival started in 1985 as a sacred music festival but has evolved to include dance, commentary, prayer and other offerings from the diversity of faith communities in Saskatoon. This year's Festival was considered by most to be our best and most diverse program.

We were blessed to have as special guests 7 visiting monks from the Gaden Jangtse Monastery in Mungod, India who are currently on tour in North America.

We also had the local Doukhobor Choir singing in both Russian and English, a group of Sikh youth performing a lively and spirited dance and a group of youth from the Sri Sathya Sai Baba community sharing several chants. There were also presentations of music, prayer and chanting from the Jewish, Baha’i, Christian and Aboriginal communities. The program started as always with the traditional call to prayer offered by an elder of the Islamic Community. The program closed with a responsive reading of a Universal Prayer and finally a participatory drumming circle where audience members could come up and share in creating rhythm with a variety of instruments from drums and rattles to a didgeridoo.

This year the visit of the Gaden monks and the publicity surrounding their installation of a sand mandala at the University of Saskatchewan Library prior to the festival created a lot of interest in the festival. It also created our biggest problem-we had to turn away over 100 people. Our normal attendance is around 250 people-this year we had well over 400 people wanting to attend. The festival is rotated between different locations each year, with various faith communities taking turns hosting. This increases involvement of the predominately Christian community who are most often hosts due to the larger number and size of their facilities.

Multi-Faith Saskatoon organizes the program but relies on each faith community developing presentations, usually around a theme (eg peace). There is no auditioning. The festival has traditionally included one or two cultural offerings to fill out the program. This year there was a classical music piece and a local dance arts troupe did a Nepalese Temple Dance. However, when the festival was evaluated it was realized that there was now sufficient talent within the faith communities themselves to make up the entire festival program. It was found that the strength of the festival was in the expression of the spirit or love or identity of the faith communities themselves. The faith community presentations all came from the heart and represented something of the identity or spirit or ideals of the individual or community presenting. In these context presentations that are performances, such as those of the dance group, even if more professional, did not have as much impact. They were not able to communicate the same depth of feeling and conviction.

The above experience reflects on the maturity of the various faith communities in our city. Although our population is only 210,000 there is a growing representation from many new faith communities plus the heritage of some of the first ‘religious’ settlements in the Canadian West. For example, when a large group of Doukhobors was assisted by Leo Tolstoy and the Society of Friends to leave Russia in 1898 because of religious persecution there, most settled in the Canadian prairies. Saskatchewan is much the richer for their values and their arts. To hear Doukhobor chanting and singing is a rare and beautiful experience.

This year we also made a deliberate attempt to include more children and youth. This was a great success as they brought a vibrancy and purity of heart that touched people greatly. Multi-Faith Saskatoon is greatly looking forward to building on this year’s success for future festivals.

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Work Camp To Be New In 2003 NAIN Connect

The NAIN Board of Directors requested the work camp component so that NAIN Connect participants could be able to experience working together in a project that would make a lasting contribution to the location where the conference was held.

 The work camp, for two days before the conference begins, will offer participants an opportunity for people of different faiths to work together and another way to make a lasting contribution to the interfaith life found in Columbus, Ohio.          

The Islamic Center was badly damaged by unknown persons several weeks after September 11, 2001, however the police have not confirmed the motivation for the attack on this Muslim facility. The Qur’an was marred and thrown around the building. Insurance has generally covered the extensive repairs, but NAIN volunteers would help with external landscaping tasks. There is also the possibility that we might help with one of the two Somali mosques and community centers.

The Native American Indian Center, founded some 25 years ago, serves anyone in need, whether or not they are Native American. It has helped citizens of central Ohio link to concerns about Black Mountain where the U.S. government has fomented conflict between the Navajo and Hopi nations. It led the opposition to the construction of a 300-feet tall Russian statue of Christopher Columbus. It has let the way in objecting to the to the destruction of Indian Mounds for the extension of a country club golf course. It joins people in Cleveland in annually objecting on opening day to the continued use of the derogatory logo, Chief Wahoo, of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. It has organized statewide opposition to archeological digs on Indian mounds. Members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the local group lifting up Leonard Peltier in prison at the Leonard Wood, Kansas, federal prison work with the Center.

 The work camp volunteers might paint rooms, do limited carpentry, or perform outside landscaping at the Center.

The cost of participating in the work camp will be approximately $50^US beyond the registration cost for the 2003 NAIN Connect.

For information regarding the work camp contact: the Interfaith Association of Central Ohio, 57 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43215; or contact the moderator of the local planning committee, Les Stansbery, at 614-231-6954 or E-mail at lpstansberyATwideopenwest.com

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2002 Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace: Inaugural Session

Reflections by Dr. William Lesher, Co-Chair, Goldin Institute Task Force

More than sixty interfaith leaders from twenty cities in Africa, Asia, Europe, North and South America, gathered in Chicago for the first annual workshop of the Goldin Institute for International Partnership and Peace, sponsored by the Council for the Parliament of the World’s Religion (CPWR) October 27-November 1, 2002. The purpose of the Institute is to create a network of partner cities that will strengthen efforts to build interfaith communities of understanding and harmony and grassroots interfaith engagement with issues that make for peace both local and global.

The schedule for the weeklong event was built around an innovative interfaith methodology adopted by the CPWR that has three main components: intrafaith exploration, interfaith dialogue and interfaith engagement. After an introductory session of personal sharing, participants examined the elements inherent in their own sacred texts and religious traditions that motivate them to reach out to people of other faith.

This initial intrafaith step laid the foundation for substantive discussions among members of the various faith traditions about their foundational beliefs, spiritual practices and an exchange of some attitudes toward issues of peace and justice. In the third stage in the process, participants reported on the variety of ways local faith groups are engaging one another in activities that build understanding, respect and cooperation in local community settings.

Throughout the week these elements of interfaith methodology were demonstrated in a series of field trips in Chicago neighborhoods where CPRW organizers have been working for several years to build a living laboratory of interfaith community organizations. A mosque, synagogue, gurdwara and church were visited where local clergy and lay people described how their congregations became involved and how they have changed as a result of their interfaith activities. In Skokie, a suburb with a large, historic Jewish population and more recently a popular place for Muslims to reside, the group heard how the community park district has played a leading role in developing interfaith harmony through an annual Festival of Cultures. 

In Rogers Park, one of the most pluralistic neighborhoods on the city’s north side, the Institute participants discussed the joys and difficulties of interfaith living with young people from different faith groups, some from other countries, who are living together for one year in an interfaith house sponsored by CPWR. These and many other authentic grassroots exposures stimulated animated discussions among participants about community expressions of interfaith activities in their local city settings. On the last day of the Institute, participants worked on plans for the development of the Partner City Network.

The Goldin Institute is a new expression of the international mission of the CPWR which sponsors a large Parliament event every five to seven years that draws 8,000 – 10,000 people. The next Parliament will be held in Barcelona, Spain, July 7-13, 2004. CPWR partner cities will play a prominent role in planning the program for the Barcelona Parliament. Some cities will hold pre-Parliament events in the summer of 2003 in preparation for the international Parliament. The Goldin Institute has been established with a major gift from Diane Goldin, a long time supporter of CPWR and the interfaith movement.     

Dr. William Lesher is Co-Chair of the Goldin Institute Task Force,

from www.cpwr.org, reprinted by permission.

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Secular Religion Journalists Seek To Improve Reporting In Developing Democracies

By David Briggs

The Religion Newswriters Association at its recent meeting created an International Task Force to explore collaborative relationships to imporve religion journalism here and abroad. The association began work in this area last January at a meeting with Western European journalists and is broadening its efforts. The association believes that not only will such relationships with overseas sources better inform our international coverage, but perhaps our model of secular journalism can be so come use in the understanding of religion’s role in society in nations that have painful experience with religious tensions. One of the first areas of concentration will be working with developing democracies in Eastern Europe.

This was named a task force and not a committee of the Religion Newswriters group so we can involve a wider range of people in this effort. The Rev. Dr. Charles White, NAINews Editor, has been named to the group.

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