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Interfaith Service, More than a Week
As you read in my last post, Tuesday night I attended President Obama's Iftar.
But that wasn't the only noteworthy Iftar happening in DC this week. Last night, the Sixth and I Historic Synagogue hosted "Fast to Feed," an interfaith Iftar. Not only is this a story of a synagogue holding a Ramadan Iftar, but it is a story of service: participants will be participating in a Salvation Army food drive tonight and bring canned and non-perishable items to the Iftar.
And what's more, it is happening during Interfaith Week of United We Serve, the President's summer service initiative. The partnership of the Iftar organizers -Kalsoom Lakhani and Meg Poole - is a direct product of this campaign, though certainly not the only one. There have been more than 3,000 interfaith service projects this summer, with even more scheduled for this Interfaith Service Week.
I remember the White House Council of Faith-based and Neighborhood partnerships phone call when Joshua DuBois enlisted our help in engaging faith communities in service this summer.
My colleague, Dalia Mogahed, called on Muslim Americans to answer the call -- so far they have had thousands of days of service this summer, most of which were interfaith.
For example, Project Downtown is a nationwide feeding and relief effort sponsored by the Muslim Students Association (MSA). In Orlando this week, Jewish, Hindu and evangelical Christian students will be joining the MSA to hand out food, clothing and hygiene kits to the homeless.
The evangelical students are from the megachurch Northland, a Church Distributed where senior pastor Joel Hunter is a White House Council member with Dalia and I.
Joel Hunter connecting his church community to a Muslim day of service?
That's what I call an interfaith partnership.
In Chicago today, the hard work of local folks is going to be recognized by the White House. This summer, Interfaith Youth Core sponsored a group of 12 youth leaders from diverse faith traditions. They have served hundreds of members of Chicago's homeless population, engaged in weekly interfaith dialogues and blogged about their experiences. They have also been trained in campus asset-mapping and service learning, and developed commitments to bring their interfaith leadership skills to their campuses over the next year.
Today they will be conducting an interfaith service tour for staff of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships; on the tour they will volunteer in a health clinic, a community garden, and at a homeless service center.
According to the Volunteering in America study released in July by the Corporation for National and Community Service, over 1/3 of all volunteers from 2006-2008 volunteered through religious organizations. I'm glad the President recognized the power of interfaith service this summer. And I knew that faith communities across America would prove him right.
Now I look forward to the commitments that we make beyond the end of United We Serve on September 11th - because this is only the beginning.
By
Eboo Patel
|
September 4, 2009; 9:27 AM ET
| Category:
Interfaith Issues
,
Religion & Politics
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Posted by: ccnl1 | September 8, 2009 8:42 AM
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Posted by: homeland1 | September 6, 2009 10:12 PM
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Is Farnaz talking to herself again or is she simply addressing another probability wave named "Navin1"?
Posted by: ccnl1 | September 6, 2009 12:07 AM
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Navin1 writes: "If only the christo-islamists have really given up the mono-ideology. What a wonderful world this would be."
Kinda reminds me of Sam Cook's great song, "Wonderful World":
Don't know much about history
Don't know much biology
Don't know much about a science book
Don't know much about the French I took
http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/wonderf0.htm
Guess the world you envision will take more than great tunes, though. %-}
Posted by: Farnaz1Mansouri1 | September 5, 2009 3:28 PM
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Most majority Muslim societies/nations are extremely intolerant. The Paki Musilms (formerly Indian Muslims-whom Patel described as very tolerant and compassionated) want death penalty for leaving Islam and insulting mohamed (recent poll).
The intolerant Muslim nations require your interfaith services.
Most Muslim nations call themselves "Islamic republics" thus openly insulting any non-Muslims still living there. Most of them have severe restrictions on how women dress, gays, non-Muslims...
Posted by: tamanah1 | September 5, 2009 7:13 AM
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"Navin1" another probability wave akin to Muckenfuss and Observer12 always failing to note the flaws in the foundations of Judaism but never failing to find fault with others????
Posted by: ccnl1 | September 4, 2009 11:20 PM
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I only hope EP feels comfortable prostrating himself before an Idol of Krishna with his muslim friends in Chicago and Saudi Arabia.
If only the christo-islamists have really given up the mono-ideology. What a wonderful world this would be.
hariaum
Posted by: Navin1 | September 4, 2009 6:37 PM
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United we serve?? Give us a break!!!
The reality of Islam and how it is draining the world of resources by its bloody theology using a partial body count as evidence:
1a) 179 killed in Mumbai/Bombay, 290 injured
1b) Assassination of Benazir Bhutto and Theo Van Gogh
2) 9/11, 3000 mostly US citizens, 1000’s injured
3) The 24/7 Sunni-Shiite centuries-old blood feud currently being carried out in Iraq, US Troops 3,469 killed in action, 871 non-combat and 93,040 – 101,537 Iraqi civilians killed, http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ and
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf
4) Kenya- In Nairobi, about 212 people were killed and an estimated 4000 injured; in Dar es Salaam, the attack killed at least 11 and wounded 85.[2]
5) Bali-in 2002-killing 202 people, 164 of whom were foreign nationals, and 38 Indonesian citizens. A further 209 people were injured.
6) Bali in 2005- Twenty people were killed, and 129 people were injured by three bombers who killed themselves in the attacks.
7) Spain in 2004- killing 191 people and wounding 2,050.
8) UK in 2005- The bombings killed 52 commuters and the four radical Islamic suicide bombers, injured 700.
9) Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, US troops killed in action, 562, 176 non-combat. It is also estimated that 20-30,000 Afghan civilians have been killed in this war against the Muslim/Sunni Taliban.
Posted by: ccnl1 | September 4, 2009 4:02 PM
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And once again "Homeland1" the king/queen of gibberish visits these blog pages.