Arts of Music, Food, Literature, Film
unite Muslims, Jews, Christians, all, at year's end
Friday, 29
December 2006
This 2006 year is ending.
Signs are that 2007 is bringing a new surge of citizen
connections, communication, compassion and creativity.
A stream of progress is appearing even now,
emanating from citizens with courage.
Below is one old Story and several new ones
that portend change through the arts..
Our experience and faith is that everyone has a soul
-- a quality within whose oldest memory is of union.
And whose deepest longing is for reunion.
Know that, and reach out to others, especially
"enemies," just like the people described below.
Bless your year in our first decade of "The
Citizens' Century."
A great time to be alive and
contributing.
1.
FRANCIS: Model citizen-peacemaker
"Brother Sun, Sister Moon" (1968, Franco Zeffarelli) about Francis of
Francis had joined the European Christians' Fifth
Crusade not as warrior but as peacemaker.
In times when some of the most
visible signs of the Christian religion were the wars and atrocities of the
red-crossed crusaders.
Yet, Francis lived among them, discouraging violence
and prescribing compassion and principled living at the highest.
Returning home, distraught from seeing the slaughter
of Muslims,.Francis
underwent an extraordinary life-change.
Few realize that Francis, in one of his most poignant
acts, sailed across the
The Peaceful Crusader
By Thomas Cahill
The New York Times -- Monday, 25 December 2006
http://nytimes.com/2006/12/25/opinion/25Cahill.html?em&ex=1167282000&en=cd224f62eb2d96aa&ei=5087%0A
Kamil, wise and moderate, was deeply impressed by Francis
courage and sincerity.
The Muslim leader invited Francis to stay for a week
of serious conversation.
Francis, in turn, was deeply impressed by the
religious devotion of the Muslims, especially by their five daily calls to prayer.
The thrice-daily recitation of the Angelus that became
current in
Just as the quintessential Catholic devotion of the
rosary derives from Muslim prayer beads.
Francis returned to the Crusader camp on the Egyptian
shore and desperately tried to convince Cardinal Galvani,
empowered by the Pope to lead the Crusade, to pursue a peace.
After all, the Muslim sultan, with far greater force
on his side, was all too ready to do so.
But the cardinal had dreams of military glory and
would not listen.
His eventual failure, amid terrible loss of life,
brought the age of the crusades to its inglorious end.
Francis is now considered the first person from the
West to travel to another continent with the revolutionary idea of peacemaking.
Islamic society and Christian society have been
generally bad neighbors for nearly 14 centuries, eager to misunderstand
each other, often borrowing culturally and intellectually from each other
without ever bestowing proper credit.
Now Chief Rabbi of the
Those who are confident of their faith are not threatened but enlarged by the different faiths of others. ... There are, surely, many ways of arriving at this generosity of spirit and each faith may need to find its own.
To build a future better than our
past, we need, as Rabbi Sacks has put it, the confidence
to recognize the irreducible, glorious dignity of difference.
We stand in desperate need of contemporary figures
like Kamil and Francis of Assisi to create an
innovative dialogue.
2. Todays
citizen-peacemakers through the Arts:
Literature, Food, Music, Film
LITERATURE (Three women)
THE FAITH CLUB is a 2006 best-seller
about three women --Muslim, Catholic and Jew -- who helped each other learn and
become more human.
After September 11th, Palestinian-American Ranya Idliby, inspired by a story
about Muhammad, reached out to two other mothers to better
understand and answer their children's questions about life.
With Jewish Priscilla Warner and Catholic Suzanne
Oliver, the women created an honest and open environment where they could admitand discusstheir concerns,
stereotypes, and misunderstandings about one another.
After hours of soul-searching about the issues that
divided them, Ranya, Suzanne, and Priscilla grew
close enough to discover and explore what united them.
The Faith Club
A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew -- Three Women Search for Understanding
Free Press --
October, 2006 -- 320 pages
These three women have spawned new
interfaith discussion groups in living rooms, churches, temples, mosques, and
other settings.
Their last chapter provides detailed advice on how to
start a faith club -- questions to ask, books to read.
Most importantly -- the open-minded
attitude to maintain in order to come through the experience with an enriched
personal faith and understanding of others.
FOOD (Three women)
COUSCOUS AND MAKLUBA FOR THE SAKE OF PEACE
Published in Ma'ariv - Tuesday, 26 December 2006
by Dudu Bazak
Everyone talks about peace, but
there are some who cook it.
Three women from
And when everyones
stomachs are full, they talk about coexistence.
Soon a large conference called COOKING FOR PEACE
will be held, and invitations have also been sent by mail to Abu Mazen and to Olmert.
Just before the war in the north ended, three successful
businesswomen who do community volunteer work decided that the time had come to
take action.
The battles, the bereavement, the Katyusha rockets that landed in the heart of
To succeed where others had failed, the three
women chose to try and persuade from the stomach.
Already during this painful war I decided to do
something, the Muslim woman, Caramine Abu Taha, recalls.
We feared that after the war, everyone would lose
faith in coexistence, and as a gimmick, we decided to draw people in through
their stomachs and to talk as we cook.
The idea, it seems, succeeded very well.
The ambitious group collected
close to 100 members, and while cooking couscous, special breads
and makluba (vegetables with rice and chicken), they
talk about ways to live together.
There are ideological arguments, but the food
creates fraternity and unity, explains Liora Lowry,
the chairwoman of the non-profit organization for promoting women in which the
women are members.
The COOKING FOR PEACE conference will take place in a
month under the sponsorship of the
There is nothing to worry about, the food will be from
all the religions and kosher (and hallal), promises
the Christian, Elham Marka.
Recently the women sent letters to Israeli and PA
leaders and invited them to attend. The women also told the leaders of their
special project and gave them tips on how to make peace, not just talk about
it. Finally, they asked that women, as well as a lot of food, be included in
the talks.
MUSIC
ADAMAI - A PALESTINIAN & A JEW MAKE MUSIC
The power of music can
spark myriad emotions in someone listening alone at home to its rhythms and
lyrics, it can transfix a crowd of thousands taking in a concert in a large
hall or stadium and many musicians believe it can bring peace to a troubled
world.
Jewish Israeli singer, songwriter, and pianist Shlomo Gronich has been
performing for six years with Palestinian singer Lubna
Salame as ADAMAI.
The two met while recording the anthem of a
PEACE CHILD
At a recent concert in
"It means 'It's Time For
Peace,'" he told the audience.
"I know it sounds naﶥ, but here, look at the stage - the miracle
really happens here so it should happen everywhere."
LISTEN to the inspiring 6-minute Voice of
By Jan Sluizer
22 December 2006
http://voanews.com/english/AmericanLife/2006-12-22-voa43.cfm
WEST-EASTERN DIVAN ORCHESTRA OF JEWS AND ARABS
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra of young Arab and
Israeli musicians recently performed at the United Nations and Carnegie Hall.
Conductor Daniel Barenboim
conceived the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with his friend, the late scholar
and advocate of a Palestinian state, Professor Edward Said, and established it
in 1999.
This summer, during the fighting between
"It is not an orchestra for peace," Mr. Barenboim said.
"Peace requires much more than this.
"But it is a message of the orchestra that there
is no military solution, and therefore we have to learn to know each other
and find a solution that is just for everybody. .
.conditions that we have in the orchestra, which are conditions of
equality."
Read more about these inspiring Jews and Arab
musicians and their
Confronting Conflict With Barenboim
By KATE TAYLOR
Published in The
New York Times -- Monday, 18 December 2006
http://www.nysun.com/article/45298
Barenboim Seeks Harmony, and More Than One Type
By ANTHONY TOMMASINI
Published in The
New York Times -- Thursday, 21 December 2006
FILM
GOD AND ALLAH NEED TO TALK
In Washington, DC, 29 November 2006, the
diplomatic, congressional, and communities of various religions gathered
for a multicultural evening of socializing and creating community.
His Excellency Shamsher Chowdhury, an enthusiastic advocate of interfaith
engagement, hosted at the Embassy of
Personal offerings from many faiths were
expressed and well received.
Although Bangladesh is a small, densely
populated country in a continent battered by war and violence, we are proud to
be a democracy, said Ambassador Chowdhury, and I
believe we can be effective brokers for peace, he added, alluding to his fellow
Bangladeshi, Muhammad Yunus, who recently received
the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to bring Grameen
Bank programs to impoverished families in Bangladesh.
Together they screened GOD AND ALLAH NEED TO TALK.
It a film for healing and reconciliation post
9/11, made by
Choudry is eager to extend
networking opportunities among the diplomatic, congressional, and interfaith
communities in the nations capitol.
At the Interfaith Thanksgiving Celebration, he urged
the participants to seek even greater avenues for dialogue and multicultural
engagement, nationally and globally.
VIEW the 5-1/2 minute news video, broadcast
by Voice of American (VOA):