Muhammad Cetin
President
The Institute of Interfaith Dialog

…4108 years after the anniversary of the flood, at this time to wonder while we are at the top of that orbit between the two eclipses, “Will we find a way to come out of our own eclipse, out of our own darkness, to find that which unites us all?” And that’s why I was so intrigued when I was asked to come here this evening because I know that this organization, Niagara Foundation, sponsored the appearance of The Dervishes, which it was my pleasure to see, who thirty years ago took the movement of the sun, and the earth, and the moon, and the planets, and put them under wonderful symbolic levels of dance and expression. Though I was young and single in those days, I understood that that was part of a movement that had actually occurred in Islam: the movement toward Sufi, toward Salafia, towards looking inwards, towards the great Jihad of personal conquest, of controlling who we are, of self-discipline, took place at the very same time when in the Jewish tradition there was also a looking inward, the appearance of mystic traditions of Kabala after so much violence around the world, people turned inward to overcome the hate and the evil that was in the human heart. And simultaneous to that was the emergence of pietistic movement in Christianity, where also people looked inward to say that if there was to be true change, discovery of true light, it would come from the search within the inner landscape. Not from conquering lands or nations, but rather from conquering the inner landscape of the human heart. And that God always searches out the human heart to such an extent that we have come here to this great country, and we experience the blessings of liberty and freedom. And I encourage those who are visiting perhaps from Turkey to take a look in Philadelphia. There is a great spot to visit there in Americana called “The Liberty Bell”. And on the Liberty Bell is inscribed a verse from scripture, from Leviticus, where it says “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof”, and that verse from Leviticus has its Hebrew Origins to the word liberty, and the origins of that Hebrew word, Ucratum Drauer, as liberty, is actually a young bird, a house sparrow that has a beautiful song, but this particular bird can only sing when it is free. If you cage this bird, it will die. And so liberty became the symbol of everyone being able to sing their own song, everyone free enough to be without cages to find their own individual expression. That is the light of the liberty that shines in this great country. It is that light which enables all of us to search for our common destiny, as experienced so long ago when Abraham was told to leave his native land, to leave where he came from, his family, all of his ties. It’s so easy to make a living. It’s so easy to have kids, it’s so easy to carve one’s reputation when one lives in one place, and one stays rooted to one locale. But Abraham was commanded to leave and tear asunder everything that he had come from, and still God promised him that he would find fame along life and descendants as numerous as the stars and the sky. And that ability for Abraham to move around, not Arum, not the master, not the father of Aramia, but rather to become the father of many nations. So not concerned about possessing where he is, but rather in the good that he can do. And that blessing of love and kindness that Abraham understood came from in some respect his restlessness, from his immigrant experience, from his need to journey and to travel, to discover, to find out what freedom could bring to him. That’s the reason why in our tradition Abraham was the first Jew, and in Christian tradition Abraham was the first Christian, and in Islam Abraham is the first Muslim. To take that which we don’t have, to say it’s not where you are, but it’s who you can be, and what you can do for the goodness of others. And that we celebrate this night and we thank you for your gift of joining us together. God Bless You.
Rabbi Daniel Sherbill
Northbrook Community Synagogue

…I think; we need as faith communities to begin to address in a more focused and a more united way. Because addressing such issues as communities of faith in new coalitions of decency and fairness makes our voices stronger and hope of impacting these and many other issues more successful. Why coalitions? Basically because that’s the way America works. Some of this work is currently being done in several venues. How to expand these existing efforts to be more reflective of the total interfaith community needs further discussion. New structures around specific issues might be needed. But these issues and many others will move us from understanding and acceptance to joint action: Joint action that will become another concrete expression of our respect and support for one another. Such issue driven activities will take us to new levels of what it means to be in interfaith partnerships. Remember, we, as faith communities have good news to share. Good news that affirms justice, peace, and harmony. Let’s figure out new ways to better translate that good news into more effective specific actions. Our faiths demand nothing less.
Rev. Stanley Davis
Executive Director
The National Conference for Community and Justice

The Greatest Statesman of our time, George See Marshall once said;

“If man does find the solution for world peace, it will be the most
Revolutionary reversal of his record we have ever known.”

Marshall’s words strike a sobering note for us all. They remind each and every one of us that we long for this thing we call “peace”. Yet it reminds us how frustrated in perhaps perverse we are as species which can not seem to pursue consistently and successfully the one thing in life we say we desire most. I would like to suggest the one of the many reasons we so often fail in our quest for peace is our reluctance to be honest with ourselves and one another when we’re challenged to define most specifically what we mean when we talk about peace. There is no time this evening for me to attempt to explore with you the reasons for this reluctance. Suffice to say there’s something to do with peace being rooted in attitudes of other centeredness and the common good. Well, we are so often mired in modes of self-centeredness and self-aggrandizement. What I want to share with you briefly then is what one in my estimation, great spiritual leader and king thinker from my own tradition, Roman Catholic Christianity has had to say recently in response to the challenge to be more explicit and descriptive in describing what we mean when we talk about peace. I offer them to this body of distinguished people who come from diverse, spiritual, religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds not because I think this particular definition of peace is at all peculiar to Catholic Teaching. Rather I offer them precisely because I think this definition will find resonance within your own various traditions of wisdom. I offer them in the hope that they can be grist for the mill of developing what some scholars refer to as theological humanism. A philosophy rooted in the commitment to universal human flourishing that can be recognized to exist in and flow out of the many faith and cultural traditions of our world.
Scott Alexander
Associate Professor of Muslim Studies
Catholic Theological Union
“United in Dialogue & Dinner”

Greetings of Peace and Mercy
Shalom, Salams and Hello
Blessings of God are plenty
Focus on Faith, Family and Friendship
With God, our private kinship

Let us begin in the Name of God
Most Magnificent, Infinitely Merciful
No matter what HE is referred to as
No question of His Magnificence or Majesty

Let us travel, Faith and Friendship pathways
They are my favorite ways to encompass
The roads to Joys of Worship
And means to grasp the Beauty
Of Faith, Freedom & Friendship

Straight are the lines of duty
Curves are the lines of beauty
Colors reflecting rainbows,
Fruits, flowers and chirping birds
Who says, the birds can’t sing
Praises of God’s Blessing!
Look at Nature and the surround
Beautiful and Boundless variety around

Diversity is part of Nature
Our American strength and Theme
What a comfort it is to know, it is
Part of God’s very own creative scheme!!
As a start of God’s Created Humanity
Adam was the first man on earth
Humanity was not complete,
Unless Eve was also there
With this First couple on Earth
Community was designed to follow

To Guide them in faith, living and worship
The succession of Prophets readily followed
All with a common Message for humanity
Each human blessed with a gift of life
With an equal measure of Blessing
For one and all to tread and treasure
To do his or her very best
Make use and sense of life
Worship, Service, Care and Share

When I look at the House of God
Kaa’ba as it is referred to and Cubical in shape
Muslims gather around its four walls
Halo of circling humanity is all one can see

What is magnificent, is the Message
Millions of the circling humans
Together in spirit of Unity
Unison in Prayer, whirling around the Cube
Alone, alone, all, all alone in prayer

With the gathering of momentum
Of this circling humanity
Brings to surface the inherent Unity
No traces of race, color or gender,
Community country or confines
Just a glow of circling humanity
Free at last of divides and disturbances
Hopefully, focused on their audience with God
With Devotion, Tolerance, Patience
And feeling infinitely blessed
All together yet each a single being
Enjoying the solo connectedness with God
Emphatic message for all to know
One is never, ever, alone, with God

No matter where, or when and how
Each one has a direct access
All his or her very own
And within each one’s reach
God is always there! Infinite in His Realm
Majestic in the Power of His Presence

The crowds come from far and near
Representing one hundred and twenty countries
It was amazing for me to learn
Muslims in America come from eighty!

Cube speaks for confines and connectedness
Cube speaks for Presence, Power and so much more
It definitely makes sense to say
Let us come out of our cubicles and care
Let us all look around and share

With inspiration and energy
Friendships are sure to follow
Gaining understanding of others and their faith
And how they encounter God
Is the strength of each individual’s faith

Each and every language, there is a common phrase
Come out of your box and share and care
Box, Confines, four walls and molds
Security in a box is not a comforting mode
Claustrophobic and confining it is to say the least
It is restrictive constrictive and contra productive
From caring and doing our very best
Come out to share the freedom, fun and friendship
Which is invigorating and inspiring for us all!

Today’s dialogue Dinner is just to say
Let us look beyond our Faith and needs
Learn to make friends from here and there
Around the Cube or our magnificent Globe
United in love, understanding and friendship

Bright sweeping light we see, as, Noor
Have the Joy and comfort of faith, to know
It simply is the Divine Light of God
The only light for us all to follow!

It is the clearest sparkling Message
So perfect and sublime: Be Human and share
With gratitude and pleasure, serve God and care
In each one’s desire and passion to serve God
Serving mankind is a mandate and a must!

As I must end my time of sharing
My thoughts with my fellow humans
I request we all leave behind
Our focus on differences and divides
Only in hopes to go and find
Faith, friendship and future, in the humankind

Please join me in a simple prayer
May God, give us the strength
To come out of our clusters and confines
With gratitude and humbleness,
Pleasure and Pride, to share and care…

Shakeela Z. Hassan, M.D.
University Of Chicago