Hey all, we are almost ready to launch our new website but we have some little  issues that we need worked out.  If you know Joomla, can edit the .htaccess file, and know how to edit CSS within Joomla, we will love you forever.

Also for anyone not technical savvy, please invite a few friends to our Facebook Page or subscribe to our blog!

Fellow World Faithers!

We have a unique opportunity to raise money for our organization through Facebook. Thanks to Chase Community Giving, all Facebook users can vote for local charities and non-profits and help channel Chase corporate philanthropy dollars to eligible organizations like World Faith which focuses on human services and community building.

It involves three basic steps:

1. Logging into your Facebook account

2. Become a fan of Chase Community Giving here:

3. Search for World Faith and Vote! Here is our page.

I advise that you get your friends and family to vote for us too so we can use this money towards more programming in our area and to expand our work in the United States. Furthermore, we ask that you share your comments on our page to show your support in writing. Short and sweet is just fine.

The first round ENDS on Friday, Dec. 11th so we need all the VOTES we can get now!

For More information, please visit:

http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/home/faq

Feel free to contact Halima Samad (halima@worldfaith.org) for more information.

In New York, Muslims are getting some good PR.  Because of Eid al Adha, Black Friday was an official holiday in New York.  This means that the typical moving of cars needed for Friday didn’t happen, saving drivers tons of parking tickets they usually get on Black Friday.  The full article in the New York Times is here, and also keep reading down because our own board member Imam Khalid Latif is quoted!

Rather than either celebrating thankfulness for one holiday or sacrifice for the other, I think this year’s proximity of Thanksgiving and Eid al-Adha is an opportunity to recognize how complementary they are.

This year, like most, I stayed in New York, as visiting either parent is both expensive, and inpractical given the shortness of time.  Medina and I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner, and invited anyone.  To our surprise, we had 12 people show up, crowding our little 1-bedroom apartment in Queens.   You could say that hosting such a dinner requires some sacrifice, albeit minuscule compared to the sacrifice asked of Ibrahim, but I think that falls short of recognizing the blessing.

Around 10am Thanksgiving morning, our friends Heather, Nic, and Ming showed up with a turkey, duck, and chicken, along with the ingredients of stuffing, and some other dishes.  We worked together to make Turducken, along with a plethora of delectable side dishes.

It was a trying procedure, as we discovered pyrex glass can’t rest on the bottom of the oven, or else it explodes into shards of molten glass which can cut/burn/sear your bare feet.  After eight hours of cooking, and seven runs to the grocery store, we had an amazing meal.

It was then when I realized what I am thankful; others’ sacrifice.  Without those around me taking the time, it would have been a stressful process rather than a fun ordeal.  As a product of everyone one digging in and making this happen, we had our own interfaith/international Thanksgiving here in Astoria, among a family of friends.

Naseem Mohammad Shaikh is from Vadodara, Gujarat, in India.  For seven years, she kept hoping her husband and parents would come back.

Naseem’s is a household name in Kalol.  This is not because she is the first woman in Gujarat to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, for her efforts for the survivors of the 2002 violent riots in Panchmahals.

Seven years ago, in Delol village, her neighbours had suddenly gone into a frenzy that February morning.  They were screaming hate, pulling out machetes and knives, and chasing their neighbors.  The killing lasted for the next two days and when it was over, Naseem had lost 27 of her own family members.  Some of the dismembered bodies were flung into the nearby Goma river, others were scattered in the slush of nearby fields.

Miraculously, as it now seems, Nassem was at a local maternity hospital that day. When Dr Macchi of Kalol Delivery Centre was putting the stitches on her, the mob was probably killing her husband, father, mother and her close relatives. Only her five-year-old son survived. “It was only later that village elders said they were all dead. None of their bodies were found,” she says.

Naseem continued to live on hope for a while. “A Hindu man in our village, Khoya Patel, saved my son, Shoaib. I kept believing some other kind souls would have saved the others too,” she says. All these seven years, the police never confirmed their deaths.

Since then, she has been living in a rehabilitation camp in Kalol and refuses to go back to the village. For good reasons. “My brother who survived the killing had earlier returned to our village. He was still in great trauma and when a bomb went off in the village bus stand, he lost his sanity. His wife returned alone to the rehabilitation camp,” she says.

In connection with Shakeel Basha in New Delhi, Naseem was agreed to start a World Faith Chapter in Gujarat.  Where Naseem could call for violence, justifying her loss, she has chosen peace.  Through her awesome work, we hope that no one in Gujarat will face the pain Naseem has.

At the recent IFYC Conference, Eboo Patel, Founder and Executive Director of the Interfaith Youth Core, spoke about World Faith, and specifically about the work happening in India under the World Faith’s National Director of India, Abdul Shakeel Basha.

A lot of people were at the IFYC Conference… That is why I am honored that Tikkun mentioned World Faith in their write-up of the conference.  For the full article, please visit the article on Tikkun’s website.

Ciao All!

Just a quick note that World Faith’s new Facebook page is up.  We will begin using our group less and less and promote through our Facebook page more as it’s easier to manage.

While I was at the IFYC conference this past week, I reflected on the myriad of ways that the Interfaith Youth Core, and it’s awesome staff, has supported me as an interfaith leader, and World Faith as an organization.

First of all, as a member of the Fellow Alliance, they gave the NYU chapter of World Faith funding for interfaith service programs on campus.

Starting with the Fellowship, they have flown me four times to Chicago for trainings, meetings, and other leadership development programs.  This training was wide in scope, including media engagement, dialogue training, and institutional and campus involvement.

I have had several media opportunities through IFYC, including being interviewed on Good Morning America, Chicago Public Radio, and an hour-long interview on the online radio show Embracing the Journey.

The contact network I have built both directly through IFYC, and as a product of the credibility of association with IFYC is immeasurable, but includes world-class leaders in the field, funders, and best of all, other activists who joined in the World Faith cause, including Joshua Stanton, Soofia Ahmed, Mustafa Abdullah, and Abdul Shakeel Basha, just to name a few.

Eboo has been a mentor to me since the end of my Fellowship, giving me insightful advice that I need to hear, when I need to hear it.  He has been a true advocate, putting me in touch with people who otherwise probably wouldn’t give me the time of day.  One of my favorite things is that Eboo can give me blunt criticism one moment (which I need and ask for), and yet gives World Faith shout-outs, further opening up possibilities.

The IFYC staff has played a vital role in our development in the previous few years.   They each rotate between being a friend, psychologist, ally, and advocate, often more at one time.  I probably email, call, or skype chat with an IFYC Staff member at least once a week, sometimes multiple times a week.  Despite my constant questions or requests, they still respond quickly and with patience that I myself may be incapable of.  This includes (but isn’t limited to)  Megan Hughes, Amber Hacker, Cassie Meyer, Erin Williams, Hannah McConnaughay, Hind Makki, Jenan Mohajir, Zeenat Rahman, Charles Levesque, and April Kunze.

For anyone who is following World Faith, please take a look at the Interfaith Youth Core.  I consider them a strong ally in the struggle for religious common action, and I hope that every World Faith leader is trained by IFYC in some capacity.  Be sure to check out the IFYC website.

Last night there was an interesting interview with Mustafa Barghouti and Anna Baltzer.  Mr. Barghouti was a candidate in the last Palestinian election, winning 18% of the vote on a democratic, non-violent platform.  Ms. Baltzer is a Jewish American activist who has worked extensively in Israel and Palestine.

While this isn’t a topic that World Faith is directly involved with at this point, there were several interesting things that can be noted in this interview.  First of all, Mr. Barghouti, when addressing non-voilence activism, referred to historical activists of varied faith traditions, such as Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.  He also corrected John Stewart when John spoke in identity terms.  He Barghouti said, “This is not a Jewish issue, an Arab or Muslim issue, but a human issue.”

Also in the wider scope it was revealing.  Candid discourse on the Israel and Palestine peace process is infrequent in the American media.  It came to little surprised that when this discussion happened, that it wasn’t seen in political or polemic terms, but in shared religious values and common human dignity.

Check out the extended interview on Hulu, or go on the Daily Show Website!