The Shalom Center - Abrahamic Celebrations: Jewish, Christian, & Muslim Connections

New Book: "The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope & Peace for Jews, Christians, and Muslims"

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 12:38:14 -0400

Dear Friends,

In 2004, as religious animosities worsened around the globe, I joined with Sister Joan Chittister, a world-renowned Benedictine nun, and Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti (Neil Douglas-Klotz), a Muslim Sufi who has written a remarkable series of books on Aramaic, Gnostic, and Sufi spirituality --

-- to write a book called THE TENT OF ABRAHAM: STORIES OF HOPE AND PEACE FOR JEWS, CHRISTIANS, & MUSLIMS.

We sent the manuscript to Karen Armstrong. She was so excited by the book that she wrote a Preface for it.

It was (June 2006) published by Beacon Press and won an enthusiastic "Starred Review" from the Library Journal. That review and others are below.

Abrahamic Freedom Seder

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:34:37 -0400

New Jersey JewIsh STANDARD
Journeying together
By Elaine Kahn | Published 03/30/2006

A year ago, in Hope, N.J., Rabbi David Senter helped bring together Jews, Christians, and Muslims for a "freedom seder," honoring the historical Exodus tradition he says all three faiths treasure.

Senter then became rabbi of Cong. Beth Shalom in Pompton Lakes and planned to wait another year before introducing the innovative seder to his new congregation, he said in an interview. But during the recent controversy over the now-scuttled sale of American ports to a company in the United Arab Emirates, he heard things that disturbed him — "a fear, a paranoia" about where the purchasers were coming from, rather than "specific security concerns" — and decided not to wait.

RAFFLING THE SHALOM QUILT: IN PEACE & BEAUTY I WILL SLEEP

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:07:18 -0400

RAFFLING THE SHALOM QUILT: IN WARMTH & BEAUTY I WILL SLEEP

Friends of peace & beauty –

One of the Psalms begins, "Of love & justice I will sing." Today, in the painful moments of working for peace despite a government determined on war, we need a psalm that goes –

"OF PEACE & BEAUTY I WILL SING!"

And we have one. It is a psalm in cloth – a Shalom Quilt made of dozens of T-shirts that have called out in colorful and quirky words and images for peace, justice, and the healing of our wounded earth. It is 68" x 76".

Hajj, Saudi Arabia, Rape, & Prayer: A Muslim Feminist Outcry

Sat, 15 Dec 2007 18:12:11 -0500

A Long Request For a Special Prayer During Special Days

by Khalilah Sabra of Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation *

As the Day of Arafat approaches, many of us will fast and pray that we be released from the punishment of our sins. This is a good thing. I will be doing a lot of this myself. I’ve certainly done my share of things I’d rather forget.

But this year, I will do something different and I hope you all will do the same. I hope that we will pray for even those things that seem beyond our condition to change and ask Allah to forgive us for accepting terrible things as a way of life just because it is easier and perhaps we are not experiencing them directly. Pray to Allah to help us recognize that no matter how many goals we frame and how much analysis we give to unfair structures, they will not change unless we take it upon ourselves to get up out of our chairs and do something about.

Hajj & Eid al-Idha: Pilgrimage & Festival

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:18:52 -0500

The 9th day of Dhul-Hijjah (the Month of Hajj) is called the Day of Arafat [in 2007, December 18]. This day is the culminating event of the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

The Day of Arafat falls on the 2nd day of pilgrimage rituals. At dawn of this day, nearly 2 million Muslim pilgrims will make their way from Mecca to a nearby hillside and plain called Mount Arafat and the Plain of Arafat. It was from this site that the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, gave his famous Farewell Sermon in his final year of life.

During the entire day, from dawn until sunset, Muslim pilgrims stand in earnest supplication and devotion, praying for God's abundant forgiveness. Tears are shed readily as those who gather make repentance and seek God's mercy, recite words of prayer and remembrance, and gather together as equals before their Lord.

Communal Fast in a Time of Calamity: A Multireligious Call

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:05:02 -0400

Dear friends,

How do we announce a major religious event, such as the October 8 Fast to move America from conquest to community, from violence to reverence?

When the steering committee of the Fast began discussing this, our first response was the conventional one in American society –- a press conference.

But then we recalled that there are ancient traditions for making the announcement of such a religious act itself a religious act. In the Talmud, for example, there is described a way of Calling a Communal Fast in Time of Calamity. (The calamity might be a drought, a famine, a war.)

TO DISCOVER THE TRUE AMERICA: Fasting on Oct. 8 to challenge the culture of Violence

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:06:12 -0400

WE CALL FOR A NATION-WIDE FAST ON OCTOBER 8
TO DISCOVER THE TRUE AMERICA;

TO MOVE FROM CONQUEST TO COMMUNITY,
FROM VIOLENCE TO REVERENCE

A Call from the Tent of Abraham, Hagar, & Sarah

America stands in great danger of becoming addicted to violence, at home and overseas.

Pervasive violence in American culture, society, and policy is expressed in mass murders like those at Columbine and Virginia Tech; in daily murders on the streets of our cities; in physical and sexual abuse in families and communities; in the obsession of our media with grotesque violence; in our government's decision to wage an unnecessary, morally abhorrent, and disastrous war; in its effort to make torture a legitimate instrument of policy; indeed, most lethal of all, in the ecocidal violence we are imposing on the earth itself.

Why Do We Need a Tent of Abraham?

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 07:15:06 -0500

Reopening the Tent of Abraham

Rabbi Phyllis O. Berman and Rabbi Arthur O. Waskow *

The world is falling helter-skelter down a steep incline toward a fatal cliff: an endless world war between the whole Muslim world and the West, or perhaps the United States. A war between the different families of Abraham.

Sometimes it seems we are already over the edge of the cliff, but perhaps, God willing, im yirtzeh hashem, inshallah, not quite yet. Barely.

Such a war would leave us all at constant risk of death, impoverishment for all public and many private goods, ridden and riddled with fear and rage. Write large – write "global" -- the tip of Manhattan on September 11, 2001; the city of Baghdad all of June, July, August, 2006; Qana on July 30, 2006; Kfar Giladi on August 6.

Review of "The Tent of Abraham" book (Claire Gorfinkel)

Sat, 03 Jun 2006 15:57:06 -0400

The Tent of Abraham: Stories of Hope and Peace for Jews, Christians and Muslims (Beacon Press, 2006). By Joan Chittister, OSB; Murshid Saadi Shakur Chisti; & Rabbi Arthur Waskow. Foreword by Karen Armstrong. *

Reviewed by Claire Gorfinkel *

For some time now, I have longed for a study group that would consider common themes in Jewish, Muslim and Christian texts. But as is so often the case, in my longing I have created a set of expectations that are virtually impossible to fulfill.

I wanted a group with both men and women, Jews, Christians and Muslims who were well grounded in their faith traditions, who would meet for disciplined study over a substantial amount of time, and who would engage issues of both faith and politics, God and the Middle East conflict.

THE PEACE OF ABRAHAM, HAGAR, & SARAH: Sharing Sacred Seasons, Fall 2007

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 05:14:35 -0400

THE PEACE OF ABRAHAM, HAGAR, & SARAH:
SHARING SACRED SEASONS, 2007

Shalom, salaam, peace! --

In the fall of 2007, several sacred seasons of the Abrahamic faiths will come together. At a moment of history when religious conflict and violence have reemerged bearing lethal dangers for each other and our planet, God has given our spiritual and religious traditions an unusual gift of sacred time.

Let us celebrate this rare confluence of THE PEACE OF ABRAHAM, HAGAR, & SARAH by praying and learning with each other and by acting together to –-

SEEK PEACE, PURSUE JUSTICE,
FEED THE POOR, HEAL THE EARTH,

The Islamic Hijri Calendar

Tue, 08 Feb 2005 01:00:00 -0500

2/8/2005

The Hijri calendar is the Islamic dating system, deriving its name from the Hijra, the Arabic word for migration, referring to the migration of the prophet Muhammad(SWT) from Mecca to Yathrib (Medina) in the Arabian peninsula in 622 A.D.

What is the Deepest Sacrifice? --Muslims Observe Eid al-Adha

Mon, 17 Oct 2005 23:13:54 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow 1/21/2005

Asalaam aleikum, eid mubarak! Peace be with you, may the festival Muslims are now celebrating be one of blessing!

As Muslims celebrate Eid al Adha, the Festival of the Sacrifice, we can all learn from this commemoration of Abraham's (Ibrahim's) willingness to obey God's demand that he make an offering of what was most precious to him. The story begins (but does not end) with the understanding that the offering should be Ibrahim's son — Ishmael, in Muslim tradition.

Ad in New York Times! Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah

Mon, 07 Nov 2005 15:50:13 -0500

1/14/2005

Ad in the New York Times: Friday, January 14th page A11.

Please join with Rev. Bob Edgar, head of the National Council of Churches; Dr. Sayyid Muhammad Syeed, general secretary of the Islamic Society of North America; Imam Abdul Faisal Rauf, Imam Talib Abdur Rashid, Imam Mahdi Bray, Meena Sharify-Funk, Saadi Shakur/Neil Douglas-Klotz; Dr. Faraoque Ahmad Khan; Linda Fuller; Sister Joan Chitister, OSB, former president of the Society of Women Religious of America; Jim Wallis, editor, Sojourners; Dr. Susannah Heschel; Rabbis Rachel Cowan, Elliot Dorff, Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Gerry Serotta, David Teutsch, Arthur Waskow, and Sheila Weinberg; and many others to sign this call: "The Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah."

Palm Sunday/Passover liturgy

Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400

Compiled by the Philadelphia Area Interfaith Peace Network, 1/14/2005

IN EVERY GENERATION, PHARAOH; IN EVERY GENERATION, FREEDOM
Church of the Advocate, Philadelphia April 4, 2004
Palm Sunday and Passover Eve

Ramadan, High Holidays, Assisi -- Oct 3-4, 2005

Sat, 08 Sep 2001 21:46:40 -0400

Rabbi Arthur Waskow, 1/19/2005

Next fall, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holy month of Tishrei (which begins with Rosh Hashanah) will coincide.

They will begin on or about October 3, and the saint's day for Francis of Assisi falls