Until there is a plan which respectfully addresses those left out or those who choose not to participate, Response, and all those responding to it, will be adding to America's woes not healing them.
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The final two days of the Fes Forum grappled with two large issues of the times: corruption and democracy.
I appeal to Americans to attend the prayers by demanding an inclusion and not allow Gov. Perry to chop God into bits and pieces; yours and mine. America is yours and America is mine, let's not allow any rascal to monopolize God to serve his interests and whims.
As I reflect on my friendship with my Muslim high school friend and the Catholic spiritual adviser, it is clear to me that the many diverse religions of the world are complimentary to each other and not in competition with each other.
Can the "spirit of Fes" help in breaking the vicious cycle of hate and indifference? Can it restore human dignity to the stalemate and hurt? Can this blend of history and present, spiritual and material, help bring solutions?
Our motto at the Arava Institute is "Nature Knows No Borders." In Dubai, I experienced what we teach in Israel at the Arava Institute.
Muslims are our fellow Americans. They are part of the national fabric that holds our country together. They contribute to America in many ways, and deserve the same respect as any of us.
As New York -- and all of America -- approaches the tenth anniversary of 9/11 there are legitimate fears that Islamophobia may re-emerge as a response.
As arranged by the Abraham Path's local partners, I ate with people, slept in their homes, visited their schools, viewed their factories and fields, and talked with them about their beliefs, frustrations, hopes and desires.
Our contemporary churches are populated with Christians, atheists, humanists, Jews, Buddhists, and even Wiccans. Nevertheless, I will argue that we do have in fact have a theology that has been relatively clear and consistent through time.
Many of us perhaps need to have our notion of God deepened and expanded. We must be ready to learn from one another, not claiming that we alone possess all truth and that somehow we have a corner on God.
We honored our interfaith son's transition to adolescence with the essence of the Bar Mitzvah (reading from the Torah and Shabbat prayers), but also included elements drawn from his Christian heritage.
I have been participating in interfaith dialogue as a rabbi and Jewish leader for more than 30 years, and most of the time it just doesn't work. Most of the time it is terribly boring.
Joining the Interfaith Council at USC and engaging in dialogue and service became ways in which I could strengthen my own faith, by viewing it through the prism that unites all faiths.
If Catholics and Jews had to wait for generations before our laws accommodated their religious practices, what's wrong with telling American Muslims they must expect the same?
Fighting slavery cuts across political lines. It represents a moral consensus: Slavery is wrong, and we should not benefit from unpaid labor.
Of course, children can, and many do, grow up and shed the burden of that imposed belief system. But why should parents impose upon their children a religion to lose?
Leo Tolstoy scathingly wrote of a protagonist whose life was "most ordinary and therefore most terrible." Such may also be said of the ruling put forth by Tennessee judge Robert Corlew.
We render no service to our country by idealizing ourselves, and ignoring pervasive prejudices as normal. To overcome a problem, we must expose it, discuss it and then, address it effectively -- together.
The fact that this question could be asked out loud to a guest of a Christian Church demonstrates a deep and pervasive understanding that expressions of Islamophobia are not taboo, but actually to be expected.
Tennessee's state legislature is expected to pass a bill that will seriously harm our security by alienating our biggest allies in combatting homegrown terrorism: our fellow American Muslims.
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