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Associated Press – Sept. 23, 2006
Muslims donate money to repair
west bank, Gaza churches
ST. PETERSBURG -- A group of Tampa Bay-area Muslims donated $5,000 to help repair churches on the West Bank and Gaza Strip damaged after a speech made by Pope Benedict XVI.
Members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations gave the check Thursday to the Rev. Robert Gibbons, vicar general of the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg.
"We have always said we deplore any violent act carried out in the name of Islam," said Ahmed Bedier, a spokesman for the group. "Now we are putting our money where our mouth is."
The check was made out to The Catholic Near East Welfare Association in Washington and was intended as seed money in a worldwide campaign to repair the churches in the Palestinian territories, Bedier said…..
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Florida/floSTAT02092306.htm
United Press International – Sept. 22, 2006
Muslim group meets Vatican envoy to U.S.
BY MARTIN SIEFF
Representatives of the Council on American-Islamic Relations met Thursday with the Vatican's ambassador to Washington.
Other American Muslim leaders attended the meeting, which was held to discuss the international row that has erupted following Pope Benedict XVI's controversial comments about Islam in Regensburg, Germany, last week.
CAIR said in a statement that its legislative director Corey Saylor and its legal director, Arsalan Iftikhar, handed a letter to Papal Nuncio Archbishop Pietro Sambi urging "greater dialogue and outreach" between the world's two most populous religions that have 2.3 billion believers between them.
"It is our belief that the proper response to this situation is for Muslims and Catholics worldwide to increase dialogue and outreach efforts aimed at building better relations between Christianity and Islam. We oppose any language or action that tends to shake the friendship and alliance between our faiths," the CAIR letter said…..
Reno Gazette-Journal – Sept. 25, 2006
Nevada Muslims, Jews building ties
By David Jacobs
A visit by Reno-area Jews to the Northern Nevada Muslim Community Center on Sunday involved more than Ramadan and the Jewish High Holy Days falling at the same time.
It's about building ties between Muslims and Jews.
Local Muslims invited Temple Sinai members to the community center and mosque to break a Ramadan fast at sundown Sunday.
The gathering in Sparks was planned as Jews observe the High Holy Days and Ramadan gets under way.
At least a dozen members of Temple Sinai visited the Muslim community center.
"A lot of Muslims and Jews are cousins, neighbors, and we have a lot of common problems," said Mike Medvin of Temple Sinai. "If we can't sit down and have dinner together and talk, we're never going to be able to solve the problems.
"If people do not stand up together and speak against inhumanity, there will always be inhumanity," he added.
Waseem Akhtar, a Muslim, called the visit "good for the community. It will bring us closer together, and that's definitely good for all," he said.
Imam Abdul Barghouthi of the Muslim community center in Sparks said he borrowed the idea for the gathering from other states.
"I believe there is a move toward that from the different faith groups where people, religious people, are feeling that their faith -- regardless of what it is -- can contribute to a better world, should contribute to a better world," he said.
"The only way we can do that is by reaching out to the other faiths and working together, instead of against each other," Barghouthi said. "I hope we can minimize our differences and emphasize our similarities and see where it goes from there.
"I am hoping to start a interreligious and interfaith dialogue so our groups, our respective groups, will get to know one another. By doing that, we will have a relation(ship) that is based on knowledge and respect, and we will try to get rid of the ignorance of each other's faith and each other's practices."
Rabbi Myra Soifer of Temple Sinai was asked to speak about Rosh Hashana -- the Jewish new year-- and Yom Kippur, the year's holiest day for Jews.
Barghouthi and Soifer wrote about the gathering in a joint column in Saturday's Reno Gazette-Journal. "World politics often divide Muslim and Jewish communities," they wrote. "Tragically, often that divide is a violent one. We see blessing in this confluence of our communities' most sacred times."
Rosh Hashana and Ramadan started over the weekend…
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060925/NEWS10/609250318/1002/NEWS
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