Is the World like a Ball of String Unraveling?

Or is UNITY Possible?

"The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens."

YOU ARE INVITED!

To an "Interfaith Dialogue" -- A study series with special emphasis on better understanding Islam
(What are your questions? ?????? Bring them.)

Why is religion considered part of the current "war" in Afghanistan?

Is interreligious understanding a key to establishing World Peace?

What are the myths and misconceptions that the East and West have of each other?

What should we know about Islam?

What were the Islamic contributions to Western civilization?

What are the different interpretations of the term "Jihad?"

WHAT:  (Presentations, Discussions, Questions, Answers, Multimedia.)

Tuesday, November 13th, Dr. Bob Sylvester will make a presentation on a chapter on Islam from Karen Armstrong's book "The History of God" -- a balanced view of Islam from a Judaeo-Christian perspective.  (Ms. Armstrong is a former Nun.)

We intend to show about 15 minutes of the film, "The Message" (Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas and Michael Ansara -- originally called "Mohammed, Messenger of God" when it came out in the theaters), to start the discussion. The film does not show the person of Mohammad, it says, "because it would offend against the spirituality of His message." A claim at the beginning states: "The scholars and historians of Islam -- the University of Al-Azhar in Cairo and the High Islamic Congress of the Shiat in Lebanon -- have approved the accuracy and fidelity of this film." It is a GREAT film and we might later schedule a time for watching the entire movie. (See movie review * below.)

We will also show 10 minutes of the most recent PBS documentary (semi-drama) called "Islam: Empire of Faith" (http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/ )

If time, there will be a 10 minute demonstration of "Immerse" at the end -- a free computer search engine and hypertext Qur'an that can aid our individual study. The presentation will be made on big screen data-display projector. One of the features of this database is that it enables you to jump to a cross-referenced page in the Qur'an from the Baha'i text and vice versa with a simple mouse click. For more information see at http://bahai-library.org/start/search_engines.html OR http://www.bahaindex.com/documents/search_engines.html  .

UPCOMING presentations:

Ms. Afaf Stevens -- Islamic scholar, whose mother-tongue is Arabic, interested in removing misconceptions in the West about Islam. One of her talks will be on the status of women in Islam.

Ms. Eleanor Mitten -- who, along with her father (faculty advisor to the Muslim students at Harvard), will jointly present.

Mr. Getahun Beyene -- a scholar from Ethiopia who has experienced relatively peaceful co-existence in his country (50% Christian / 50% Muslim)  This may serve as an example to American Christians that religious pluralism and dialogue with Muslims IS possible. Muhammed Himself [PBUH] sent His believers there (Abyssinia) for sanctuary under the Christian king in His time.

Mr. Charles Pau -- from Hong Kong -- raised as a Muslim in China.