Is the World like a Ball of String Unraveling?

Or is UNITY Possible?

Although we don't practice the Muslim Faith, we believe that it is a Revelation from God, and are
 interested in learning more about Islam.

We are your neighbors, living in the building here with you. Although my wife and I are not Muslims we believe that the peoples of all Faiths worship the same God and that interreligious understanding and tolerance must play a key part of helping to bring peace to our world. We want to understand what we don't yet understand, and so we have asked some experts to come and help us.

"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.

WHEN: ______date______________

WHERE: ___whose home or place & address____     Online MAP LINK (click here ): ___    DIRECTIONS to ___where___

BRING:


If you cannot come you can still join our e-group listserv "on-line" at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Bahai_Islamic_Studies

BACKGROUND and MOTIVATION to do this study series:

Reportedly the Qur'án is now the #1 best seller in the United States. Apparently it's even difficult to find a copy of it on the bookstore shelves any more. Obviously Americans are very curious about whether there is any relationship between the religion of Islam and the terrorist threat to their lives and their way of life. They wish to sort out the differences between the claims of those who perpetrate atrocities that Muhammad (PBUH) would abhor, and those Muslims who instead uphold the name of Islam as a civilizing force in the world. Christian Americans wish to understand if the teachings of Islam (more particularly the Qur'án) are fundamentally at variance with their own Christian beliefs. In essence, the American people are now taking an interest in searching for religious truth from a comparative perspective -- on an unprecedented scale.

". . . and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more." (Isaiah 2:4)

* You can order "The Message" video online at http://www.iranianmovies.com/reviews/message.html (or at Amazon.com) or the DVD at http://www.emory.com/dvd/821.htm A good review of the DVD (which includes a 20-minute documentary "The Making of an Epic") can be found at http://www.lightviews.com/message.htm   The review includes tidbits about the film such as these: (1) shooting the same film with two different casts (one in Arabic with an all Arabic cast!). (2) The extras in the battle scenes were trained by the Libyan Army.