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ISNA Press Release – September 26, 2007
ISNA joins interfaith leaders call for day of
fasting to bring peace and reconciliation
Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007--Several religious leaders representing tens of millions of faithful Americans stood today in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol calling religious communities of various traditions to a day of fasting and prayer.
Represented at the news conference were leaders of Muslim, Jewish, Roman Catholic, Unitarian, and Baptist traditions. The Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, associate general secretary for interfaith relations at the National Council of Churches USA (NCC), and himself a Baptist, organized the news event.
Ancient practices were used at the news conference in the call to the nation. The ram's horn, or Jewish shofar, was sounded to "wake up" a nation. Ashes were placed on the leaders' foreheads as signs of repentance. A bell was tolled to call America's people of faith to join together on October 8 to fast from dawn to sunset, breaking the fast with their Muslim sisters and brothers.
"When you are fasting for Ramadan, you are enhancing your sense of compassion," said Dr. Sayyid Syeed from the Islamic Society of North America. "We will be asking mosques to open their doors to people of other faiths around the world on October 8 for prayer and dialogue."
Dr. Syeed said the Islamic Center in nearby Sterling, Va., will open its doors to interfaith neighbors Oct. 8 to break the Ramadan fast together. "We must return to the ancient disciplines so that we will turn away from violence toward reverence," said Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center, Philadelphia….
http://www.isna.com/articles/Press-Releases/ISNA-JOINS-INTERFAITH-LEADERS-CALL-FOR-DAY-OF-FASTING-TO-BRING-PEACE-AND-RECONCILIATION.aspx
AFP – September 23, 2007
Multi-faith prayers thrive in US politics:
ISNA Secretary General leads Friday Prayer at the Capitol Hill
by Roland Lloyd Parry
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Bowing and mouthing prayers, Saleh Williams prostrates himself on a white sheet beside his colleagues. For these Muslims, Friday worship takes place not in a mosque, but a meeting room in the Capitol -- at the heart of US democracy.
This gathering, for the Friday worship known as jummah, is the only Muslim event in the Capitol. But it is just one of many prayer and religious study groups of various faiths held by Congress members, their staffers and other employees, inside the federal buildings where the nation's laws are made.
Senate Chaplain Barry Black holds separate "prayer breakfasts" and Bible study groups in the upper house for senators, their spouses, and for less senior staffers or employees.
"You can get, on a very good week, 50 percent of the senators participating in the prayer breakfasts or the Bible study," Black said. "And they do so obviously on a bipartisan basis."
There are also Torah studies involving Jewish staffers, he said. "But a number of Christian people attend those studies as well."
Ever since the making of the US Constitution in 1787 when Benjamin Franklin asked that each day's business start with a prayer, religion has been central to political life and the lives of many who work here.
The jummah is the most recent sign that faith-based groups are thriving in the corridors of power.
"Actually praying in the Capitol building -- it's a sign that Muslims have a place in government and are respected, just like any other religious group or philosophy," said Williams, 33, an assistant to a Democratic congressman.
On weekdays, two of the five sets of Muslim daily prayers fall during Williams' working hours. So he washes and prays in the office with his chief of staff, a fellow Muslim.
This free use of federal offices for religious observance distinguishes the Capitol from parliaments in other democracies.
"That stands in stark contrast to every other industrialized country on the planet," said Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University in Texas and author of "Faith in the Halls of Power," a book on the rise of evangelical Christians in political life….
Religion's historic prominence in US politics and the rise of the evangelical movement in recent decades may even have benefited other faiths, Lindsay concluded from his five years of research.
"Muslims today in the United States have more latitude than I think they would have if evangelicals had not been sort of leading the charge for public expression of faith," he said.
Muslim prayers in the Capitol have gone on each Friday for a decade, undiminished despite the attacks of September 11, 2001, which led to tightened security and, Williams said, hostility against Muslims.
The jummah has expanded since permission was first given for members to use a Capitol room for it in 1997, said Suhail Khan, a Republican who works for the Department of Transport and was one of the group's founders.
Around 40 men and five women from the House of Representatives, the Senate and surrounding government offices attended recently on the second day of the holy fasting month of Ramadan….
http://www.isna.com/articles/Press-Releases/ISNA-SECRETARY-GENERAL-LED-FRIDAY-PRAYER-AT-THE-CAPITOL-HILL.aspx
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