In This Issue:

1. Executive Director's Updates

   • Tsunami Relief: Religious Communities Respond
   • Confronting Islamophobia
   • Human Rights Day Celebration
   • Supporting Interreligious Councils
   • First National Conference of College/University Multi-Faith Councils
   • New Staff
2. We Are All Connected

   • Inaugural meeting of the South Asia Inter-Religious Council on HIV/AIDS
   • SAIRC’s Plan to Combat HIV/AIDS
3. An Introduction to Who is in Religions for Peace - USA
4. "Trust Me " and "One Electorate Under God?"
5. Food for Thought: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
6. Donate to Religions for Peace - USA
7. Subscribe/Unsubscribe

From Our Executive Director…

Participants in the Sikh Cultural Society in Queens - a member community of Religions for Peace - offer prayers and concern for Tsunami victims at services the first weekend in the new year.

Tsunami Relief: Religious Communities Respond

People of faith and goodwill are responding in large numbers to the largest human tragedy in recent history. Over 150,000 people are dead and several million are displaced in South Asia as a result of an earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. The devastation has directly effected 12 countries. For a comprehensive listing of the relief efforts of the religious communities and secular organizations helping in the efforts, please visit our website. Religions for Peace - International and - USA are not collecting funds directly, but directing donors to member religious communities and/or the Asian Conference of Religion and Peace, which is collecting funds on behalf of chapters in the effected countries.

Confronting Islamophobia

Scholars, religious leaders, and NGO representatives gathered in December at the invitation of the United Nations for a conference on "Confronting Islamophobia." Part of the UN DPI Unlearning Intolerance Series, the conference was lead off by Secretary General Kofi Annan and Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr and included many people affiliated in various ways with the Religions for Peace family, including Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, Rabbi David Saperstein, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, and R. Scott Appleby (the later two are pictured here conversing). You missed the conference? Watch it on the web here.

Human Rights Day Celebration

Religions for Peace - USA co-sponsored a Human Rights Day celebration on December 10th. Musicians and artists from as far as Pakistan and the Philippines were featured in the program, which was designed to highlight diverse and historic expressions of artists in their great quest to acknowledge that they were "bound to a law above that of kings." Orchestrated by the Chaplain of the CCUN, Rev. Kathleen Stone, this was part of an occasional series of programs designed to recognize UN special days. More will be coming in the Spring. The next such celebration will be on March 8th at Tillman Chapel.

Supporting Interreligious Councils

Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana addresses the Executive Council of Religions for Peace - USA, meeting in the historic mosque of Malcolm X. Ms. Judith Hertz, Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky, and Imam Izak-El Pasha look on.

In the months ahead, we will be sending you news about the development of interreligious councils in Kansas City, Philadelphia, and Fresno. With the support of the Rockefeller Foundation, Religions for Peace - USA is providing technical support to emerging or re-evolving interreligious councils like these three. We start with consultations in Philadelphia and Kansas City this month. Stay tuned! Let us know about your story.

First National Conference of College/University Multi-Faith Councils

Princeton University is hosting the first national summit of college and university multi-faith councils at a conference called "Coming Together: A Venture Across Religious Boundaries." Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, Macalester College, Wellesley, Vanderbilt and many others have committed to send members of their multi-faith council to Princeton in order to meet members of similar groups from colleges around the country. Interested students should go to the Princeton University Religious Life Council website to find more information. There is a limit of 3 persons from any institution and the conference is free aside from travel. For more information contact Dean Paul Raushenbush at Princeton.

New Staff

As senior staffer Lori Calmbacher recently departed Religions for Peace - USA with an eye towards graduate school, Faizan Ghaznavi joined as a new intern. Faizan is a Sophomore at Fordham University. He is pursuing a degree in Business Administration with a major in finance and a minor in accounting. A native of Pakistan and a practicing Muslim, he moved to the United States when he was three years old. Being raised here in the U.S., he says, “I have been exposed to many different types of people from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds. Working at Religions for Peace-USA is natural for me.” He adds, “I am so excited to be part of the team.” If you are interested in joining Religions for Peace – USA as an intern or volunteer, read on…

Inaugural meeting of the South Asia Inter-Religious Council on HIV/AIDS

Before the devastation of the recent tsunamis, in November 2004, Religions for Peace, in partnership with UNICEF, facilitated the inaugural meeting of the South Asia Inter-religious Council (SAIRC) on HIV/AIDS. 30 senior leaders, representing the many and diverse religions from the region, met to address how their communities in South Asia could respond to the challenge of HIV/AIDS.

South Asia is currently home to more than 5.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS; almost one-fourth of those are children and young people under the age of 25. In 2003 alone, one million South Asians were newly infected. Experts have expressed concern that the HIV/AIDS pandemic may begin to move into general populations, where young people and women, due to limited access to services and lack of knowledge, are extremely vulnerable to infection.

This historic inter-religious council, created in a region rich with religious, social, and economic diversity, yet burdened with ongoing strife and challenging development issues, strongly affirmed the deeply shared desire in all religious communities to stem the spread of this pandemic. The participants, from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and the Maldives, also emphasized the unique role and societal contributions of religious leaders and used the forum to craft a consensus vision and framework for action.

SAIRC’s Plan to Combat HIV/AIDS

The religious leaders pledged to mobilize public opinion in order to reduce and eliminate HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination and to engage women religious leaders and young people within their communities around the issue. Religions for Peace has done this with great success already in Africa. Over the next year, SAIRC also plans to form and strengthen national inter-religious councils around the issue of HIV/AIDS and to review current training programs for religious leaders and educators to ensure that there is adequate information on prevention, care, and support.

To undertake these actions, SAIRC formed an eleven member executive committee guided by a three member Presidium. His Holiness Sugunendra Teertha Swamiji, International Co-President of Religions for Peace and Abbot of the Sri Puthige Math Monastery, was selected as a member of the Presidium. In addition, Mr. Mir Nawaz Khan Marwat, Moderator of the Asian Conference of Religions for Peace, International Co-President of Religions for Peace and Assistant Secretary General of the Muslim World Congress, was selected to serve on the executive committee.

The SAIRC, modeled on the African Council of Religious Leaders established by Religions for Peace in 2003, is a reflection of Religions for Peace’s growing efforts to combat HIV/AIDS globally.

We are often asked "Who is in Religions for Peace - USA?" Well, it is actually comprised of a mix of people, communities and institutions. There are senior and secondary U.S. religious leaders that come as representatives of a host of U.S. religious communities and, on the grassroots level, there are individual members or "friends of peace" like you. What communities exactly? Well, there are a lot! In fact, over a dozen new communities joined last year. Who are they? Rather than review one, as we normally do, we thought that we would provide you with a quick reference list. They come from over a dozen different faith traditions and over 50 religious communities. Here they are.

In this section we feature interesting, replicable projects of our member religious communities or thought-provoking publications for our common mission. In this issue we highlight the film Trust Me by Rob Fruchtman and the book One Electorate Under God? A Dialogue on Religion and American Politics, edited by E.J. Dionne Jr., Jean Bethke Elshtain, and Kayla M. Drogosz.

After the horrible events of 9/11 the world has been a changed place. Religious disunity has plagued the globe at a higher level. People around the world have seen this grievance and have tried to find ways to bridge the gap in understanding and tolerance among Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The Reverend Peter Parish, director of the Elk Shoals United Methodist Camp in North Carolina, had the idea to bring young boys of these faiths together in a summer camp. The goings on of this unconventional summer camp are documented by Filmmaker Rob Fruchtman. The movie, Trust Me, covers a week at camp that turns out to be and extraordinary experience and a sign of hope for religious tolerance and understanding.

One Electorate Under God? is a collection of essays that explore how religious beliefs relate to the obligations and responsibilities of American policy makers. Anchoring the book is a dialogue between Mario Cuomo, the former New York governor and a liberal Catholic, and Rep. Mark Souder of Indiana, a conservative evangelical, in which they disagree on how politicians should be guided by their faith. Mr. Cuomo emphasizes the shared traditions of all religions, while Mr. Souder says it is "unfair" to ask believers to "check those beliefs at the door."

The book's other contributors, who include journalists, politicians, and experts from across the political spectrum, weigh in on how to strike a balance between the freedom to worship and the separation of church and state. In an essay by John J. DiIulio Jr., the former head of the White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives suggests ways in which the Bush administration can better support religious groups at the grass-roots level and translate "compassionate conservatism" into political reality. The volume is part of the Pew Forum Dialogues on Religion and Public Life.

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036; (202) 797-6258 or (800) 275-1447; fax (202) 797-2960; 239 pages; $17.95.