First “Families Meeting” series concludes with a spectacular night

The first series of “Families Meeting” project, intended to bring together the members of diverse cultures, faiths and ethnicities and let them get to know each other, by Intercultural Dialogue Platform (KADIP) in cooperation with Foundation of Solidarity (DIDADER), came to an end with a final gathering at Syriac Catholic Church.

My Town Is a Living Laboratory of Pluralism

Rabbi Joseph Meszler

In my small town of Sharon, Mass., there is a great deal of love, a good dose of hatred, and a lot of ambivalence. It is emotionally exhausting keeping up.

In the past year, our town's different synagogues, churches and prominent mosque have come together to collect food for a food pantry on Thanksgiving, stuff backpacks for poor children on MLK Day, share music in an interfaith concert and pray for victims of gun violence. We have also had a brick thrown through a church window with anti-Semitc graffiti because of the church's pro-Zionist stance, and Rev. Pat Robertson came to town to slander the Quran as "a book of hate." And then there are people who just want to be left alone and don't want to get involved.

Muslim and Jewish Leaders Unite to Combat Hatred

Rabbi Marc Schneier*

Secretary of State John Kerry performed an important public service on May 20 by personally announcing the release of the U.S. State Department's 2012 Report on Religious Freedom, which contains the disturbing findings that anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are on the rise in countries around the world. Bad news is never welcome, yet Secretary Kerry deserves praise for highlighting the dangerous growth of anti-Jewish and anti-Muslim bigotry and for making a compelling case that both Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are closely related pathologies that should be opposed by people of conscience everywhere.

York mosque counters EDL protest with tea, biscuits and football

Ann Czernik

Demonstrators who had gathered to protest at Islamic centre accept invitation to take refreshments and open a dialogue

A York mosque dealt with a potentially volatile situation after reports that it was going to be the focus of a demonstration organised by a far-right street protest movement - by inviting those taking part in the protest in for tea and biscuits.

Oklahoma Muslims Aid In Tornado Relief In Bid To Build Bridges

Omar Sacirbey

(RNS) Oklahoma is probably one of the tougher places to be a Muslim in America, but Muslims have stepped in to help with the cleanup of a massive tornado that killed 24 people.

“As Oklahomans, we’re part of this community, and our hearts just break for what happened,” said Adam Soltani, executive director of the Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of several Muslim groups collecting donations.

Imams Visit Auschwitz, Nazi Death Camp, Pray For Holocaust Victims

Jaweed Kaleem

Muslim leaders from across the globe paid tribute Holocaust victims this week during a visit to Auschwitz, the former Nazi concentration camp, where they prayed at the Wall of Death for those who were killed by genocide and suffered under violent anti-Semitism.

Doumanis On Muslim - Christian Coexistence

Margarita Papantoniou

N. Doumanis, an academic in Australia of Greek descent, wrote the book, Before the Nation: Muslim-Christian Coexistence and its Destruction in Late-Ottoman Anatolia.

The book answers questions, such as: What kind of life did Greeks have under the Ottoman Empire? Why were so many Greek Orthodox Christians living in Asia Minor before 1912? Why did so many Greeks migrate to Asia Minor during that period?