3. What is Pluralism?
The current world population is 7.3 Billion, and the Christians and Muslims together add up to 3.9 Billion (2.2 Billion Christians and 1.7 billion Muslims ). God places a huge responsibility on our shoulders to keep the world intact, they way he created, with all elements of the creation functioning together cohesively. We have an obligation to create safe and secure societies for all of us, every human, where everyone minds his own unique life (be it social, cultural, spiritual or religious) but yet nurtures the connectivity of all beings. At American Muslim Institution, we take this responsibility seriously and will take the initiatives to forge the ideals of one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. We are committed to a cohesive and safe America for everyone.
To understand a cohesive world, our bodies are an example. Each organ of our body system is interconnected, and the heart, brain, kidneys, lungs, liver, stomach and anus are all coded to work with each other, no organ is superior to the other and all are equally partners in our system. If one element malfunctions, or loses its balance, it will affect the normal functioning of all. That is how God created a cohesive universe, and the cohesive planet earth, where life, matter and environment function together in balance. If we lose any balance, we mess up our own safeness.
Chief Seattle, a Native American said this perfectly, “All things are connected. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. Man did not weave the web of life; he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the webs, he does it to himself.”
Both Jesus and Muhammad created a vision of such a cohesive world in the form of heaven, where every soul would live in eternal bliss, a conflict free zone, living their own bliss and letting others live theirs. This vision is expressed in the form of Pluralism, an attitude of respecting the otherness of others and accepting the God given uniqueness of each one of us, and when we reach that level of integrity in our attitudes, conflicts fade and solutions emerge, and that was their vision.
I call Jesus, the first pluralist in the world and Muhammad the second one sequentially. Indeed, both the men were (are) a mercy to mankind. Neither of them was needed, if the world was created to be 100% perfect, the world is indeed built-in with 1/10th of 1% of extremity or anomaly, that is capable of messing the balance of the entire 99 – 9/10th of the world. One embraced the diversity of God’s creation and the other prayed for the ignorance embedded within others. Together they offered solutions to restore the world through forgiveness, humility, kindness, justness and acceptance of the otherness of others.
Both of them made my day! They were good positive voices and notes. I was excited and had to call in my friends, as many as I can, including Ambassador Islam Siddiqui and Dr. Aquilur Rahman, President and Chairman of AMI respectively, and who inspire me to do more, but then I did not call other friends as I got tied up on the phone. Thanks to my board of Directors at AMI who encourage me and are committed to a beautiful America.
We need to prepare ourselves for those eventualities to prevent possible conflicts, and lay a good foundation for nurturing goodwill and effective functioning of the societies. Exclusive communities will become a thing of the past. If you live amidst others, you must also respect the otherness of others, as you expect them to do the same for you.
Pluralism is not a set of rules, it is simply an attitude of live and let live religiously, politically, culturally and socially. We are committed to building cohesive societies, where no human has to live in apprehension, discomfort or fear of a fellow being.
Saturday, December 26, 2015 at 1:00 PM
Bring your own chair and an umbrella
Parking – Road side public parking subject to availability.
Rail and Bus – The nearest metro stations are Foggy Bottom (23rd St. & I St. NW) and Smithsonian (12th St. &Independence Ave. SW). The Circulator Bus also runs to the Lincoln Memorial along Independence directly from the Union Station.
EVENT IS FREE, BUT PLEASE REGISTER AT:https://www.eventbrite.com/e/merry-christmas-milad-mubarak-tickets-20040393356
Its an interfaith event supported by many organizations.
Details at: http://americanmusliminstitution.blogspot.com/2015/12/season-of-peace-joint-celebration-of.html
Latest Press Release: http://americanmusliminstitution.blogspot.com/2015/12/press-release-first-time-in-history.html
How can you help?
1. First attend the event on Saturday and invite your friends to join.
2. Write a heart felt note, why is it necessary to know each other**
3. Depending on the time, I may record your 1 Minute speech as a feed back of the event.
We have a lot more work to do to build a cohesive America where no American has to live in apprehension or fear of the other. To do this work, takes money, and we invite you to seriously your tax deductible donations to American Muslim Institution, 110 Maryland Av, NE, Suite 508, Washington, DC 2002.
Link to this note, if you would like to share. http://americanmusliminstitution.blogspot.com/2015/12/holiday-readings-on-christmas-day-and.html
God bless you and God bless America.
If you wish to read more about these two guys:
- Celebrating Prophet Muhammad’s birthday
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2015/12/celebrating-prophet-muhammads-birthday.html
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2015/12/celebrating-prophet-muhammads-birthday.html
- How I Connect With Prophet Muhammad – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/how-i-connect-with-prophet-muhammad_b_2547782.html
- Interfaith Christmas –Making God boundless http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/interfaith-christmas-making-god-boundless_b_2347856.html
- The 1444th Birth Celebration of Prophet Muhammad –http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/festivals-of-the-world-mi_b_4579452.html
- A Muslim’s Christmas –http://dallasmorningviewsblog.dallasnews.com/2015/12/texas-faith-when-baby-jesus-meets-neiman-marcus.html/
Dr. Mike Ghouse is a community consultant, social scientist, thinker, writer, news maker, and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, Islam, politics, human rights, India, Israel-Palestine Terrorism and foreign policy. Over 3000 Articles have been published on the subjects. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. More about him in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and bulk of his writings are at TheGhousediary.com