Understanding Different Faiths, Not The Myths Or Misrepresentations

1. As our thoughts are with the congregation and community of Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas and with all brothers and sisters in faith who are impacted by terrorism and fear, we know it is so important for all of us to come together in gatherings such as this to better understand and appreciate each other and the beauty and foundational teachings of our respective faith traditions. Be well all and stay safe and keep sharing who and what you are and learn about others.

2. Omgosh! What an awesome program! Very informative. And Imam Mekye, you presented some statistics and information I was truly unaware of. What I discovered by watching this presentation is that the media truly has the power to control the narrative. I just don’t understand why the truth and/or the facts isn’t enough to present to the masses. For now on, when I want truth or simple facts about religion, spiritual issues or events that effect humanity as a whole, I’m coming to InterfaithLibrary.com first. And Dr. Saundra, I enjoyed your presentation as well. I didn’t quite understand all of the Hebrew terminology but I think I got a good grasp of what you conveyed. I will follow you on your blog. If I write you there, will you respond? Or should I reach out to you through this Interfaith Library? God Bless you all. Keep up the amazing work!

   1. Kat, Thank you so much (Todah Rabbah in Hebrew; Shukran Lak in Arabic) for your lovely communication. Yes, we are definitely committed to the approach of “do not assume, do not attack, but please ask” as we all share important fundamental teachings that are so similar in profound ways though we may express them differently in our own faith traditions. Whether you speak of HaShem (in our Jewish Tradition) or the Lord and Jesus in Christianity/Catholicism, or Allah with his prophet Muhammad pbuh, we are all trying to be the best people we can be. The way to spread the word is to join with others in these meaningful dialogues and exchanges and we welcome you to our vastly growing community that is gathering in our Interfaith Library. Looking forward to discussing and sharing important ideas with you in the future.

3. Are you guys kidding me? I watched this twice today. I’m about to have a watch party for a dozen or so friends of mine in a few minutes. Unbelievable!!!
   Is it truly possible for different faiths to come together like this without discord? I am still skeptical but you all got me watching and listening for sure. Let me first state a truthful fact. I’ve visited this site a few times. My initial intent was to cause discord. But then some of the posts and information made me pump my brakes. For one, I hated Islam. Secondly, I thought I hated ALL Jews. Yes, Muslims were terrorists. I thought Sept. 11th substantiated that. Yes, Jews were agents of the devil. But following this library and fact checking what was published, I quickly discovered I was wrong and was being misguided by forces and groups and didn’t know why? What was/is their agenda? Whatever the motivation, I was compelled to revisit this site a few times and each time I found myself saying wow! With that said, I want to apologize to you Imam Mekye and Dr. Epstein for my ill thoughts and unsubstantiated views about those who are different from me. Because of InterfaithLibrary.com I am learning how to say hello to people and asking them to tell me something about themselves I otherwise wouldn’t know definitively. You all are amazing. This is the BEST site ever created. And I will be a patron as long as you all will have me. Again thank you for opening my eye and my heart. I can’t wait to see more programs like this. Hopefully that wait won’t be too long.

   1. Dear Alan, Thank you so much for your heartfelt words… and this is exactly how we change the narrative. By sharing our texts, our faiths, and thoughts and our souls, we come together with the love that each of our traditions and belief systems teach. The idea of our gathering is always to learn more about each other and to come to new appreciations of each system of belief while appreciating all the more the beauty and true intentions of our own. There is a clear difference between “causing discord” as you noted and coming together to share and converse and learn. We are all so much more as a result of our joining our hands and hearts, simultaneously confirming the soul of our own belief systems and learning so much about each other. This is very much for real and for those who do not want to learn, we cannot help. But for those who are open to hearing real stories instead of defaulting to pre-packaged stereotypes or caricatures, we join a community of people of faith and belief who are genuine and the best examples of what our respective belief systems strive for in our fractured, imperfect human world. Welcome to our circle (Baruchim HaBaim in Hebrew and Aindama ‘iilayna in Arabic) and we hope to continue to have you as a partner in our growing circle of dialogue and learning.

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