American-Islamic Friendship Project: July 2009

Introduction

The American-Islamic Friendship Project (AIFP) was started by an American seeking to build better relations between the people of America and the Muslim world. The Project collects messages of peace and friendship from Americans to people in the Muslim world and from people in the Muslim world to Americans. We want to publish the messages in a book to be distributed in America and various Muslim countries. The goal is to build greater understanding and friendship between our countries by allowing the voices of “ordinary” people to be heard, dispelling the perception that Americans and people in the Muslim world are hostile to each other, and connecting Americans and people from diverse Muslim countries in promoting our common desire for a more peaceful world.

Get Involved!

Here are some much-needed ways to get involved in the American-Islamic Friendship Project:

1. Contribute a message to the book. Any message is welcome as long as it promotes peace, friendship, and understanding (messages that do not will not be accepted). It can be as short as a sentence or as long as a page. Anonymous messages are also welcome, but please identify your country. Messages can be posted in the blog-posting space below. (Go to the bottom of any of my posts and click on "comments" to post a message. Until I figure out how to automatically display the comments on the main page, I will re-post the comments on the main page so that they can be seen easily.) Messages can also be emailed to: rebecca.cataldi@gmail.com (please put "American-Islamic Friendship Project" in the subject line). For information on sending hard-copy messages via postal mail, please write to the above email address.

2. Share a copy of the pre-published book with people in your community. Messages gathered so far have been compiled in a pre-published book. Please contact rebecca.cataldi@gmail.com about the possibiliy of receiving a copy.

3. Connect us with organizations or people who may like to receive a copy of the book or contribute messages. The book has so far been sent to various places in Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. We are always looking for new places to send the book and for places where we can gather new messages for the final published version. Contacts at schools are particularly appreciated.

4. Help us find a publisher/distributor for the final book.

5. Make a donation. Please contact rebecca.cataldi@gmail.com for more information.

Monday, July 27, 2009

More Messages from the Muslim World

The Palestinian people say: All our wishes for the success of your project on peace, not just on paper but in reality.

Haitham

From the heart to all of you guys: “Love you all and wish all of us Peace.”
Mohammed
(Egypt)

To the People of America!

I believe that Religions came to spread Peace, love and respect.

So let us work for peace, love and respect.
I am a Syrian girl living in Denmark, and I see no reason for why we can’t coexist.
We are all human, and we are all capable to love.

So let us act as human beings.

Love from a Syrian!!
Haifaa

In the name of allah, the compassionate, the most merciful
& In the name of the father and son and saint spirit.

My Brother in Humanity

Peace of Jesus and Mohamad for you, Peace of Prophets and angels for you. Peace for you, with you and on you,

God loves us, we love him, then we should love each other. Because Jesus told us that God is love. And prophet Mohammad asked too. So let’s (LOVE).

Ghassan
Lebanon
12/7/2009

SALAH FROM SAUDI ARABIA 13 July 2009

FDCD Camp

Peace be with you, His blessings and mercy.

This is our greeting in Islam, and this is our message that calls for peace in the world. I am sure that there are lots of misconceptions about Islam and about the West (misconceptions about each other). For this reason and for many other reasons, we should communicate more, we are the ordinary people of different countries.

Dear American brothers and sisters in humanity,

May Allah bless you all. Allah is the Arabic word for “God”. So all Arabs (Muslims, Christians and Jews) call God “Allah”, and they all worship Allah.

I send you this message to tell you that we all worship the same God whether you call him Lord, God, or Allah. That is, what brings us together is our main goal of satisfying God, and that’s why we should all be in Love and harmony because we all walk the same talk, yet in different languages.

So, I say to all Americans, whether they believe in God or not, I love you all because you are my brothers and sisters in humanity, and I believe that God has created us all to love each other and live in harmony and peace, even when we are different in our beliefs, and even when some of us don’t even believe in God in the spirit of Whom I love you all.

Your sister from
Egypt
Mirahan

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

May Allah bless all of you.

A short prayer from
Your Egyptian Muslim
Sister: Shaymaa

Especially for the dearest Rebecca . . .

May the Holy Virgin bless you and all your work, noble and full of faith like you.

Shaymaa
Dhour Shoueir
Lebanon
10.07.09

Indeed, I’m not going to be talkative.

All Human being[s] must realize that we have One God. Thus we must seek about the National Unity to be all in

“One hand and One color”,
One hand toward Humanity,
One color toward Equality

Peaceful:
Ghadir
From Lebanon
13-7-2009

Why am I living? What is the greatest feeling I ever felt? Is there anything behind that blue carpet between clouds? I believe that the first human “thinker”, when he satisfied his basic needs, he started in some way asking these questions. That is exactly when god raised his voice with justice and equality, with religions that started growing in the hearts of prophets, people with a feeling of heavy responsibility on their shoulders. Generation after generation, wars have been killing many of us in the name of living, whereas politics (the person that shakes his hand with god and devil) is not directed toward humanity, but money and power of countries. Here it comes the question:

Can we go back to ourselves, putting our hands in our hearts, on each other[‘s] souls, and drink that cold water, love.

(When you listen to others’ hearts, you are listening to your pulses.)

Ahmed , Saudi Arabia
13/7/2009

What inspired this initiative?

Events such as 9/11 and the Iraq War made me want to do something to promote friendship and greater understanding between Americans and people in the Muslim world. I believe that cultural exchange and personal relationships between “ordinary” people can play a powerful role in creating social change and improving relations between their nations. So I began to visit Muslim-majority countries so that I could meet people and learn about their culture firsthand. At first, I was a little apprehensive. I wasn’t sure how people would treat me as an American. Many Americans have the perception that people in Muslim countries don’t like them or would be hostile to them if they came to their countries. Before I went to Egypt, for example, people in America told me to be careful and worried that something might happen to me.

When I got there, however, I was overwhelmed by the kindness and hospitality of the Egyptian people. Instead of the hostility or anti-American prejudice I was afraid I might find, I found that people were curious about Americans and were happy that someone from America wanted to learn about their country. In talking about political and cultural issues, we found we had much more in common than we had expected. Yet I was surprised to see that many Egyptians seemed to have a similar perception that Americans don’t like Arabs or Muslims or would be hostile to them if they came to America. I had a similar experience when I went to Pakistan on a project to visit women’s madrasas. People there were incredibly kind, hospitable, and welcoming to me. They didn’t seem to dislike Americans, yet many of them seemed to believe that Americans dislike them.

In my opinion, the majority of people in America and in the Muslim world don’t have any hostility toward each other and want to have greater friendship and understanding between our countries, yet we tend to believe that the other has hostility toward us. I wanted to dispel this misperception by finding a way for Americans and people in the Muslim world to be able to communicate their real feelings to each other. One Egyptian university student did some beautiful drawings symbolizing peace and friendship between Muslims and non-Muslims, and she asked me to take them back to my country and share them with Americans. I was touched by her desire to reach out to us, and when I shared them with Americans, they were so happy to receive a message of peace and friendship from someone in the Muslim world.

I started the American-Islamic Friendship Project for two reasons—first, because I wanted to return the kindness I had been shown in Muslim countries with the gift of messages of kindness and peace from my own country, and second, because I wanted to enable people in America and the Muslim world to hear the real feelings of each other, the feelings of ordinary people beyond what we hear in the media.

How does this project hope to improve the relationship between America and the Islamic world?

“Ordinary” people have such a powerful role to play in building better relations between our countries, because it is ordinary people who collectively shape the social consciousness of a nation, and the social consciousness affects the nation’s attitude toward other cultures and international problems. Difficult issues like the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Israel/Palestine can only be resolved if America and the Islamic world can work together as partners in problem-solving, and not as enemies or rivals. In order to be able to collaborate as partners, we need to believe that the other wants to work with us, to know that the other doesn’t hate us, and to trust that the other shares goals in common with us—such as an end to violence and a government that protects the rights of its people—even when we have different ideas about how to reach those goals. So it is so important for us to be able to say to each other, and to hear from each other, “We don’t hate you. We want to work with you to solve these problems. We want friendship and peace.” This is a simple but powerful message, which is often drowned out in the fog of war and terrorism. Perceptions can create reality by shaping thoughts and actions. I believe that initiatives that connect people with each other at the human level can play a powerful role in building better relations by affecting our perceptions of each other.

In the News: The American-Islamic Friendship Project in the Media

Changing Up Pakistan
The American-Islamic Friendship Project has been featured on Changing Up Pakistan (CHUP), a website devoted to raising awareness of issues affecting Pakistan. Visit http://www.changinguppakistan.com/ for more information or http://changinguppakistan.wordpress.com/category/interviews/ to read an interview with Rebecca Cataldi.

Common Ground News
Check out my article on US-Muslim relations for Common Ground News (an initiative of Search for Common Ground) which mentions AIFP. "Working against the problem, not each other" can be found at:
http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=22535&lan=en&sid=1&sp=0&isNew=1 .

Voices of Tomorrow
AIFP was mentioned in my recent article on "Madrassas: Resources for Peacemaking" for Voices of Tomorrow Magazine: http://www.voicesoftomorrow.org/473/international/madrassas-resources-for-peacemaking.php .

American-Islamic Friendship Project

Introduction

Get Involved!

Monday, July 27, 2009

More Messages from the Muslim World

About Me

What inspired this initiative?

How does this project hope to improve the relationship between America and the Islamic world?

In the News: The American-Islamic Friendship Project in the Media

Related Articles

Followers

Blog Archive