American-Islamic Friendship Project: July 2016

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.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

New Messages from Americans

Dear Arabic Friends,

I have been reflecting a great deal about life this past week. It is such a gift and the majority of people just live every day and are never alive. How life is so beautiful. We get caught up in the menial tasks of the week that we forgot to be thankful to just be here. I know the conflict and pain will come to end. Our worlds are so different but yet the sun still rises for each of us every day. The sun is always selfless and giving. The sun provides us the light for our day but there is also light in this world that is filled with love and giving. Once we learn to light up the world and give we are then selfless like the sun. I realize that life is terribly complicated. I know this tension between us is devastating and seems impossible to fix. We must all remember to breathe when life, the world, the suffering, the political insanity, the war, and hate overwhelm us. With love noting is too much trouble and there is always enough time.

I am so thankful to share with you my thoughts. I hope that life brings you happiness and that you are able to give and love every day in your own way.

Hannah

Hello to the friends I have not yet met,

My name is Melissa. I am 20 years old, and I am an American Jew. I love to write, study philosophy and make short films.

Growing up, I did not know many Muslim people or people from the Muslim world. Now that I am in college, I have met people from all over the world, who practice many different religions and who are from all races, ethnicities, and cultures. Some of my best friends are Muslim. I have become so close to those I was once taught to believe were so different from me. I have learned that beyond our different exterior is a wholly human interior. We all have hearts that both love and fear, brains that both think and dream, and eyes that have seen both peace and violence. I have many times forgotten these things, but I try to remind myself of our commonalities as often as possible. I believe that, one day, the whole world will realize our similarities, while not forgetting our beautiful and important differences, and we will live in unity and peace.

I have faith.

Love,

Mel

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!

Saturday, July 16, 2016

New Messages from Americans

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

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