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Report by Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Photos by Talat Mahmood
American Muslim Voice Foundation held its 2010 peace convention on March 20, 2010 at the Muslim Community Association banquet hall in Santa Clara, CA. The convention drew large crowd from near and far towns. This year’s convention theme was From Fear to Friendship: Replacing the culture of despair, division and violence with a culture of hope, inclusion and peace. This convention is part of the AMV Foundation’s ongoing global campaign “The Miracle Movement of Peace and Friendship.” We are walking on the path Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. paved for all of us to build an inclusive, peaceful and beloved world. We are striving to create a culture of peace, acceptance, mutual respect and harmony in our world.
Four parallel panel discussions titled: (1) Building trust through multi-faith values; (2) Demystifying the meaning of Jihad; (3) Debunking the myths about Muslim women and (4) Interrupting prejudice were offered to choose from. Our fellow Americans and Muslims showed great interest in the panels and were well attended.
Imam Tahir Anwar, Rev.Michael Yoshii, Rev. Phil Lawson, Craig Wiesner and Dianne Muller were panelists for “Building trust through multi-faith values.” Saeed Malik moderated that panel.
This panel was aimed at articulating strategies to bridge gaps between major theologies by focusing on common threads shared by all faiths. The general premise we have found through experience is that regardless of race, religion, culture, or ethnicity, there are far more things that we share in common with one another than there are things that divide us.
Saeed Malik, moderator of the panel concluded the discussion with a heart warming message: “Multi-faith bridges must find their anchors in our hearts. These panelists too are driven by their hearts so must we all. AMV’s mission is to foster friendship among all Americans by bridging the cultural and religious divides. I thank AMV, their Board and volunteers for putting all this together. I thank Firdous Kamran and Samina Sundas for inviting me.”
“Now I ask you as Rumi asks across the ages of time; Are you just going to admire the jug or are you actually going to drink the water?
“Don’t be a bystander. Stand up, speak out and be counted. Extend a hand; reach out, volunteer, meet, love, listen, weep, laugh and share. Don’t let apathy waste the opportunity to bring change, slow as it may seem to be. The World is richer because there are Buddhists and Hindus and Jews and Christians and Muslims. The family of Adam now lives in a very small neighborhood. Let us know each other because only then can we know ourselves.” 
Imam Faheem Shuaibe, Wajahat Ali, Sara Jaka and Cem Yesilyurt were panelists for “Demystifying the meaning of Jihad” Shafath Syed moderated this panel.
This panel was aims at addressing the common misnomers about the term Jihad, its origin, and its meaning. History is littered with examples of theology taken out of context and used subversively for political agenda, much in the same way that the word ‘Jihad’ has been misappropriated by fear mongers with an altogether different definition than the one we are familiar with. AMV’s goal is to educate convention attendees on the true meaning of ‘Jihad’ and to highlight the stark differences in context from religious text to politically charged media sensation.
Bhawana Kamil, Banafsheh Akhlaghi, Reshma Inamdar, Samina Asif and Ahsan Syed were panelists for “Debunking the myths about Muslim women.” Rabea Chaudhry was the moderator.
This was panel aimed at addressing the stark contrast between Western impressions of Muslim women and the reality of their status as prescribed by religious text. Sensational reporting from our biased media has successfully associated Muslim women with a deferential status to men, even going as far as to disrespect our sisters with the notion that they are oppressed by their faith. This panel serves as an opportunity to set the record straight about women of Islam and the powerful respect they rightfully command through their faith.
Delorme McKee-Stovall, Bruce Bramlett, Dawan Muhammad were facilitator for “interrupting prejudice” workshop.
This workshop addressed common prejudicial challenges most people face but are unequipped to resolve. Attendees learnt how to initiate a dialogue that communicates their concern about bias motivated stereotyping, labeling and scapegoating that is often communicated in jokes, comments, mis-characterizations, gestures and acts of violence.
This workshop has been offered to thousands of Santa Clara County residents and boasts time tested techniques that promote change in biased and hateful behavior while maintaining relationships that mean so much to us. American Muslims are hardly the first group to be targeted by prejudice, though perhaps the latest with the announcement of the TSA resuming ethnic profiling at our major airports. Continued on next page
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