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Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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AMV Peace Convention 2010 attracts large crowd (continued)

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The main program began with a Abrahamic prayer offered by Nabeel Asif (Muslim), Neil Penn (Jewish) and Rev. Eileen Altman (Christian). Syed Zafar Mohsin, President AMV Northern California and Board member Yasmin Vanya welcomed the guests on behalf of the AMV Foundation. Rima Chaudhry was the master of ceremony for the evening.Judge LaDores Cordell

"Preaching to the choir" was the title of the speech of Judge LaDores Cordell who was the keynote speaker. Sharing shared her experience from the civil rights movement, the Judge stated it takes courage to stand up against injustice and ordinary citizens must take those courageous steps before we can build a movement. “Courageous people like Rosa Parks and other individuals played a key role in building the civil rights movement.” She congratulated American Muslim Voice Foundation for being courageous for walking on the path of building an inclusive, beloved and peaceful world. She also praised AMV for trying to replace the culture of despair, division and violence with a culture of hope, inclusion and peace. Pete McHugh-2 3-20-2010 

Pete McHugh, Vice Mayor, Milpitas, CA shared his thoughts on “Building a beloved community” Vice Mayor MchHugh practices what he was preaching. He has played a key role in establishing and sponsoring a Palestinian cultural day in Santa Clara County when he was a Supervisor. He praised AMV Foundation’s efforts of fostering friendships among all Americans by bridging the cultural and religious gap. He stated that he has witnessed AMV standing with other communities for their issues. “You can build a beloved community by supporting other communities in their time of need.”

The title of the speech of Dr. Hatem Bazian, Professor at UC Berkeley, was "Peace: A Prophetic State of Mind and Being!"

Samina Sundas, founding Executive Director of the AMV, spoke on “Creating a village where everyone matters.” She said:

“I am inspired by this verse from Surah Al-Hujurat Qur'an 49:13    
O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female and made you into nations and tribes that ye may get to know each other (not that ye may despise each other).”Samina-2 3-20-2010

“Human beings are funny in a way. We gravitate towards the new, the unique, the exotic except where other humans are concerned.  We want to see, mingle with or befriend people just like ourselves.  Do you think it was difficult for God to make us look alike? He chose to make us look different for a reason, so we would fill up this world with the beauty which blossoms in each one of us. Imagine our world in which there was only one kind of tree, only one kind of flower, only one kind of bird or animal. Imagine how it would be if all of us looked alike with an ID marked on our foreheads.  More importantly, what if He gave all of us the same brain? We would all be doctors or engineers, gardeners or plumbers. The point is we all need each other for our emotional, physical, moral and spiritual well-being and the sooner we accept that the faster we can fix our world.

“Imagine how safe our neighborhoods would become if we all took care of them and how secure our children would feel if we raised them together.

“Let us make a pledge that we will build that village together where we won’t simply tolerate one another, but totally accept each other. Better still, we would cherish each other as a special gift from God. God made this beautiful world for all of us and I often wonder what the world would look like if human beings followed God’s command fully.

AMV Foundation’s 2010 Community Service Awards

Another feature of the program was recognition of the community members for their dedicated community service and efforts to create peace and harmony in our world.Awards 3-20-2010

Banafsheh Akhlaghi was the recipient of the Fred Korematsu Civil Rights Award. Fred’s wife 89 years old Kathryn Korematsu presented the award.

KPFA received 2010 Peter Jennings Unbiased Media Award.

Cesar Chavez Social Justice Award was given to Campaign For Justice: Redress Now For Japanese Latin Americans.

Virtuous Public Official Award - For a public official who is Representative of all his constituents, not just for selected groups – was given to Pete McHugh, Vice Mayor of Milpitas.

Badshah Khan Peace Award was given to Carolyn Scarr, program director of the Ecumenical Peace Institute.

Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice received the Marla Ruzicka Humanitarian Award. Marla’s parents Nancy and Clif Ruzicka specially came to present the award in their daughter’s honor.

Martin Luther King Jr. Beloved Community Building Award was given to Latino Community Council of Woodland for building an inclusive and beloved community.

AMV’’s Spirit of Islam Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Mr. Syed Inamdar and Mrs. Razia Inamdar for their community service.

The evening ended with a performance by Steve Bhaerman, an internationally known author, humorist, and workshop leader, popularly known as Swami Beyondanda, political guru and un-communicator. It was the perfect ending with humor, food for thoughts and message to do good and create goodwill in the world. AMV Foundation’s National President, Khalid Saeed concluded the evening by thanking the guests for being a part of AMV Foundation’s 2010 peace convention.

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