Doane Academy in River Bank, NJ, hosted an Abrahams Table on Tuesday, Feb 15, 2010. It was a very nice atmosphere, music played by the students and a lunch provided by the Interfaith Dialog Center. That was only the beginning. There were 3 Speakers, and their topic was "Peace". Each speaker rose up and shared what peace was in their religion.
Rabbi Richard Simon, spoke about a story that took place on a wheat farm, shared by two brothers. The farm was split in half between the 2 brothers. They both thought was not fair because they both believed that the other deserved more, because of the love they had for each other. During every night they both took wheat from their side an brought it to the other. One night they ran into each other while taking the wheat from side to side. This story was told in two versions Jewish and Muslim. The Jewish version ending was; God decided that the mountain should be decided to be the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. In the Muslim version the ending was; Allah (God) decided to send the Prophet to spread the love in that kind of fellowship. He also talked about the greeting “Shalom” and the meaning which is peace, completeness, and welfare.
Jane Brady a Rector the second speaker talked about "Peace" in Christian view and how many times it was mentioned in the New Testament. Jesus was the Prince of peace; she talked about some of the things he had done. She also shared some passages from the New Testament. For example, "If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace." (Luke 14:32). Two other examples were "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone" (Romans 12:18) and "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification." (Romans 14:19). It was a wonderful speech
Dr. Levent Koç third speaker talked about peace in Islam. He shared with the audience the meaning of Salam Alaikum which means; peace be with you. He talked about how Muslims greet each other with Salam Alaikum. He mentioned about the ignorance in the religion, and shared his thoughts about it. He said ignorance is very pervasive illness, which causes misunderstanding, misinterpretation and mispractice of religion. He shared with the audience; Jihad, which is one of the most misunderstood topics of Islam it means “the struggle to purify your moral conscience”. It is misunderstood because people tend to use in terms of Holy War, which is not the case. He also gave examples of leaving together, "Peaceful Coexistence", from Islamic history where Muslims were rulers and majority and people of the book were the ruled and minority.
Some pictures from the event: