{"id":2231,"date":"2015-05-06T15:43:47","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T19:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/66.147.242.160\/~stumbli4\/?p=2231"},"modified":"2015-05-06T15:45:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T19:45:10","slug":"if-you-cant-find-someone-to-disturb-a-mosques-peace-at-least-you-can-hold-hands-and-pretend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/?p=2231","title":{"rendered":"If You Can\u2019t Find Someone Who Disturbs A Mosque\u2019s Peace, At Least You Can Hold Hands And Pretend"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lifting<\/a>

Lifting up ‘inclusivity’ until the hammer comes down<\/p><\/div>\n

At the Huffpo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati witnessed the power of interfaith solidarity on Sunday, when a little over 100 Muslims, Christians and Jews gathered to form a symbolic \u201cpeace ring\u201d around the mosque\u2019s entrance.<\/p>\n

The group was inspired by a similar peace ring that was formed around a synagogue in Oslo, Norway in February following an attack<\/a> against the Jewish community in Denmark earlier that month.<\/p>\n

Event organizer Ericka King-Betts said she wanted to bring the same message of interfaith unity to her Cincinnati community. \u201cWe wanted to replicate that here in Cincinnati to show support for all faiths, and especially for the Muslim community,\u201d King-Betts, executive director of the Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, told The Huffington Post.<\/p>\n

When she thought of the idea for a peace ring, she reached out to Shakila Ahmad, president of the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, and Shabana Shakir-Ahmed, the mosque\u2019s tours and talks chair, who jumped on board.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A synagogue gets attacked by Muslims in Oslo then surrounded with a ‘peace ring,’ and that inspired you to make one at a mosque?<\/p>\n

Three interfaith community leaders spoke at the event, offering prayers for peace. Those gathered formed a semicircle around the Islamic center\u2019s entrance, as King-Betts said the mosque was so big it would require \u201cat least 1,000 people\u201d to link arms around the entire structure — a goal she said the group will work toward by making it a yearly event.<\/p>\n

The power of Sunday\u2019s gathering — a \u201cbeautiful moment,\u201d King-Betts said, when people of all ages and backgrounds stood side by side in prayer and reflection — sent a message of interfaith solidarity that rings with greater potency in the wake of a shooting<\/a> at an anti-Muslim event in Garland, Texas that occurred later that evening.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So Muslims try and kill cartoonists in Texas and that makes your peace ring around a mosque even more relevant and effective?\u00a0 Why not surround the cartoonists with one?\u00a0 Oh wait.\u00a0 I know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are small minded people out there that have really big voices, and all we can do is show them there are people of all different colors, walks of life and faiths that will support each other,\u201d Shakir-Ahmed told HuffPost, referencing the shooting. \u201cMore so than ever we feel we need to continue what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Who does he mean? The shooters didn’t say anything.<\/p>\n

For King-Betts, who said she was fed-up with reading \u201chate-laden comments\u201d vilifying Islam on social media, Sunday\u2019s event lifted up a message of inclusivity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hold hands then lift them up and the message of inclusivity will rise.\u00a0 ‘Inclusivity’ wasn’t even a word ten years ago, was it?\u00a0 I think these people are angry at that Draw Muhammad contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe truly believe there are more people out here in this world that believe Islam is about love and unity,\u201d she told HuffPost. \u201cAnd we refuse to allow a small group of people to define what Islam is.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which small group is that?\u00a0 Is it the one that kills or the one that complains about it?\u00a0 Where do they dig up a thousand people for these circles?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Huffpo: The Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati witnessed the power of interfaith solidarity on Sunday, when a little over 100 Muslims, Christians and Jews gathered to form a symbolic \u201cpeace ring\u201d around the mosque\u2019s entrance. The group was inspired by a similar peace ring that was formed around a synagogue in Oslo, Norway …<\/span> Read More →<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[292,293,294,291,290,295],"class_list":["post-2231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cincinnati","tag-draw-muhammad","tag-inclusivity","tag-interfaith-peace-ring","tag-mosque","tag-oslo-synagogue"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2231"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2248,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2231\/revisions\/2248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stumblingblock.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}