Dallas Immigration Rally

We have a moral responsibility to stand up for Justice and human rights of others. Please do your share of good, for all the good you have received from this nation, the nation that stands for liberty and Justice, you have to bring a balance in your own life by giving your time to defend the rights of the ones who need to be defended.

Join us for the Mega March on Saturday (details below). If you cannot stand up for the rights of others, why should any one stand up for you?

Today, Friday, April 30, Clergy from different faith traditions joined in to express solidarity with the un-documented immigrants. The leadership in Dallas led by Domingo and Elba Garcia and Carlos Quintanilla are taking the issue to the streets tomorrow to protest the unjust immigration law passed by Arizona.

I wish I could share the beautiful sentiments expressed by so many ministers, however, I am pleased to share my thoughts and a small prayer.

Dear God:

- We are gathered here to seek your guidance; help us do the right thing.
- Help us open our hearts and minds to fellow beings;
- we believe we are one nation under God with liberty and justice to all, help us practice it.
- Give us the humility to respect your will,
- Help us embrace each one of the 7 billion of us without any distinction;
- Each one of us is capable of working toward the kingdom of heaven, help us achieve it;

I am here today because a lady by the name of Rosa Parks stood up for her rights and her right to be treated with dignity.

I am standing here today as an immigrant because Rev. Martin Luther King gave up his life to bring civil and human rights to America, it was this singular act that caused all of us to be here in America to enrich our nation. Dr. King lifted us from the burden of guilt of inhumanity that would have eaten and rotted the psyche of our nation. We are born to be just, we are conditioned to be just and we have to gaurd ourselves from straying from justice.

Please remember Jesus, Krishna, Muhammad, Gandhi, MLK, Moses.... and all those great guys were harassed and persecuted when they set out to do good for the humanity. You will be no exception if you are involved. The good news is when people see the long term sustainable good it brings by uniting us all, even those who are against the comprehensive immigration reforms will see the value in doing the right thing.

Now we have a moral responsibility to stand up for Justice and human rights. Please do your share of good, for all the good you have received from this nation, one nation America, with liberty and Justice for all. Bring a balance in your life by giving your time.

Please join us for the mega March in down town Dallas on Saturday, at 1:00 PM
Join us at the Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe Saturday, May 1st @ 1pm on Ross Avenue in Dallas.
Acompáñanos en la Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe

Then I shared my Religious greetings from ten different faiths.
I will be speaking again tomorrow at 1:00 PM

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker, writer and an activist of Pluralism, Justice, Islam, India and Civil Societies. He is a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Article at: http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/04/dallas-immigration-rally.html

You are welcome to write your comments:
http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/04/dallas-immigration-rally.html#comments

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Driving While Amused

I drove a distance of 875 Miles from Louisville, my wife's hometown to Dallas, my home town in 14 hours, on the way; there was so much amusement to share. It feels good to be on the road, there’s so much good out there. Our Tax dollars are working well to make America, the beautiful....

I sincerely hope, as Americans we cut out all funding of foreign military aid, instead spend that money on health and education of their people. Help them help themselves in doing well and not to be at each other's throats. Republicans, wake up, it is not a charity, it is an investment in creating a consumer market for our goods (thank God, it is called goods).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157623953700138/show/

7. Except a short distance in Tennessee, the entire stretch was flat, flat as my belly (desired one).

3. I played the old rock and roll music from India, Elvis, Little Ritchie, BeeGees, Michael Jackson and a few others. Shaking the body to rock and roll keeps you awake and active.

1. One out of four Trucks (18 Wheelers) is Red in color, nearly half of the trucks are white in color, the other colors were Green, Purple, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Magenta (there was one). I started counting them from Nashville to Memphis and random sampled again from Little Rock to Texarkana. Of the 100 count, 26 were Red. While driving, I took several pictures, but posted a few. There is always that ubiquitous Red.

2. One out of 4 trucks were Volvo, I was puzzled to see many Volvos, the others visible ones were Mack and International.

4. I kept 80 MPH for a long while, but as I entered Texas, I discovered that at 75 MPH the SUV runs a lot smoother than at 80. It was easy to be on the phone as well.

5. There is an incredible amount of farm land in that stretch. I was wondering, if all the industries were to collapse, oil gets dried up… we can still produce enough food for all and live a comfortable agrarian life. No TV, No nothing, just basic beautiful life.

7. The roads are incredibly smooth except my own state; Texas.

8. Incredible Fog could not see beyond 100 yards, yet the nuts were driving over 80.

9. The shoulders were cut and clean.

If you have not driven, please make that pilgrimmage.... our road system is simply incredbile. Indeed, it is our Road system that turned as around, gave us mobility, broke the regional barriers and flourished the commerce. May President Eisenhowers's soul be blessed for his initiative.

South Park incident with a Muslim

First of all the idiots who threatened the South Park producers must be condemned and rounded up without any delay. It is a law and order issue. One of the pieces of my conversation with Sean Hannity was about the South Park incident

2. Secondly, it is really not a Muslim or an Islamic issue, it is an issue of radicals who do not like the freedom of others, it is about the people who like to mess other's peace. It is not a Muslim issue because this mind-set exists in every group, religion, or tradition without exception. The Right wingers have killed doctors who perform abortions and even bombed the clinics, the Gay people are mauled and killed right here in Oak Lawn by the extremists, this is not a Christian issue, this is the issue of extremism. The Bahia’s refused to serve the homeless, because they were gay. A Jewish mother disowns her daughter because she is marrying an idol worshipper. The Hussain controversy was neither a Hindu issue, a few did not like the freedom of others and vandalized the author. The Cartoon controversy is neither a Muslim issue. Jesus was right, let the one who is sin-free cast the first stone.

3. Thirdly, it is really an issue of score keeping. You hurt me and I will hurt you attitudes prevail and like idiots we blame the religion. All we have to do is seriously (real seriously) look at the number of people involved in these incidents, they are negligible. It would not make sense to label the entire group for the actions of the few, unless, we enjoy bashing other or seek thrill in trouble making.

4. Fourthly, there will be always a few, yes, just a few, who dwell in creating divisions and promoting conflicts, there is some gain for them in it. When people are bent on score keeping, both sides will be scoring as opposed to coming to terms. A majority of us sit on the sidelines, some of us have to pick the slack and work for creating a better world for us to enjoy. We are in it together to bring peace and harmony for all.

5. Lastly, my personal commitment is to facilitate dialogue, to be non-judgmental and let my time be spent on mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill. I would urge all of us to patiently try being a goodwill nurturer and conflict mitigaters. Doing bad does give the momentary thrills, but doing good gives lasting serenity.

Please note that I am posting this note about Drawing Muhammad as a forum for a dialogue, just as we did with Hussain. Let’s find solutions and also understand that some will not like it.

What can you do?

Stereotyping any one from any group goes against building peaceful societies. The more conflicts we allow to stew, the more difficult it will become for all of us. If someone says, this group of people behave this way, ask them to add all other groups that do similar things... and you will find that eventually every group has one of them.... Bad dudes are not a monopoly of any group.

Punish the wrong doer and not his mother, father, brother, sister and avoid doing the dumbest thing; to blame the bad dude's family, his city, state, religion or his nation.

What can Muslims do?

Follow the example of the prophet; he has created a model for every situation. Once when the bad dudes threw pieces of rock at him, he was bleeding and his associates wanted to dash out and punish the miscreants, even the Angel Gabriel said, he will take care of them. But the prophet stopped them and said, no, instead he asked his associates to pray with him for the goodwill of the miscreants.

I would suggest, pray for goodwill to prevail, write nice notes to the producers...the more you get agitated, the more they would be tempted to agitate you. One side has to stop the conflagration. It is the opportunity for Muslims to demonstrate it. Several years ago, many mosques had prayed for the goodwill of the Dutch cartoonists upon my request... sadly the media did not report that. I have the emails from the people who did the right thing.

If you know the producers of South Park, please let them know that there are more Muslims willing to protect their rights than a few radicals who have threatened them.


It is our duty to keep law and order and faithfully guard the safety of every citizen. Hate is one of the many sources of disrupting the peace in a society and it is our responsibility to track down the source of such hate and work on mitigating it. We have an obligation to maintain a balance in the society. When we are at peace, we can generate peace and we can expect peace around us. Our words and actions should mitigate conflicts and nurture reconciliation and goodwill.

Thank you

Mike Ghouse is a frequent guest at the media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. He is a thinker, writer, speaker, optimist and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Co-existence, Peace, Islam, India and Civil Societies. His work is reflected at 3 websites & 22 Blogs listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Hannity, Fox, Graham, police & Mt. Vernon

Sean Hannity, Rev. Franklin Graham and Police, what an exciting day!

Friday, April 23, 2010. I got the call from the Sean Hannity Radio show to be on the air with Gabriella Bridgette and Sean to talk about Rev. Franklin Graham’s statement. Rev. Graham made some uncouth remarks about another religion.

I pulled over in Mt. Vernon, Texas and could not find a Starbucks to check on the internet and prepare my talking points. Howver, driving through the town, I found the public library and walked in and talked with the receptionist about my need for a room to be on the radio show, she was excited to hear Sean Hannity and suggested me to use the room upstairs, there was no one up there. During the show, strange things happened at the Library and I have summarized it in the funny side of the story below.

Link: http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/04/hannity-fox-graham-police-mt-vernon.html

At the appointed time, they called me in and I was on the air at 1:00 PM CST. As usual Gabriella was on the air with her shrill voice and creating the hype about Muslims and Islam. Sean was throwing Rev. Graham’s comments, which I agreed partially and affirmed the condemnation of bad acts by anyone. We need to condemn oppression of women in Muslim countries, and oppression of women in every place. Sean attempted to twist my words, “are you saying you can justify mistreatment of women “I turned around and said, you did not hear my condemnation, condemnation was first and then I said, we need to stand against oppression of women in all societies.

Education is critical and singling out the wrong doers and punishing them appropriately is the key to solving the problems. Sean asked how would I educate the terrorists who are looking for the hooris in the paradise. I gave the Mumbai terrorist example where the Muslims did not give them space in their cemetery to bury them, sending a clear message to the terrorists that they will not even get a burial place let alone the cooked up promises of hooris for the terrorists, as it is not in Qur’aan.

My point was if I threaten to murder someone, it’s me whose ass needs to be hauled off and bring justice. Blaming my City Carrollton or my religion Islam is dumb and pointless as you cannot do anything to change Carrollton or Islam, you cannot change Christianity for the wrongs of Crusades, inquisitions, Holocaust etc. neither can you hang a religion, city or the nation, they are intangibles.

The same law applies to the Americans who are incarcerated as the law abiding citizens in the ratios of 1:99, then does it mean All Americans are bad people? That is their logic, when that 1/10th of 1% of Muslims do wrong, blame them not their religion stupid.

I have no disagreement with Rev. Graham or Bridgette condemning oppression, but condemning religion for the bad acts of the people was wrong. Rev Graham should have shown grace and leadership when he was disinvited at the pentagon.

I expect Rev. Graham to be a man of integrity, someone who speaks the truth. He needs to substantiate his words, anyone can say anything, the mouth is free to assemble the words, but to stand the test of truth is what matters. Rev. Graham fails on that. Here is a prayer from a friend Vanja Krupa from face book, and I do hope Rev. Graham makes it a part of his daily morning prayers, ""God, please help me to keep my mouth shut, until I know what I am talking about"

I do hope he revisits his arrogance – about learning and not shooting his mouth off without knowing about Islam. He did not learn a thing from Jesus and I hope he meditates and learns to be a responsible minister. Jesus is about love and inclusiveness; he gave us one of the greatest models of pluralism and inclusiveness.

Several months ago, Glen Beck had called on me, and I refused to go on the show, if he did not give me the time to answer his question and keep interrupting. At least with Sean, he gives the moment to respond, I will give him credit for that. He is determined to drive his point of view and may not want to see another point of view, as that would weaken the strength of his show for his right winger audience.

Critical thinking is required, Rev. Graham is a minister and he needs to be honest. If he calls a religion evil, he better have the facts and not non-sense rhetoric. No religion teaches hatred. It sounds like a drunk babbling with assembling and reassembling a few words. He is a respected member of the community and he needs to consider spreading peace and not hate. Would Jesus approve his actions?

I will make an attempt to reach him and see if he can at least see another point of view like Jesus, if he can, he can marshal his masses to do a lot of good in the world.

May we learn to be inclusive and not push people to dig in their heels, including the terrorists.

NOW THE FUNNY SIDE OF THE STORY

I had things to talk, our show was for one hour and we had to cut it off due to disturbance at the place I was on phone with; the Franklin county Library in Down town Mt. Vernon.

I was attempting to match the shrill voice of Gabriella over the phone and was talking about Terrorism, and in no time the staff of the library stood across me, either they were scared to see this odd looking man wearing a Aussie hat and talking about terrorism with this big black bag and spread out phone and charger paraphernalia or simply the voice in the library. They were telling me to cut off and get off… I told them that I had the permission from the receptionist, and I was on the radio. They were telling me to cut it out. I lost my coherency on the radio with so many disturbances, as the police officer approached me upon their call in. I got off the phone.

We laughed it off, as the police officer had heard me on the radio and I had apologized the staff
members and told them what happened. I took the pictures of the officer and the library to share it on my blog.

WRONG BOOKS

While I was updating on the facebook about the incident, the man next to me was reading the history Encyclopedia of the world and he was on the page about India. He looked at me and I looked at the picture of King Ashoka, my first words were OMG, they had the Turkish head gear on Ashoka. God help the historians and book publishers to at least verify what they are writing.

I was doing a Radio show of my own several years ago, and was looking at the internet for historical information about the Highway built in India from Calcutta to Lahore; it was called the Grand Trunk road built by Sher Shah Suri in around the 10th century. There were several sites out there that claimed it was built by British or someone else. I routinely find mis-information about Hinduism and Islam in books out there in the market.

HOW THE RADIO SHOWS ARE PRODUCED

While I was on the road to Louisville, I had Sean Hannity people called me back again to be on the evening show and they wanted me in a studio, and they were searching for a studio in Texarkana, as I was about 50 miles away on Interstate 30 but found one in Shreveport and I had two hours to get there and per him it was 71 miles and I had 121 Miles to go, there was no way I could have made it in two hours with the unknown rush hour traffic in Shreveport, furthermore, it was going away from my route to Louisville.

A television station called me up to be on their evening news and they were setting up a place in Little Rock , Arkansas and the issue was same – I had two and a half hours to get there and had 180 miles to go. They may reschedule me on Wednesday this week.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN;

I enjoy Willie Nelson’s number on the road again, so was I, and reached Yasmeen’s house in Louisville at 3:00 AM. Drove the 450 Miles stretch straight, thinking about life and the need for people to be divisive. What is the need to hype and for what?

If Rev. Graham spends his energy on peacemaking, he probably can add significantly than lying about other faiths for possible gains of money, as there is no truth in his words. If Gabriella can put the same efforts in creating a better world, she probably can add some good to the world rather than create more clashes. What is their motivation?

Do they understand that they are doing the opposite of their intentions of creating a better world?

When I am with them again, I will talk about this and several other issues.

Mike Ghouse is a frequent guest at the media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. He is a thinker, writer, speaker, optimist and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Co-existence, Peace, Islam, India and Civil Societies. He Presides the Foundation for Pluralism and the World Muslim Congress and Co-Chairs the Center for Interfaith inquiry. He is a board member of the Dallas Peace Center and Memnosyne Foundation and a former commissioner at the City of Carrollton. Mike is a Dallasite for three decades and Carrollton is his home town.

His life mission is to open people's hearts and minds towards fellow beings by mitigating conflicts and nurturing goodwill. He is a peace maker and an educator with two Masters degrees and working on his doctorate in Psychology. He has two books on the horizon; Pluralism 101, it is all about respecting the otherness of other and Basic Islam- everything you wanted to know about Islam. He has authored over 800 articles on the subjects, many of them are published in the newspapers and magazines around the world. His work is reflected at 3 Websites & 22 Blogs listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157623803170989/

Documentary on War and Peace

Watch this 4:30 Seconds documentary on War and Peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RVUj1O3guY

I urge the viewer to hold the temptations to comment, until the whole documentary is viewed. This is a great documentary and a lot of things have been said in 4 minutes and a lot of suggestions have emerged. To see the change you want to; you need to act.

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/04/documentary-on-war-and-peace.html

Defending oneself is a necessity, aggressive war is not. We cannot be safe unless others around are safe and it is in our interests to ensure safety for others, so we can be safe.

Dallas Peace Center, under the leadership of committe Chair Roger Kellenburg is diligently working on understanding and developing the idea of converting the economic base from military complex to peace products.

As a nation I cannot be threatening others and expect them to take the crap, their threats are as ugly as our threats to them, in reality both sides want safety but we go about in the wrong ways by showing off the animal fear in frightening each other. We are equipped with a brain to deal with the situation rather than deal with the horns, armgs and legs. Let me or my nation take the first step to bring safety for others, in turn we will be safe and every one would be.

The hallmark of civil societies is resolving conflicts through dialogue as it becomes sustainable, oppression and suppression guarantees re-emergences of the conflicts. I hope our policy makers get this simple idea in their heads.

If you subscribe to the ideas of peace through dialogue, please consider joining the Dallas Peace Center - http://www.dallaspeacecenter.org/, Dallas' oldest peace organization on a vision of reconciliation: to promote education and dialogue. I am one of thee board members of the Dallas Peace Center.

Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Mike Ghouse is a frequent guest at the media offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. He is a thinker, writer, speaker, optimist and an activist of Pluralism, Interfaith, Co-existence, Peace, Islam, India and Civil Societies. His work is reflected at 3 websites & 22 Blogs listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Honoring Imam Dr. Yusuf Zia Kavakci today

Honoring Imam Dr. Yusuf Zia Kavakci today

Saturday, April 10, 2010
Dallas, Texas

I am pleased to share a few interfaith moments about Imam Dr. Yusuf Zia Kavakci, a scholar of Islam, a lawyer and an Imam. He has now established an institution with his name to impart education to the youth born and raised here in the D/FW Metroplex.

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2010/04/honoring-imam-dr-yusuf-zia-kavakci.html