December 2008 Festivals

Continue: http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/Articles/December2008-festivals.asp

Honoring Rabbi Gavriel & Mrs. Holtzberg

Honoring Rabbi Gavriel & Mrs. Holtzberg of Chabad of MumbaiShare

MEMORIAL SERVICE

Honoring the memory of Rabbi Gavriel & Mrs. Rivkah Holtzberg
Chabad- Lubavitch, Mumbai, India
Along with all the victims of the Mumbai terrorists attacks

Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Chabad of DFW and the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas

PROGRAM
Video Presentation – Light
Psalm 23/ Prayer for peace – Rabbi Howard Wolk
Jewish Federation – Mrs. Carol Aaron
Memorial Candle – Rabbi Asher Goldschmidt -Mr. Raymond Abraham, Indian-American
Memorial Service- Chazzan Itzhak Zhrebekr
Soul Strings – Musical prayer - Rabbi Zvi Drizin
Key Note – Our reponse - Rabbi Mendel Dubrawsky

I am pleased to have joined the Jewish community of Dallas honoring the memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Mrs. Rivah Holtzberg at Chabad of DFW. It was good to see several friends there, including some of Indian Jews like Nik Mehta, Raymond Abraham and others.

The Musical prayer was touching, as it was sung by the congregation with flute played by Rabbi Zvi Drizin.

I listened to the key note intently, as it echoed my own sentiments to do the best we can in working for a better world.

I hope each one of us, reading this can make an effort to be part of the sorrow and joy of the people regardless of their religion, race or ethnicity. It opens your heart and mind, the very purpose of the religion one follows.

Celebration of the life of America’s Imam

Celebration of the life of “America’s Imam”,
Imam Warith Deen Mohammed

3:00 PM Sunday, November 30, 2008
Thanks-Giving Square Chapel
Dallas, Texas

Welcome by Mike Ghouse

Welcome ya’ll.

I am pleased to greet our gathering with greetings from a few faith traditions to represent all.

Greetings are simply a goodwill sound to extend friendship to the stranger, it shows one’s desire to know the other, and most certainly it is simply “wishing and invoking” the goodness in others. The idea of greetings is about peace and friendship.

Please feel free to repeat after me;

• Allah Abho (Bahai)
• Buddha Namo (Buddhist)
• Peace to you (Christian)
• Namaste (Hindu)
• Salaam (Muslim)
• Jai Jinendra (Jain)
• Shalom (Jewish)
• Sat Sri Akaal (Sikh)
• Hamazor Hama Asho bed (Zoroastrian)
• HI (all inclusive)

"Let us join hands. As a group we must strive to meet our common
goals, and so I ask:

"May God send us enough joy to keep our hearts singing...enough sorrow
to make us understanding...enough hope to enrich our lives...enough
trials to keep us strong...enough leisure to refresh our spirits...and
enough love to make our world seem beautiful.

Bless us all, in Your Name. Amen."

Imam Warith Al-Deen Mohammed is one of the most distinguished Muslim leaders in the United States, who passed away on September 8, this year. He has been the spiritual leader and inspiration of the Muslim community in general and African American Muslim community in Particular. It is indeed a great loss of leadership. Warith Deen Mohammad is recognized worldwide as a leading Islamic thinker, philosopher and a religious leader.

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PRESS RELEASE

Dallas - He was “America’s Imam.” In 1975, Imam Warith Deen Mohammed saw beyond the limited world of his father’s black separatist Nation of Islam and boldly transformed it into a diverse, open religious community following the true principles of Islam. Imam Mohammed’s philosophy of bringing all faiths together for the good of humanity will be celebrated by numerous religious leaders of different spiritual paths this Sunday, November 30. 2008, 3 p.m. in the Chapel of Thanks-Giving Square, 1627 Pacific Avenue at Ervay, Dallas, 75201, 214-969-1977. The celebration is free and open to the public.

Estimated to have about two and a half-million followers at the time of his death, September 9, 2009, Imam Mohammed’s leadership changed the face of not only African American Muslims, but how Muslims are viewed around the world. He worked with Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, world leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Anwar Sadat, and religious leaders from all faiths such as Pope John Paul II, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rabbi and Catholic Focolare Movement founder Chiara Lubich, to name a few.

His father’s teaching of black business independence had proved very valuable but the Honorable Elijah Muhammad’s conveyance of Islam had been misguided. After studying the Qur’an, Imam Mohammed realized the way of Islam is peace and that it has many things in common with other religions that could be shared. He reached out to Christians and Jews fostering understanding about how they could all work together for the common good.

This is his legacy and what will be celebrated by Lutheran Bishop Mark Herbener, Methodist minister Don Benton, Baptist minister Sidney Jackson, Sr., Sikh Harbans Lal, and a leader of the Jewish faith, Muslim Imam Muhammad Shakoor, Catholic Focolare leader Isabel Furtado and a leader of the Jewish faith to be confirmed. The Evolvers, a local Muslim girls’ dance group will perform.

Videos on Imam Mohammad’s interfaith work and excerpts from his lectures will be shown during a reception following the program.

Listings, psas and coverage will be appreciated. For interviews and media info please call Thanks-Giving President and Executive DirectorTatiana Androsov, 214-969-1977, info@thanksgiving.org; Marzuq Jaami, 214-924-0270-cell; or Alexis Yancey 214-335-4744-cell, alexisyancey@sbcglobal.net. Thank you.

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Muslim leader urges shift from black theology
Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Religion Writer

Monday, April 21, 2008


Bay Area residents had a rare opportunity Sunday to hear a man who may be the single most influential Muslim in America. But the limits of his reach were also on display.

When Imam W. Deen Mohammed stepped to the podium at the Masonic Auditorium in San Francisco, there were perhaps 300 people in the audience, almost all of them African American.

Though most of his hourlong talk was not about race, the issue that made him a revolutionary in American religion, he didn't shy away from it. He urged audience members to think of themselves not in racial categories but in human terms.

Mohammed spoke of how the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. dreamed of a day when his children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. But after King's death, Mohammed said black leaders chose another direction.

"Now how come after he died, our leaders talked nothing but 'black' to us," he said. Mohammed said the use of the adjective "black" to describe the community's achievements degraded them - and insulted others.

Noting that African American leaders in Congress refer to themselves as the Congressional Black Caucus, Mohammed questioned how people would react if there was a "white caucus." Mohammed urged those gathered to think about the universality of all people - and that defining religion for any one race is dangerous.

"Black theology weakens our ability to gain from scripture, guidance from scripture, to make ourselves a better religious community," he said.

The words are dramatic considering the path that Mohammed has taken.

Mohammed is the son of Elijah Muhammad, who for more than 30 years led the Nation of Islam, the black separatist religion that deemed all white people to be "devils" and black people to be "gods." W. Deen Mohammed was chosen by his father to carry on his legacy.

But after Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, the son chose a different path. He gradually dissolved the Nation of Islam, leading believers toward the Sunni branch of Islam. All people were equal, regardless of race. Women were the same as men, except for physical strength.

While his father's Nation of Islam explicitly referred to the U.S. flag as a symbol of "slavery, suffering and death," Mohammed started New World Patriotism Day in 1979, according to Imam Faheem Shuaibe, who leads Masjidul Waritheen, an Oakland mosque.

The effort was intended to show that the ideals set forth in the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are the same ideals called for in the Quran.

"We should be most American," Mohammed once said, according to Shuaibe. For a Muslim to reject those documents, Mohammed reportedly said, "You reject our greatest opportunity."

Mohammed does not reject what his father did entirely, calling it a necessary step in the evolution in the psyche of African Americans. For a people who had been degraded into a status of inferiority for centuries, believing that they were gods helped level the playing field, he maintains.

In his talk Sunday, Mohammed, who now leads a Chicago-based nonprofit the Mosque Cares, said his father had "prepared" the community.

As a result of the huge religious migration away from the Nation of Islam, many scholars believe African Americans are the single largest ethnic group of American Muslims today. (Louis Farrakhan would resurrect the Nation of Islam, though it would be far diminished in size.)

Sunday's talk was notable for the remarkable absence of Muslims of immigrant descent. Though American Muslims often say that Islam has no racial bounds, most Bay Area mosques parallel the demographic patterns of Christians - segregated by ethnicity or race. The Muslim Community Association in Santa Clara is the most notable exception.

Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley lecturer, appeared to be the sole prominent figure in the immigrant Muslim community who showed up. Bazian gave a speech before Mohammed's talk about the promise that could be had if the two communities worked together.

But the absence of immigrants left some bitter at the slighting of the American Muslim most beloved to Muslims of African American descent.

"We are once again disappointed by our brothers who are immigrant Muslims," said Imam Abu Qadir Al-Amin, who leads the San Francisco Muslim Community Center. "Don't call on me in the future."

Peace Prayers - Terrorism attacks on Mumbai

The India Association of North Texas, based in Richardson, Texas held a candle light vigil at its premises in Richardson, Texas. Established in 1962, IANT, as it is known represents over 100 India based associations in North Texas.

10 Candles were lit by representatives of a faith or an India based organization to commemorate the tragedy of Terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India.

Continued: http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Mumbai-Terrorism-Commemoration-Prayers-by-India-Association-Dallas.asp

Essence of thanksgiving

The Essence of thanksgiving
It is one of my favorite holidays; it is a day to express gratitude to all those who have helped shape our lives. It is also a day to express friendship and kindness to those who are struggling with the difficulties of life, Thanksgiving is a day of sharing. It is just not you, ask Bill Gates, whom God has blessed proportionately for his intelligence, he would answer, not enough! Ask the Homeless the same question; the answer is still the same, not enough. Who has enough then?
Continue

Obama Foreign Policy who's who

Given the Lack of opposition in the three branches of our Government, I will do my best to keep pointing to the OBAMA BLUNDERS and I hope the media takes the responsibility for our disaster by not speaking out during Bush times, and will fulfill its responsibilities to speak up now. We have our freedom back now.

Continued: http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Obama-Hawks.asp

Articles on Republicans

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2008/11/articles-on-republicans.html

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I have written a few of articles about my party; the Republican Party.

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The following articles are about how we the Republicans have screwed it up, and how we can fix it. If you are the kind who are blindly loyal to the party and are intolerant to another point of view, then you are the sinker of the party. Please don't read this further. Thank you.

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My loyalty is to America, its constitution and its democracy first, then the party. I wish the Republicans and Democrats take the same approach. Our Party leadership is arrogant beyond the point of no return; we need a change in leadership for the sake of having a strong opposition to ensure our democracy survives. We need a leadership that beleives in honoring and respecting every human life that God has created, we need the leadership that actively seeks co-existence on the planet. We cannot have peace and prosperity if we mess with others and we cannot be secure if we keep threatening the others. Republican party needs a overhaul.

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There articles are in no particular sequence;

Republicans, you had better wake up

Saving the Republican Party

Republicans, please put America first
Dumb Republicans
Neocon Republicans
Mr Bush let the time run out.
Five Health care reform lies
Bush Rove Cheney Troika
Mr. Bush, please resign
Regime Change: USA
Fix the President now
Impeach VP Cheney?
Prayers for our President.
Republicans paid a price
I could kill George Bush
Betty Williams and the Truth
Beyond Bush - Fareed Zakaria
VP Cheney to be impeached?
Déjà Vu in Dallas - Neocon folly again
Republican Obession with Terrorism
Are you still a Republican?
Republicans are waking up
Republicans are screwed
Laser Barking at Terrorists
John McCain
Bush world is round
Will John McCain Apologize?
Bush-Lite McCain
Did Senator McCain Betray?
Congressman Tom Tancredo
Blind War on Terror
Krauthammer - the sycophant

Obama Articles by Mike Ghouse

I will be monitoring this President under the title OBAMA-BLUNDERS at my Blog. It is patriotic thing to speak up and that is how democracy survives. I believe he will be one of the best Presidents America ever had. However, it it our duty to have an opposition,

Should not have teased that dog
Suspected fascist in Obama Admin
Obama Brings tears of Joy
Hope for America
Should Obama Attack McCain?
Peace is the result of Justice
Obama's religious advisor
Obama a Perfect Union
Obama the Shepherd
Obama Rally in Carrollton
America Bragging
Romney has the instincts
Republican or Democract,

I am a big supporter of Obama, campaigned and have held rallies for him and have written over a dozen articles listed at www.mikeghouseforamerica.com. However, we owe it to our democracy to have a strong opposition, without which we could be making the same mistakes we did during the last eight years, and shamefully the Republican party is loaded with bullies and the American public will not give them a lift as long as they have the likes of Gingrich, Giuliani, Cheney, Romney, McCain, Palin and others, and as long as they listen to the Neocons. It is effective and economical to solve the problems through a dialogue, no need to be macho and a show off. Hilary for secretary of state would be a mistake, she does believe in pushing others to the corners and dig in their heels. All his appointees need to go through a strict scrutiny. I will be monitoring this President under the title OBAMA-BLUNDERS at my Blog. It is patriotic to speak up, and that is how democracy survives and you and I will continue to have the rights to speak up.

Muslims Beware, Kaaba and wikipedia blunder

MUSLIMS BEWARE
Kaaba and the Wikipedia Blunder

Mike Ghouse, Dallas, Texas

I cannot believe Wikipedia is taken as a gospel by so many, every word in it is taken as the ultimate truth. You will discover it's danger in the following report. A statement is made "While destroying each idol, Muhammad recited [Qur'an 17:81] which says "Truth has arrived and falsehood has perished for falsehood is by its nature bound to perish."[28][29] . A few of my Hindu friends have assumed that Terrorism has it's origin in the above act, of course the very same statement is a fodder to the Neocons, who rejoice and pass it one to every one with a comment, "I told you so, Islam is an intolerant religion".

Continued: http://www.foundationforpluralism.com/WorldMuslimCongress/Articles/Kaaba-and-the-wikipedia-blunder.asp

Obama you should not have teased that dog.

Obama, you goofed on your 60 minutes interview.You can do better than that. There is a Chinese proverb, you kill the enemy, you make more enemy,you friend the enemy, no more enemy.

To see the pictures of attack dog click here: http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Obama-you-should-not-have-teased-that-dog.asp