Jeff quagle he was a school psychologist
in Denver Colorado and he was also a
photographer he visited Turkey with a
photographer group in 1960s I’m sure in
1996 and a local high school student
approached him and said I want to
practice my broken English fifth year we
want to spend a couple minutes with me
to speak English and he gratefully
accepted and then later on they became
pen pal friends and then later on they
became best friends and after that
Turkish kid has graduated from college
Jeff quickly invite him to United States
to study his English further and he
actually ended up paying for his
master’s degree and it has become an
inspirational story for a lot of
different people my name is Tim Sokka
and I’m a Muslim American I was born in
Turkey and possibly you have guessed
that I was that Turkish child I came to
United States year 2000 and
unfortunately just about a year later
9/11 happened and it’s just shocked to
my core I didn’t know what to do with it
or how to comprehend it
because whatever happening in front of
me on the TV was not resonating with me
because it was not my faith I couldn’t
deal with it I couldn’t understand it
and everybody was asking me what’s going
on
what’s the situation and I was asking my
friend you know religion God Jesus
Muhammad Quran and I always remember
that my friend Jeff sent me an email
saying that in the United States we do
not talk about three topics we don’t
talk about politics we don’t talk about
the personal life and we don’t talk
about religion and I was a little bit
shocked like because if he added
ports into this list there is all you
talked about in Turkey what else is left
to talk about except whether maybe I
don’t know so today I’m gonna break one
of his rule and I’m going to talk about
the religion I know you saw with a
sticky toffee it’s not my profession and
impurity in religion but I just want to
tell you my story my adventure because I
really believe in this I don’t know I
have the answers for you but I have a
lot of stories to share with you so when
I came to United States I found out that
religion has a bad reputation a lot of
people in United States believe that
religion is number one cause for most of
the words in the history if he didn’t
have religion maybe we don’t have that
much violence in the history and I was
not accepting it so I’ve found the
research is by Rabbi Ellen Laurie and he
studied the instability of wars and he
found out that actually only 7% of all
the wars in history was religiously
motivated the rest of whom had other
reasons and only 2% of the people all
through the history has died in those
world that was religiously motivated so
religion didn’t deserve this reputation
we have other issues we had to solve it
religion was something else so but
what’s happening nowadays because every
day as a Muslim American I’m facing this
all the time there’s a news coming and
there is another widen somewhere out
there somebody’s blowing something
somebody’s driving a truck into
somewhere and I was keeping in my heart
all the time saying please not this time
let’s have another reason but not
religious this time maybe this time
someone didn’t say Allahu Akber before
they drive the truck into violence place
or something that I just couldn’t deal
with it anymore maybe I was not getting
the right answers because what I know
doesn’t match with it I had to go out
and find inspirations for myself the
people who really lead their faiths give
me idea how to deal with this and then I
found this sentence from Pope Francis
and he said
many people do not want peace because
there are powerful people who are living
off the war I just make even darker for
me it is a lot more than the religion
that they are going to promote more
violence in there and then I search
other inspirations and this year we are
remembering 50 years after the accession
assassination of the Martin Luther King
and it also breaks my heart that we just
had to go through that in the land of
the United States and then also we know
what happened the Gandhi after he has
done everything for non-violence and
then we know the lie Lamas spent most of
his life in exile outside of Tibet and
Mandela spent 40 years in jail without
even a crime because he was trying to
peace between blacks and whites and as a
Turkish person Turkish American I have
one more example that people were always
asking me okay I get it maybe three five
percent of the Muslims are extremists
but what about the other 97% why are not
doing anything why are they not saying
anything and I was telling them actually
in Turkey I have one example for you
there is a Muslim scholar
his name is Fethullah Gulen and he
actually brought the idea of interfaith
to Turkey he was the only Muslim leader
went to America meet with Pope and
talked about how to end violence in
Middle East how to end poverty in Middle
East he met with the chief rabbi of
Israel he met with two Orthodox leaders
and he inspired many Turkish people to
open schools so the young generation can
get educated so they don’t become
extremists he helped him open hospitals
and media that’s everything but last two
and years of his life almost now he is
in the United States as an exile and
thousands of the schools that he helped
built are all shut down by the
government and more than 40,000 people
of his followers ended up in jail and
there are babies right now in the jail
because their parents have been
supporting this cause in there
volunteering for this kind of interfaith
effort and it just gives me more how can
I say discouragement that anybody goes
into that direction goes into a risky
path that they’re going to end something
that is not favorable and then I thought
one more example in Africa
Albert literally he was the president of
the African National Congress and he was
really a big favor of peace between
blacks and whites and he was the first
person to get nobel prize from the
continent of africa he came to United
States in 1960s and he met with JFK and
he helped multi-rotor King to pass the
civil rights laws from the Congress
through his effort but unfortunately
again he spent five years of his life at
the end of his life in an exile and he
died with a suspicious train accident it
was giving me more discouragement there
anybody was in that direction getting
hurt at the end somehow that maybe it
was time to just say this is what it is
but then I read another book another
sentence from Mahatma Gandhi and he said
do not move your hole in humanity do not
ever do it couple drops of dirt does not
make the ocean dirty you have to keep
believing in the humanity so I just kept
searching how can I find more good
stories good examples so I can put my
effort into it I believe in it and then
when I was reading a book called
dialog in Islam I saw this image in the
book it is the agreement of Prophet
Muhammad peace over him when he was
living in Medina he signed this
agreement with the Jewish tribe of
Nazareth they were looking for a common
ground how to have Muslims and
Christians live together peacefully and
in this agreement he said that there
will be no compulsion for the Christians
they are gonna be under Muslim
protection if the churches need repair
it will be repaired and they will be
respected he
you’ve said personally the churches of
the Christianity should be respected and
if somebody marries as a Christian with
a Muslim that person should be able to
practice their prey in a church there
shall be allowed to do it and I was like
if this is my leaders of my head if he
is saying this is that anybody is really
following this as a Muslim taking care
of a church because of a common ground
and let me show you one more story from
Pakistan Karachi Lahore and now
Islamabad people are forming a human
shield to protect this church after the
devastating bomb in Peshawar at a
Pakistani as a Muslim I’m here to show
solidarity with my Christian brothers
and sisters where one nation and that it
doesn’t matter our differences don’t
matter the group calls itself Pakistan
for all and their message is loud and
kirtibhai young sorry I am that legally
we are here to support our Christian
brothers the attack on the church was
inhumane this is not Islam no religion
permits terrorists against but we want
to tell the world all leaders of all
faiths stand on this event has created a
spirit of oneness here irrespective of
your faith culture or color everybody
feels as one Pakistan there was a
bombing in Peshawar in Pakistan and as
soon as the Muslim community heard about
this they came together with the
coalition they called Pakistan for all
and they built a human shield in front
of the churches in all over the country
in Islamabad in Karachi in different
cities they were protecting the churches
so they don’t get hurt anymore it was
giving me the inspiration because
whenever we hear of Pakistan we don’t
hear of these things we don’t get those
stories but they are there that if the
Prophet says that their followers are
following the same thing and I have one
more story to share and from Virginia
Texas in Victoria Texas Muslims have
been praying outside the ruins of their
mosques since a weekend fire we don’t
know what caused the fire but we do know
it ignited the passion
of the city here’s David beg no this
charge shell is all that’s left of the
Victoria Islamic Center the response has
been uplifting all faiths from the
community have rallied in support of the
center and turned out for a unity prayer
service the day after the fire around
the world from Africa from Zimbabwe from
United Kingdom thousands of people have
donated through an online GoFundMe page
you’ve got nearly a million dollars
we’ve got from almost 20,000 people in
three days exactly this is unbelievable
this is unbelievable and so uplifting I
cannot thank enough dr. Gary branchman a
local Jewish community leader was one of
the first to offer to help with the
spark really did was instead of dividing
us that reunited us what’s the lesson we
all should learn it just gives you a
confirmation of the frayed inhumanity I
want you to focus on that last sentence
confirmation of the faith in humanity in
this story there was a fire in a mosque
we still don’t know how we did the start
but as soon as the whole community in
Victoria Texas came together it’s all
different religious backgrounds all kind
of her backgrounds and they supported
that must be built again and again one
of the first person to respond for a
Jewish rabbi in that process it just
gave me hope again that it can happen
and let me give you guys one more
example from also my history that during
the Nazi time we know that Jewish people
were all over the Europe were persecuted
by all these soldiers out there so
Turkish diplomats actually issued
overnight passports for the Jewish
people on Europe and they gave them a
crash course of Turkish so they can fool
the guards at the train station that
they are Turkish then they put them all
into a train and bring them to Turkey so
they can come to the safety there are
examples like that when it comes to the
humanity all different faiths can come
together and that is what I wanna
believe in that is what I wanna do again
I don’t have any solutions but I wanna
at least put my hope and faith in the
humanity that it can happen so since I
am really involved in this I wanted to
not what other people said about this
what can I find and I went to the
Internet and I want to do some kind of a
search an idea how much those files
shared together if I can maybe build a
Venn diagram maybe we can really show to
the earth the same idea the famous idea
that what we share is a lot more than
there is different and when I found on
the internet I wasn’t really happy that
there was only four or five items that
we looked like we are sharing but it
didn’t really answer what I wanted to do
so I decided I wanted to do my own Venn
diagram so I started my process I saw
riding in there as different faiths we
shared the idea of god and the holy
books that the God sent and the prophets
and the fasting and angels but it was
still not enough for me there should I
be more than that then I just remembered
what Gandhi said and I was remembering
that there should be humanity in there
it should be the foundation of our
common ground there is our biggest and
first identity there is our biggest link
that we cannot break remember in the
history and if I am somebody need to
hurt another group of people the first
thing they did was dehumanized them
treat them like a dog or something then
they can kill them or they can generate
those genocide against them so Humanity
is the biggest thing there is what we
need to all the agree on first then we
can talk about the other identities so
for Humanity let me show you one more
example from again our Islamic history
one day Prophet Mohammed was sitting
with his friends on a street and he saw
a Jewish funeral passing by and he
immediately get up to his feet and he
showed respect to that funeral and his
friend said what did you do
that was a Jewish man why did you get up
and the Prophet said wasn’t he human he
deserved the respect because he was a
human being Jewish or Islam comes the
second so it brings me the idea that
with different leaders throughout the
history we can focus on this just like
Pope Francis says that refugees cannot
be treated like pawns
part of the humanity and they deserve
the respect and again if you like you
then he said that first I am human then
I am a Muslim my first identity humanity
and can we say the same thing can we say
that I am a human first than a Christian
or a Jew can we say I’m a Christian I am
a human first then I am an American or a
male or female or can we say I am human
first then I am a republic or Democrats
so we can get our priorities straight in
there so after the humanity I start
thinking what else we share a lot and I
thought of Justice which is really one
of the foundation of all faiths focusing
on the justice throughout the history
and as we know Martin Luther King said
that injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere so we cannot just
favor justice for one group of people
and not for the others we should all on
the side of the justice that we can
share together in there so this list can
go on one of my Hindu friend told me
that why don’t you add the golden rule
into this because almost every faith
drop to earth is sharing the golden rule
so she sent me this picture it’s quite
interesting that I didn’t even know
almost more than 20 different faith
tradition have some version of golden
rules saying that something that you
don’t like for yourself don’t do it for
your friend or for the others it should
be shared in there so Hinduism Buddhism
Islam Judaism they all share the same
idea of the Golden Rule so when I found
out if we have a lot here in there then
those are started being labeled
different by other people some people
call them universal values
some of them called the human traits and
these are the ones that we can share
beyond to other religions that we can
have Hinduism Buddhism even the attaced
all the world citizens we can agree on
this that we can have a common area
common ground that we can be peaceful
together and we can add more into this
common area we can add family we can add
taking care of the sick
and the week and the pool we can add to
standing against injustice or corruption
we can make that bigger and bigger all
the time and that common area makes a
lot more meaning in there but you know
what happens this happens instead of
putting our common areas together we
actually put our differences first we
share our common areas in the back
for example they ask you do you accept
Mohammed as a last messenger when you
say no then you are the other then we
don’t accept you anymore they ask you do
we accept Jesus as your Savior and when
you say no then you don’t get to share
the family or community with them in
there we come distance from each other
and I do not want to live in this kind
of a setting that I want to live like a
force that we can’t share together that
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says that you do
have one earth but many faiths that is
how God gave us in the first place and
these are things happening in the
current local area in Syracuse that
there is world Harmon are they happening
and I am part of it that more than 30
faith groups coming together and
celebrating their diversity together I
am leading and coupled seven other
groups are leading interfaith dialogue
circles that each different people of
faith can come together and share their
ideas and they always leave these
conversations initially they come feared
but they leave energized and they won’t
do more because they want to ask
questions and learn about it so I want
to leave with this one as a final
thought that I know it’s been a long day
I want you to guys all just stand up for
we have wonderful humans and people
around us and just like the whirling
dervishes the Rumi I want you to be able
to open your heart and your arm to
people around you and tell them that you
can live with them peacefully so people
in your light people on your left people
in your back please tell them I can live
peacefully with you and I see you as my
and finally please come back to yourself
go deep inside yourself and tell
yourself that I can live peacefully with
myself because I am the most unique
person in the whole
[Music] [Applause]
in Denver Colorado and he was also a
photographer he visited Turkey with a
photographer group in 1960s I’m sure in
1996 and a local high school student
approached him and said I want to
practice my broken English fifth year we
want to spend a couple minutes with me
to speak English and he gratefully
accepted and then later on they became
pen pal friends and then later on they
became best friends and after that
Turkish kid has graduated from college
Jeff quickly invite him to United States
to study his English further and he
actually ended up paying for his
master’s degree and it has become an
inspirational story for a lot of
different people my name is Tim Sokka
and I’m a Muslim American I was born in
Turkey and possibly you have guessed
that I was that Turkish child I came to
United States year 2000 and
unfortunately just about a year later
9/11 happened and it’s just shocked to
my core I didn’t know what to do with it
or how to comprehend it
because whatever happening in front of
me on the TV was not resonating with me
because it was not my faith I couldn’t
deal with it I couldn’t understand it
and everybody was asking me what’s going
on
what’s the situation and I was asking my
friend you know religion God Jesus
Muhammad Quran and I always remember
that my friend Jeff sent me an email
saying that in the United States we do
not talk about three topics we don’t
talk about politics we don’t talk about
the personal life and we don’t talk
about religion and I was a little bit
shocked like because if he added
ports into this list there is all you
talked about in Turkey what else is left
to talk about except whether maybe I
don’t know so today I’m gonna break one
of his rule and I’m going to talk about
the religion I know you saw with a
sticky toffee it’s not my profession and
impurity in religion but I just want to
tell you my story my adventure because I
really believe in this I don’t know I
have the answers for you but I have a
lot of stories to share with you so when
I came to United States I found out that
religion has a bad reputation a lot of
people in United States believe that
religion is number one cause for most of
the words in the history if he didn’t
have religion maybe we don’t have that
much violence in the history and I was
not accepting it so I’ve found the
research is by Rabbi Ellen Laurie and he
studied the instability of wars and he
found out that actually only 7% of all
the wars in history was religiously
motivated the rest of whom had other
reasons and only 2% of the people all
through the history has died in those
world that was religiously motivated so
religion didn’t deserve this reputation
we have other issues we had to solve it
religion was something else so but
what’s happening nowadays because every
day as a Muslim American I’m facing this
all the time there’s a news coming and
there is another widen somewhere out
there somebody’s blowing something
somebody’s driving a truck into
somewhere and I was keeping in my heart
all the time saying please not this time
let’s have another reason but not
religious this time maybe this time
someone didn’t say Allahu Akber before
they drive the truck into violence place
or something that I just couldn’t deal
with it anymore maybe I was not getting
the right answers because what I know
doesn’t match with it I had to go out
and find inspirations for myself the
people who really lead their faiths give
me idea how to deal with this and then I
found this sentence from Pope Francis
and he said
many people do not want peace because
there are powerful people who are living
off the war I just make even darker for
me it is a lot more than the religion
that they are going to promote more
violence in there and then I search
other inspirations and this year we are
remembering 50 years after the accession
assassination of the Martin Luther King
and it also breaks my heart that we just
had to go through that in the land of
the United States and then also we know
what happened the Gandhi after he has
done everything for non-violence and
then we know the lie Lamas spent most of
his life in exile outside of Tibet and
Mandela spent 40 years in jail without
even a crime because he was trying to
peace between blacks and whites and as a
Turkish person Turkish American I have
one more example that people were always
asking me okay I get it maybe three five
percent of the Muslims are extremists
but what about the other 97% why are not
doing anything why are they not saying
anything and I was telling them actually
in Turkey I have one example for you
there is a Muslim scholar
his name is Fethullah Gulen and he
actually brought the idea of interfaith
to Turkey he was the only Muslim leader
went to America meet with Pope and
talked about how to end violence in
Middle East how to end poverty in Middle
East he met with the chief rabbi of
Israel he met with two Orthodox leaders
and he inspired many Turkish people to
open schools so the young generation can
get educated so they don’t become
extremists he helped him open hospitals
and media that’s everything but last two
and years of his life almost now he is
in the United States as an exile and
thousands of the schools that he helped
built are all shut down by the
government and more than 40,000 people
of his followers ended up in jail and
there are babies right now in the jail
because their parents have been
supporting this cause in there
volunteering for this kind of interfaith
effort and it just gives me more how can
I say discouragement that anybody goes
into that direction goes into a risky
path that they’re going to end something
that is not favorable and then I thought
one more example in Africa
Albert literally he was the president of
the African National Congress and he was
really a big favor of peace between
blacks and whites and he was the first
person to get nobel prize from the
continent of africa he came to United
States in 1960s and he met with JFK and
he helped multi-rotor King to pass the
civil rights laws from the Congress
through his effort but unfortunately
again he spent five years of his life at
the end of his life in an exile and he
died with a suspicious train accident it
was giving me more discouragement there
anybody was in that direction getting
hurt at the end somehow that maybe it
was time to just say this is what it is
but then I read another book another
sentence from Mahatma Gandhi and he said
do not move your hole in humanity do not
ever do it couple drops of dirt does not
make the ocean dirty you have to keep
believing in the humanity so I just kept
searching how can I find more good
stories good examples so I can put my
effort into it I believe in it and then
when I was reading a book called
dialog in Islam I saw this image in the
book it is the agreement of Prophet
Muhammad peace over him when he was
living in Medina he signed this
agreement with the Jewish tribe of
Nazareth they were looking for a common
ground how to have Muslims and
Christians live together peacefully and
in this agreement he said that there
will be no compulsion for the Christians
they are gonna be under Muslim
protection if the churches need repair
it will be repaired and they will be
respected he
you’ve said personally the churches of
the Christianity should be respected and
if somebody marries as a Christian with
a Muslim that person should be able to
practice their prey in a church there
shall be allowed to do it and I was like
if this is my leaders of my head if he
is saying this is that anybody is really
following this as a Muslim taking care
of a church because of a common ground
and let me show you one more story from
Pakistan Karachi Lahore and now
Islamabad people are forming a human
shield to protect this church after the
devastating bomb in Peshawar at a
Pakistani as a Muslim I’m here to show
solidarity with my Christian brothers
and sisters where one nation and that it
doesn’t matter our differences don’t
matter the group calls itself Pakistan
for all and their message is loud and
kirtibhai young sorry I am that legally
we are here to support our Christian
brothers the attack on the church was
inhumane this is not Islam no religion
permits terrorists against but we want
to tell the world all leaders of all
faiths stand on this event has created a
spirit of oneness here irrespective of
your faith culture or color everybody
feels as one Pakistan there was a
bombing in Peshawar in Pakistan and as
soon as the Muslim community heard about
this they came together with the
coalition they called Pakistan for all
and they built a human shield in front
of the churches in all over the country
in Islamabad in Karachi in different
cities they were protecting the churches
so they don’t get hurt anymore it was
giving me the inspiration because
whenever we hear of Pakistan we don’t
hear of these things we don’t get those
stories but they are there that if the
Prophet says that their followers are
following the same thing and I have one
more story to share and from Virginia
Texas in Victoria Texas Muslims have
been praying outside the ruins of their
mosques since a weekend fire we don’t
know what caused the fire but we do know
it ignited the passion
of the city here’s David beg no this
charge shell is all that’s left of the
Victoria Islamic Center the response has
been uplifting all faiths from the
community have rallied in support of the
center and turned out for a unity prayer
service the day after the fire around
the world from Africa from Zimbabwe from
United Kingdom thousands of people have
donated through an online GoFundMe page
you’ve got nearly a million dollars
we’ve got from almost 20,000 people in
three days exactly this is unbelievable
this is unbelievable and so uplifting I
cannot thank enough dr. Gary branchman a
local Jewish community leader was one of
the first to offer to help with the
spark really did was instead of dividing
us that reunited us what’s the lesson we
all should learn it just gives you a
confirmation of the frayed inhumanity I
want you to focus on that last sentence
confirmation of the faith in humanity in
this story there was a fire in a mosque
we still don’t know how we did the start
but as soon as the whole community in
Victoria Texas came together it’s all
different religious backgrounds all kind
of her backgrounds and they supported
that must be built again and again one
of the first person to respond for a
Jewish rabbi in that process it just
gave me hope again that it can happen
and let me give you guys one more
example from also my history that during
the Nazi time we know that Jewish people
were all over the Europe were persecuted
by all these soldiers out there so
Turkish diplomats actually issued
overnight passports for the Jewish
people on Europe and they gave them a
crash course of Turkish so they can fool
the guards at the train station that
they are Turkish then they put them all
into a train and bring them to Turkey so
they can come to the safety there are
examples like that when it comes to the
humanity all different faiths can come
together and that is what I wanna
believe in that is what I wanna do again
I don’t have any solutions but I wanna
at least put my hope and faith in the
humanity that it can happen so since I
am really involved in this I wanted to
not what other people said about this
what can I find and I went to the
Internet and I want to do some kind of a
search an idea how much those files
shared together if I can maybe build a
Venn diagram maybe we can really show to
the earth the same idea the famous idea
that what we share is a lot more than
there is different and when I found on
the internet I wasn’t really happy that
there was only four or five items that
we looked like we are sharing but it
didn’t really answer what I wanted to do
so I decided I wanted to do my own Venn
diagram so I started my process I saw
riding in there as different faiths we
shared the idea of god and the holy
books that the God sent and the prophets
and the fasting and angels but it was
still not enough for me there should I
be more than that then I just remembered
what Gandhi said and I was remembering
that there should be humanity in there
it should be the foundation of our
common ground there is our biggest and
first identity there is our biggest link
that we cannot break remember in the
history and if I am somebody need to
hurt another group of people the first
thing they did was dehumanized them
treat them like a dog or something then
they can kill them or they can generate
those genocide against them so Humanity
is the biggest thing there is what we
need to all the agree on first then we
can talk about the other identities so
for Humanity let me show you one more
example from again our Islamic history
one day Prophet Mohammed was sitting
with his friends on a street and he saw
a Jewish funeral passing by and he
immediately get up to his feet and he
showed respect to that funeral and his
friend said what did you do
that was a Jewish man why did you get up
and the Prophet said wasn’t he human he
deserved the respect because he was a
human being Jewish or Islam comes the
second so it brings me the idea that
with different leaders throughout the
history we can focus on this just like
Pope Francis says that refugees cannot
be treated like pawns
part of the humanity and they deserve
the respect and again if you like you
then he said that first I am human then
I am a Muslim my first identity humanity
and can we say the same thing can we say
that I am a human first than a Christian
or a Jew can we say I’m a Christian I am
a human first then I am an American or a
male or female or can we say I am human
first then I am a republic or Democrats
so we can get our priorities straight in
there so after the humanity I start
thinking what else we share a lot and I
thought of Justice which is really one
of the foundation of all faiths focusing
on the justice throughout the history
and as we know Martin Luther King said
that injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere so we cannot just
favor justice for one group of people
and not for the others we should all on
the side of the justice that we can
share together in there so this list can
go on one of my Hindu friend told me
that why don’t you add the golden rule
into this because almost every faith
drop to earth is sharing the golden rule
so she sent me this picture it’s quite
interesting that I didn’t even know
almost more than 20 different faith
tradition have some version of golden
rules saying that something that you
don’t like for yourself don’t do it for
your friend or for the others it should
be shared in there so Hinduism Buddhism
Islam Judaism they all share the same
idea of the Golden Rule so when I found
out if we have a lot here in there then
those are started being labeled
different by other people some people
call them universal values
some of them called the human traits and
these are the ones that we can share
beyond to other religions that we can
have Hinduism Buddhism even the attaced
all the world citizens we can agree on
this that we can have a common area
common ground that we can be peaceful
together and we can add more into this
common area we can add family we can add
taking care of the sick
and the week and the pool we can add to
standing against injustice or corruption
we can make that bigger and bigger all
the time and that common area makes a
lot more meaning in there but you know
what happens this happens instead of
putting our common areas together we
actually put our differences first we
share our common areas in the back
for example they ask you do you accept
Mohammed as a last messenger when you
say no then you are the other then we
don’t accept you anymore they ask you do
we accept Jesus as your Savior and when
you say no then you don’t get to share
the family or community with them in
there we come distance from each other
and I do not want to live in this kind
of a setting that I want to live like a
force that we can’t share together that
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks says that you do
have one earth but many faiths that is
how God gave us in the first place and
these are things happening in the
current local area in Syracuse that
there is world Harmon are they happening
and I am part of it that more than 30
faith groups coming together and
celebrating their diversity together I
am leading and coupled seven other
groups are leading interfaith dialogue
circles that each different people of
faith can come together and share their
ideas and they always leave these
conversations initially they come feared
but they leave energized and they won’t
do more because they want to ask
questions and learn about it so I want
to leave with this one as a final
thought that I know it’s been a long day
I want you to guys all just stand up for
we have wonderful humans and people
around us and just like the whirling
dervishes the Rumi I want you to be able
to open your heart and your arm to
people around you and tell them that you
can live with them peacefully so people
in your light people on your left people
in your back please tell them I can live
peacefully with you and I see you as my
and finally please come back to yourself
go deep inside yourself and tell
yourself that I can live peacefully with
myself because I am the most unique
person in the whole
[Music] [Applause]
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