Muslim American Faith Leaders Delegation To Bahrain & Israel

(MENAFN- EIN Presswire)

Shakara - an Arab-Israeli Partnership for Peace

AMMWEC Muslim Women Peacemakers

WASHINGTON DC, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES, November 15, 2022 /einpresswire.com / -- AMMWEC and SHARAKA are bringing a delegation of American Muslim community leaders to the Abraham Accords countries – Israel and Bahrain. After two previous historic collaborations, Sharaka and AMMWEC have teamed up again to bring American Muslim community leaders to build bridges of dialogue and understanding and promote the Abraham Accords. The themes of this delegation are women's leadership in bridge-building and women's empowerment, and the role of faith leaders in peacebuilding.

Sharaka – a leading Middle-East based NGO that promotes people-to-people peace and engagement, and AMMWEC, The American Muslim and Multifaith Women's Empowerment Council (AMMWEC), are teaming up once again for a peacemaking trip to Israel and Bahrain with a delegation of American Muslim community leaders, including AMMWEC leaders, led by Anila Ali, a prominent Imam from Washington DC Imam, Cambridge (Mass) city council member and Sri Lankan-American Peace activist and advocate of Islamic religious reform, Soraya Deen.

We are honored to be hosting in this group Imam Talib Shareef ('Joe Biden's Imam') of the 'Nation of Islam' National Mosque in Washington D.C. will be with us, and speaking at a panel at Shalem Academic Center on 'The Role of Religious Leadership in Building Civilizational Bridges', along with Rabbi Yaakov Nagen and Fr. Piotr Zelazko of the St. James Vicarate of Jerusalem.

Imam Talib Shareef: 'This is an important trip because it affords the opportunity to bridge relationships as well as gaps in our understanding and perspectives of how we view the situation in the middle east and the 'other', so we can be proponents of positive change, peace, and global stability.'

Faryal Khan: 'As a founding member of AMMWEC we strongly believe in 'equality for all. For this we need to break barriers and try to understand and build tolerance for each other's religions and political beliefs. We want to see stability and peace in the Middle East. For myself this trip a huge step in understanding the Israeli perspective so that we can come back and spread the word within our communities.'

Anila Ali –“It is an honor for me to accompany my Imam from my mosque in DC, my brother Talib Shareef. Many times we have stood together against antisemitism & hate and it gives me pleasure in taking him on our delegation along with other Muslim American women leaders from Los Angeles Faryal Khan, Dr. Sabeen Munib, Soraya Deen, from Texas, Farhana and Saira Khan & Sister Farhana Khorsged, a Bangladeshi American faith leader, and Dr.Zakia from Atlanta. More and more people are understanding the significance of building peace through the spirit by following the footsteps of Prophet Muhammad. Joining us also will the young Cambridge city council member, Burhan Azeem.”

Sharaka Global Affairs Head Dan Feferman added that“Sharaka is proud to host another delegation of American Muslims and Americans with Pakistani and South Asian heritage in Israel and Bahrain. Such delegations have a profound impact on many thousands around the world and offer a new way to approach old problems”.

Amit Deri – Sharaka's co-founder, added that“The Abraham Accords have offered an opportunity for a new kind of dialogue and understanding and that the old paradigm of conflicts and boycotts has led nowhere and that we all must work together to solve the region's various challenges – from extremism to climate and water issues.”

SHARAKA is a non-governmental, region-wide project that brings together Arabs and Israelis to build mutual understanding and promote peace in the Middle East through people-to-people engagement and citizen diplomacy. It has branches in the Arab Gulf, Israel and Morocco, and members from around the region, as well as the US, Europe and Pakistan.
American Muslim & Multifaith Women's Empowerment Council, AMMWEC is a non-profit organization built to provide the diverse Muslim American women the tools and opportunities to lead and to empower them to live a better life.

The themes of the trip are women leadership in peacebuilding and the importance of faith and religion in bridge-building. The participants will explore both of these aspects in Bahrain, including meetings with the Israeli and American Ambassadors there, as well as explore Bahrain's history and culture, and its ethos of women's empowerment and religious tolerance. They will meet with different women officials and civil society figures, and speak with top experts to learn about the Gulf Arab perspective on the Abraham Accords and the changing region.

In Israel, the group will meet leading women's voices from civil society, including from secular to religious, right to left, Jewish, Arab, Druze and Christian. At a special event organized at Shalem College, Imam Shareef will partake in an interfaith panel with a leading rabbi and priest to discuss the role of faith leaders in peace-making. The group will tour the sites holy to the Abrahamic faiths, visit Yad VaShem, explore Jerusalem, the North of Israel and Tel Aviv. They will learn about Israel and the Jewish people from various perspectives to gain a better appreciation for Israel's challenges in the region. They will delve into the politics and geopolitics of the Middle East from different perspectives, and see first-hand Israel's innovation and how Israeli inventions are positively changing the world, especially in water, agriculture and medicine.

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