Janet: Message of Mutual Love Central at Mosque

Janet Guaderrama

Voices of Reason, Action for a Better Tomorrow, and Indivisible IL-18

Members of local politically progressive groups joined Feb. 10 to visit the Masjid Ibrahim (Mosque) for their 1 pm Friday service at the invitation of  Shaikh Imam Abu-Emad Al-Talla (our first speaker at the Not In Our Town rally Feb. 1 at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts). The mosque is located at 2407 E Washington St. in Bloomington.

 Shaikh Imam Abu-Emad Al-Talla chats with Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe, left, and former First Christian Church Associate Minister Kelley Becker during last summer's Not In Our Town: Bloomington-Normal 20th Anniversary. 

My experience began with "Hello," as I introduced myself to the Imam after the rally. He was very gracious and welcomed anyone to visit their service on Fridays. He was pleased when I told him that I had taken a photo of him during his speech and he asked that I share it with him. I sent the photo from my cell phone to his and that began the conversation about a visit to Masjid Ibrahim.

When we arrived today, we discovered several rituals that occur. The women enter through the left door in the back of the building, and men enter through the door to its right.

Several men graciously welcomed us and the women in our group removed our shoes and were seated in a room separate from the men. The Imam came back to welcome us before his service. We were joined by a gathering group of women worshipers coming from their homes and jobs for prayer. We could see the Imam speaking through windows and hear him through intercom. One of the women turned on a television on the wall and we could view him there also.

We were told that prayers happen 5 times a day in the building, but that Fridays are special, like Sundays are for Christians.

Most of the service was in Arabic, however, occasional English was used to convey the message so that we could understand.

I was particularly taken with the words, "Fly to Allah." We were urged to "Fly to Allah" as Allah (God) is everything and all praise to him. We fly to him to leave our worldly cares and worries, to thank him. We were urged to care for one another, to love each other, to befriend each other, to do charity, to accept everyone, Black and White, Muslim and not as we are all created by Allah.

The women welcomed us after the service was completed and we all had very warm and interesting conversations. The Imam came back after the service to thank us all for coming and welcomed us to come back. He also welcomed anyone to come to join them in prayer any Friday at 1 pm. (The service lasts 45 minutes).

We thanked our new friends for the kind welcome and agreed that we were all moved by our experience.

Friends Forever Aims to Unite Teens From Israel

Lenore Sobota

The Pantagraph

Friends Forever participants at a Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church service in Bloomington.

Seeing the transformations of students involved in the Friends Forever program is one of the rewarding aspects of Megan Gonsalves' job.

She is the site manager spending two weeks in Bloomington-Normal with a group of 10 teens from Israel — five Jews, five Arabs — in a program designed to improve understanding between the groups.

The visit is part of a year-long program that also involves activities in Israel involving the Jewish students from Ma'ale Shaharut Regional High School in the far south of Israel and Arab students from Rama Technical High School, about six hours north.

This is the fourth year Friends Forever has come to Bloomington-Normal, sponsored by Rotary Clubs in the Twin Cities and others.

Friends Forever was formed more than 30 years, starting with youths from Northern Ireland, later expanding to Israel and, now, Uganda.

“It's not a challenge that's about politics and Israel,” Gonsalves said. “It's connecting person to person.”

Mikhail Barkan, a student from Ma'ale Shaharut, has lived in Israel less than a year. He emigrated from Russia, attending a boarding school on a kibbutz. He saw Friends Forever as “an opportunity to see who the Arab people really are.”

In Russia, he only knew what he read in the media, he told a group of about 20 people at a public meeting last week at Illinois State University's Bowling and Billiards Center.

Barkan was expecting all the boys to be terrorists with knives and all the girls to be wearing hijabs.

“When I came to Israel, then I saw they are all different and most of them want peace,” Barkan said. “I saw these nice boys who look just like me.”

He and Ali Abed of Rama have become close friends.

“He is my friend, my brother, my teacher in the last eight days,” Abed said of Barkan. Abed said he has helped Barkan with his Hebrew and Barkan has taught him some Russian.

Alon Herlinger, a teacher at Ma'ale Shaharut and a paramedic, is one of two teachers accompanying the group.

He decided to become a teacher after a trip to a World War II concentration camp in Poland with his son and his son's class.

“I don't want this to happen again,” Herlinger said. “I want to teach kids about tolerance and that all human life is precious.”

The students, who are in their second week in the Twin Cities, are required to leave their cellphones at home when they come to the United States. While here, they have no access to technology or mass media.

Gonsalves said, “The amazing thing to see is they stop looking to home for support and they start looking to each other.”

The students first met in Israel in what is called the group building phase of the program. The U.S. phase focuses on skill building — communications, empathy, resilience, impact and perspective. The final phase, when they return to Israel, is community building.

While in the Twin Cities, they have been involved in several activities together.

The students, ages 15 and 16, many of whom have never left their country or been away from their families before, face challenges. Gonsalves said being challenged is “the place where growth is possible.”

When one student was reluctant to participate in the high ropes course at Timber Pointe Outdoor Center at Lake Bloomington, the group reminded her “we make an agreement to always enter the growth zone.”

They persuaded her to put on the harness and helmet and walk to the edge, setting her own personal goal beyond her comfort zone, and she wound up doing the whole route, Gonsalves said.

Michael Gizzi, an associate professor at ISU involved in the Friends Forever program locally, said of the students, “They're going to be ambassadors for peace.”

Moses Montefiore Opens Doors to Open Minds

Bloomington First Christian Church Rev. Kelley Becker with Rabbi Dubowe.

Bloomington’s Jewish community has deep roots that have nurtured local leadership and prosperity. The spiritual leader of the Twin Cities’ sole synagogue is encouraged by the Cities’ modern spirit of interfaith outreach and committed to helping educate her members in living as “a Jew and an American.”

Rabbi Rebecca Dubowe, who sang with and fielded questions at Moses Montefiore Congregation’s Sunday community open house, noted the event was the latest in a series of open houses which also have exposed local residents to Islamic and Hindu traditions and beliefs.

Dubowe participated in a December interfaith rally/vigil at the Old Courthouse in Bloomington, along with Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. That event was aimed in part at countering mounting Islamophobia heightened by presidential campaign rhetoric.

“There are still people today who unfortunately have a lack of understanding or perhaps a lack of compassion in recognizing that we do have neighbors who have a different background, a different faith, or even a different culture,” said Dubowe, who has been with Moses Montefiore for roughly a year.

“We need to really continue to teach that lesson – reinforcing respect for our difference. We do have much in common, more than people might now. . . We value the concept of compassion; we value the concept of education.”  

Moses Montefiore is a Reform Jewish congregation more “progressive” than Conservative or Orthodox synagogues. Previously, the general public has visited the temple primarily during its annual Food Fair, when brown bag corned beef sandwiches are served or delivered to hundreds of Twin Citians.

Dubowe sees a strong, firmly established local Jewish presence “that is very active in the community,” and is encouraged by her community’s commitment to leadership and social justice and a lack of anti-Semitic sentiment in Bloomington/Normal.

At the same time, she emphasizes the need to educate and instill “a confident sense of identity” particularly in younger Jews and, in a currently challenging domestic religious and political environment and turbulent international times, to assure her congregants “it is possible for them to live as a Jew and an American at the same time.”

“Even within the Jewish community, there are wide differences of opinion about how America should be,” the rabbi noted. “However, we feel very strongly that everyone has the right to practice their religion in any way possible. We do have a great sense of pride in who we are, but understanding that we do live in a small town, we are the only Jewish synagogue here, and we do feel that it’s important to support the synagogue.”  

Moses Montefiore Latest to Open Doors for Understanding

As part of the ongoing Faith Series interfaith dialogue co-sponsored by Not In Our Town: Bloomington/Normal, Moses Montefiore Congregation of Bloomington-Normal is holding an open house to help Twin Citians better understand Judaism.

"Meet Your Jewish Neighbors" is scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. at the temple, at 102 Robinhood Lane, near the Bloomington U.S. Post Office on Towanda Avenue. Please RSVP for the event at mmemple1882@gmail.com.

NIOTBN earlier this year helped coordinate open houses for local Muslim and Hindu temples.

NIOTBN's Becker To Receive Peace Prize

What is a community activist? In the case of the Rev. Kelley Becker, it is one who attempts both to lead her spiritual community in support of the human community at large and also to serve that larger community and the too-often forgotten and neglected communities within it. 

Becker is this year's recipient of the Grabill-Homan Community Peace Prize. She will be recognized at a Monday reception.

As associate minister with Bloomington First Christian Church Disciples of Christ, the city’s oldest congregation, Becker assists in imparting a message of compassion and inclusivity and overseeing an outreach program that has included FCC’s now 17-year-old, multi-church Westside Block Party and construction and promotion of the Tiny House, a modular mini-home that could prove a key solution in transitioning people who currently are homeless into a socially and economically sustainable life.

The Tiny House exemplifies Becker’s commitment to the disenfranchised of the Twin Cities. She has ministered to local people who are homeless on a personal level as well as through the church, and helped communicate with local police authorities and highlight the plight of homeless persons following last spring’s eviction of individuals from an outdoor encampment on Bloomington’s Market Street.

Becker also is attuned to the challenges facing the Twin Cities Latino community and issues confronting immigrants caught up in political controversy. She has traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border, witnessed federal deportation “show trials” in the Southwest, and through photos, stories, and sermons has helped illuminate complex issues of immigration, border security, and human rights.

Further, at a time when events in Ferguson, Baltimore, and Chicago underline concerns about police-community relations particularly along racial lines, Becker continues to communicate regularly with law enforcement officials, to affect greater understanding of community needs and police perceptions. In the pulpit and in the community, she has worked to uphold respect for and inclusivity of the LGBT community – she helped organize First Christian’s new One and All progressive service, which provides a worship opportunities for those who may not have felt welcome or accepted at other area churches.

Her commitment extends to supporting solutions to mental health issues that can exacerbate the challenges of poverty, substance abuse, crime, and East Side/West Side relations, as a board member with Bloomington’s non-profit INtegRIty Counseling. Last year, Becker agreed to chair Not In Our Town: Bloomington/Normal’s fledgling Faith and Outreach Subcommittee, which is devoted to fostering interfaith understanding and aiding area churches in efforts to address bigotry and attaining social justice for all Twin Citians. She played a key role with local Jewish and Islamic leaders in a December interfaith solidarity event in downtown Bloomington aimed at countering anti-Islamic sentiments.

Meet Your Muslim Neighbors Pt. 2 April 16

The Twin Cities' Muslim community is sponsoring a second open house to help area residents of all cultures learn about Islam.

The open house is 4-6 p.m. April 16 at the Islamic Center of Bloomington/Normal, 2911 Gill St., Suite 6, Bloomington. Based on the recent open house at Bloomington's Masjid Ibriham mosque, seats will fill quickly, so to reserve a space, RSVP to events@usicbn.org.

"If you didn't get a chance to visit the mosque during the last open house, now is your chance," suggests Kelley Becker, associate minister with Bloomington First Christian Church and Faith and Outreach chair with Not In Our Town: Bloomington/Normal. "Our Muslim brothers and sisters will welcome you warmly!"

See program on attached invitation.