5th Annual Reflections on Holocaust and Genocides -2

This is one of the most difficult programs I have organized and endured. Thank God, I have been able to survive the scathing remarks, biased attitudes, outright belligerence, threats and boycotts for five years.

Why should anyone stand up for you, if you are not willing to do the same for others?

Indeed, the bias and prejudice is limited to a handful of people among Muslims, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists and others with no exception. A few in each group have said to me in my face, if you are not going to talk about the plight of Palestinians, you are not a Muslim,  a few Jewish friends have said, if you talk about Gaza, you are anti-Israel and will not attend the program. My Hindus friends were stuck with Kashmiri Pundits issue, the African Americans talked about the plight of  millions of captured men and women thrown in the Atlantic with rocks tied to their feet, and of course our Native Americans friends have endured endless humiliation, suffeing and annhilation....

Thank God, many of them attended the progams, not to understand but to report and gossip, but  I thank God again that they saw that Justice has got to be blind and each one of us need to look at the ruthelessness within. Blame no one, but reflect on our own nature and do what we can do as indviduals to prevent these attrocities from happening.  I am glad they walked out with a committment to be less biased, less prejudiced and willing to stand up for the others.

As a group together participating in a dialouge,  we have talked, mentioned and shared about more atrocities than an averege person can list, I mean the average you and not the Human rights activists. Here are a few of the many graphic pictures we have shown in our programs. If you have a weak heart, do not watch it, they are too difficult, but imagine the folks who lived through this hell. Please pay homage to them and their suffering by spending two hours a year and accepting our share of  individual responsibly to work and to mean the famous Jewish phrase, "Never Again".  http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157622461372216/show/

If we have not shared a picture or a representation of a genocide, it is simply because we are not aware of it, it is humanly impossibe for any, including you to list every attrocity out there. So please take the resonsiblity to share the pictures of genocides so we can add.  Thank you.

We can bring small changes, if we value the lives of other groups as our own. There is not a religion that has not taught one to treat others as you would want to be treated. Not one and it is called the Golden rule.

The overriding desire to highlight our own suffering blinds us from other’s suffering.
Other people’s suffering is as legitimate as ours; when we strip the politics out of a conflict, we see hope; we can value others suffering without lessening our own;

My usual response is, are you serious about it?  If you are, I invite you to be a part of the commemoration to talk about it.  If we miss mentioning the name of a massacre or genocide, it is because folks like you do not speak up or shows up to witness other people’s suffering.

You and I owe to those who stood up for us, or stood up for someone up our line.  The only way to pay our debt is to stand up for others. It is worth your time to pay homage to millions who were killed for no other reason than they were humans like you and I who did not harm anyone.

If you are in blame mood think about finding a solution. Is it likely that the oppressors and criminals erroneously blamed the individuals or group before they slaughtered them? It is this attitude that we need to purge from our hearts and minds, if we expect others to be free from prejudice and stereo typing, we need to make sure we are clean.

A sense of responsibility for creating a better world gets awakened; ultimately co-existence and every one's safety and peace should be the driving thought.

We invite sponsors, facilitators, speakers, writers and volunteers from individuals and organizations to make this happen. It is an initiative of American Muslims striving to build responsible civic societies, where justice and co-existence are our values.

Please join us for the 5^th Annual Commemoration on Sunday,  January 22 between 5 and 7 PM at Unity Church of Dallas on Forest Lane.

Website: www.HolocaustandGenocides.com

America Together Foundation
Committed to building a cohesive America

 
Mike Ghouse
www.AmericatogetherFoundation.com

Yom Hashoah at the Temple Emanu-El

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/05/yom-hashoah-at-temple-emanu-el.html


Ms. Rosa Lee Schiff, Holocaust survivor was the key note speaker at the Holocaust Memorial organised by Muslims in Dallas in 2007 and every year since then - http://www.holocaustandgenocides.com/

  The Jewish community has been observing Yom Hashoah since the fifties, and the United Nations stepped up and made a proclamation to commemorate the day on January 26. The Jewish community continues with its traditional day in April or May depending on the calendar, while the Muslims took a bold initiative following the UN proclamation and have been Reflecting on the Holocaust and Genocides since 2006 together with people of every faith. Indeed it is for the general public to learn about the brutal inhumanity of it and prepare to say never again. The details are at www.HolocaustandGenocides.com

Lao Tsu’s prayer of peace explains the need to participate;

If there is to be peace in the world,
there must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
there must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
there must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,
there must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
there must be peace in the heart.

Peace on earth let it begin with me,

While listening to the notes of the Holocaust Survivors read by their family members tonight, I was in literal coma, grasping the pain and the betrayal of the world during the most difficult of times for the Jewish community. I sincerely wish the world understands this pain. They were on the verge of annihilation while the world did not do a thing about it, imagine a group of friends going to a movie, and a bad guy pulls you out from the group and starts beating, you look up for help while your friends act as if they don’t know you, it is a sheer sense of betrayal. Listening to the happenings of the survivors gave me goose bumps. 

If the Israelis can communicate this with their Arab neighbors and the Palestinians can share their hopelessness with the Israelis, peace and security for both will be theirs to have. Both people continue to suffer and the arrogance on the part of their leadership inhibits the process, neither of them is willing to share their pain and bring out the humility to fore. Humility builds bridges, and our (American) policy will not help the situation either, our actions and words cause both sides to dig in their heels and demand each other to ‘obey’ rather than surrendering their egos for the long term peace and security of both the people.

On our part, the World Muslim congress and the Foundation for pluralism will continue to share about the Holocaust and Genocides on the Dallas level and urge others in other cities to take it up or if someone can fund us, we can set up the systems in other cities where people of all faith are reached. I will be talking about this on my Americas speaking tour to build a cohesive America.

I was glad to hear Rachel reading her Mother Rosa Lee Schiff’s notes, where she said she went to a Mosque to talk about her story and said they listened to her intently and she said we have to shed prejudices against others. That was a wholesome gesture and I am glad I attended the event, perhaps the only non-Jewish person in the audience.

I was saddened to learn that William Schiff had passed away this year, he and his wife Rosa Lee Schiff, both survivors of Holocaust were the key note speakers at the first Holocaust memorial event we organized in 1996. It was a pleasure to run into Rabbi Raskin, Rabbi Stern and cantor Don Croll. I found Bernie and Denise my friends in the back row and I joined them for the service. I was pleasantly surprised when Alice Murray called me by my name, she is the president of the Dallas Holocaust Museum, she and I had talked a few times and met once and she remembers me pulling the Holocaust survivors together and pray for goodwill when Fred Phelps was demonstrating outside the Museum.

Pictures at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikeghouse/sets/72157626626804434/show/

Mike Ghouse is an interfaith Speaker, thinker, futurist, writer, organizer and an activist committed to building cohesive societies with a firm belief that the purpose of religion is to bring harmony to an individual within and create a balance with what surrounds; life and matter. If we can learn to respect and accept every which way people have come to worship the creator, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge. He offers pluralistic solutions to media and to the public on complex issues of the day and is available to speak in a variety of settings such as schools, seminars, conferences, and places of worship, or the work place. His work is indexed at www.MikeGhouse.net

An appeal to Muslims about Holocaust and Genocides event

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/01/appeal-to-muslims-about-holocaust-and.html

Holocaust and Genocides is a Muslim initiative to build bridges among Americans, particularly among Muslims and Jews, small efforts go a long way in building goodwill and goodwill paves the way to building relations locally and perhaps globally.

I appeal to a few (1/100^th of 1%) among us to do what Muslims are supposed to do; to verify before judging and instead have a vision.  We need to be participating and contributing members of the society; goodwill has its own benefits.

You can be assured that for every Muslim bigot, there is a Christian, Jewish and a Hindu bigot and they are too eager to draw conclusions. A handful of Muslim bigots jumped all over me for doing the holocaust event and as Muslims they even spread falsities about the event, where as a few Jewish bigots harassed me for including the Gaza Massacre and spread the falsities.  I will not be alarmed as long as their numbers remain under 1/100^th of 1% of their respective populations.  

You are welcome to write your comments at Dallas Morning News. I urge you to take a few minutes to write in the comments section of Dallas Morning News to let the world know that Muslims are committed to building cohesive societies for the good of all.

http://religionblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/01/reflections-on-holocaust-and-g-2.html

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker on Pluralism and Islam offering pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.MikeGhouse.net/ -   You can find details at www.holocaustandgenocides.com

Pictorial Report - Holocaust and Genocides

Pictorial Report - Holocaust and Genocides
The III Annual Reflections on Holocaust and Genocides.
Sunday, January 24, 2010

This was an educational program, where 7 speakers reflected on 7 topics for 7 minutes each. Then 7 commentators made comments about 7 different situations. The topics ranged from the Holocaust to Genocides, massacres and tragedies.

This is perhaps the first time in our history that we have acknowledged the genocides of the indigenous Americans and Native peoples of Americas in a public forum along with other tragedies.

There is a shameless cruelty in us, either we shy away or some times refuse to acknowledge the sufferings of others, worrying that it will devalue our own or some how it amounts to infidelity to our own cause, and shame on us for justifying massacres that the victims deserved it or they asked for it.

Continued at: http://holocaustandgenocides.blogspot.com/2010/02/pictorial-report-holocaust-and.html

Press Release on Holocaust and Genocides

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Mike Ghouse (214) 325-1916,
email: MikeGhouse@aol.com
event email: HolocaustandGenocides@gmail.com
Website: http://www.holocaustandgenocides.com/

III ANNUAL REFELCTIONS ON THE HOLOCAUST AND GENOCIDES

DALLAS – (January 15, 2010) –The Foundation for Pluralism announces the 7/7 speakers Panel to reflect upon the Holocaust and Genocides event at 5:00 PM on Sunday, January 24, 2010 at the Center for Spiritual Center, 4801 Spring Valley Road, Dallas, TX. 75244.

Each individual in the seven member panel would acknowledge the inhumanity in each one of us and reflect upon the solutions for co-existence. It is a purposeful event to learn, acknowledge and reflect upon the terrible things, that we humans have inflicted upon each other.

What can you do as individual?

Continued: http://holocaustandgenocides.blogspot.com/2010/01/press-release-on-holocaust-and.html

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