Mike Ghouse diary weekending May 22, 2011

I was with Yasmeen this last weekend in Louisville and together we went to see her brother and sister's families in Atlanta. It is always good to be with familiy! Yasmeen drove over 13 hours and I drove over 30 hours in the last five days a total 2600 miles.

GHOUSE ON FOX NEWS, MY 25TH APPEARANCE WITH HANNITY
I was on Hannity Radio and Fox TV show last week about Obama's speech on Middle East. It is one of my best shows on TV and Radio as well. I believe Obama’s speech is historic, to Bridgette and Sean also historic in negative sense.  I was on Radio with Israeli Ambassador
http://www.hannity.com/show/2011/05/19

GHOUSE AND ISRAELI AMBASSDOR GOLD SQUAR OFF

From Hannity Site, “Sean was joined by writer and speaker Mike Ghouse to discuss the comments made by Obama about Israel. Obama told our closest ally, Israel, that they have to give up and go back to their 1967 borders - essentially forcing them to negotiate with a terrorist organization that wants their destruction. Ghouse explained to Sean that he believes this terrorist threat is going to change and become friends and cooperate with Israel. "What if you're wrong?" Sean asked Ghouse directly. "If you're wrong, Israel is destroyed." Ghouse was adamant that he was right. "I am not wrong. I have not been wrong on many issues. Dore Gold, an Israeli statesman who has served in various diplomatic positions under several Israeli governments, called in as well and debated with Ghouse. You can listen to the entire debate by clicking here. http://www.hannity.com/videos/?uri=channels%2F400391%2F1341352+  “

OBAMA WILL DELIVER SECURITY TO ISRAEL AND JUSTICE TO PALETINIANS
http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2011/05/obama-will-deliver-security-to-israel.html   
Next week, I will be taking off to a friend's ranch to finish writing my books on Muslims in America and my Pluralism Journey

PLURALISTIC PRAYERS AT CARROLLTON CITY HALL
Delivered another Pluralistic prayer invocation at the city of Carrollton and welcomed the new Mayor Marchant while appreciating the former Mayor Branson. I hope to deliver the same prayer on Capitol Hill in DC. http://carrolltondiary.blogspot.com/2011/05/pluralism-prayers-at-carrollton-city_24.html

COHESIVE AMERICA TALK TOUR
I am also planning on a tour of American cities to talk about building a cohesive America; the address will be to the Republicans and Democrats in each city. We all can co-exist without selling hate and divisive politics if we cut the fear mongering out of our speeches. My party, the Republican Party is gone to pits; none of the leadership at this time represents the party's original idea of less government, balancing the budget and the pledge and commitment to one nation. I am sure there silent majority of Republicans need a voice and I will speak up. http://americatogetherfoundation.blogspot.com/2011/05/mike-ghouse-speaks-on-buidling-cohesive.html

Mike Ghouse committed to present pluralistic solutions on issues of the day, he is a speaker, thinker and a writer and his work is listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/
  

Americans condemn the attacks on Rabbi Lerner.

March 16, 2010, Dallas, Texas
Americans condemn the attacks on Rabbi Lerner.

The  entire humanity must condemn the attack on Rabbi Lerner, a man who is committed to building bridges and doing what his religion Judaism teaches him; to stand up for truth and justice.

Evil exists not because of evil people, but because good people do nothing about it. It is however changing now; the good people are indeed speaking up and hope the bullies learn that they cannot bully any more.

A part of the human equation is to have a range of people in its collection; the right wingers, the lefties and the silent majority of moderates.  The right wingers operate out of the imaginary fears that the world is out to get them and they pre-empt to silence the opposition. Some of them have figured out making money out of this racket.

The Goldstone report was conducted by a Jewish judge about the excesses of Israel in Gaza. The right wing Jewish group is in denial, and not only is intolerant but un-democratic to use violence to silence the truth.

I pray that the right winger Jews understand that criticizing the policies of Israel is not a criticism of Israel, Jews or Judaism. If they can get this in their thick heads, peace is imminent and I pray that they do but also pray that we all speak up.

We still have a few gutsy Journalists will write and talk about it, but a majority of them and particularly Fox gang will perhaps present it as though the rape victim asked for it. This may be the sign of decline of Right wing Media, their shying away from the truth will take the media business out of their hands and put in the hands of the public.

Rabbi Lerner continues to work on nurturing goodwill and we stand by you and hope every American does.

Mike Ghouse is president of Americans Together and Muslims Together Foundations and is committed to building cohesive societies offering pluralistic solution on issues of the day. He will speak at your work place, place of worship or seminars and conferences on the subjects of pluralism, cohesive societies, Islam, interfaith, India and Peace; he is a speaker thinker and a writer on the topics. His work is indexed in 4 websites and 27 Blogs at http://www.mikeghouse.net/# # #
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Zionist Extremist Hate Crime Against Rabbi Lerner: 3rd Attack on His Home and the limits of "freedom of the press"
3/17/2011, Berkeley, California

Only one day after Rabbi Lerner presented the Tikkun Award to South African Justice Richard Goldstone, at a celebration of Tikkun's 25th Anniversary attended by over 600 people at the University of California, Berkeley, Rabbi Lerner's home was again assaulted by extremist Zionist haters who plastered posters over his home once again. This is the 3rd assault on his home since Lerner announced the award to Justice Goldstone whose report on Israel's human rights violations during the Israeli assault on Gaza in Dec. 2008 and Jan.2009 was denounced by the State of Israel and by the AIPAC-dominated House of Representatives last year. You would not have known about the 2nd attack, which was reported to the police but not to the media because Lerner had been advised that not giving the attackers attention might make future attacks less likely. That strategy failed.

Each time the posters have sought to display Lerner as either a tool of an evil Goldstone trying to hurt Israel. The current posters were done more professionally than the previous ones, and present a picture of Nazi officers carrying away a Jew. Lerner's name is put on one of the Nazis and "Islamic extremists" is written on the other Nazi, and the innocent Jew is identified as the State of Israel. The perspective of the attackers is clear: "Rabbi Lerner is a Nazi assaulting Israel." That is why the police have labeled this a "hate crime."

What "freedom of the press" is there if an editor is subject to this kind of personal harrassment for expressing his views in his editorials and in the gatherings sponsored by the magazine? Anyone concerned about civil liberties should be concerned about this pattern of attacks on the private home of a magazine editor.  And for those who believe that there is a new tone of civility in the Jewish world, well....it obviously has not impacted on right wing Zionist extremists. Please note, however, that we do not want to imply in any way that all Zionists are responsible directly or indirectly for this attack. The Zionist community in the U.S., while often demeaning Rabbi Lerner, has not shown any tendency toward violence or physical assaults on his person or property, and in our view would not likely do so. These have been the acts of a small group of extremists, and while the demeaning of Rabbi Lerner and Tikkun may have contributed to the climate in which these extremists believed they could get away with these assaults, there is no reason to believe, and we do not believe, that American Zionists as a whole either intended or approve of this kind of activity. And the Board of Rabbis of Northern California publicly critiqued the last attack on Rabbi Lerner's home as did other Jewish leaders.

Assaults on free speech are best met by encouraging more speech. The obvious goal of these attacks is to intimidate and  silence Tikkun, and since Tikkun is the largest circulation liberal/progressive Jewish magazine on-line and in print in the entire world, silencing Tikkun would be a huge victory for these extremists. People can assure that Tikkun stays alive by subscribing to Tikkun at www.tikkun.org, joining Tikkun's interfaith education and social action organization The Network of Spiritual Progressives at www.spiritualprogressives.org, making a tax-deductible contribution to Tikkun (checks can be sent to Tikkun, 2342 Shattuck Ave #1200, Berkeley, Ca. 94704--our mailbox, not the actual address of the magazine's office), and/or creating a local study group to read and discuss Tikkun articles every week, every two weeks, or once a month. You can also read Tikkun-on-line by going to our new web magazine each week to read the latest articles. You can also support us by joining other organizations that seek peace and reconciliation between Israel and Palestine, including J. Street, Jewish Voices for Peace,  Americans for Peace Now, The New Israel Fund and B'tselem.

Thank you for your support.
Tikkun Magazine 

I welcome hearings on Islam - II

There are responses on the Morning News, Huffington Post and several newspapers to the article I wrote, this was the short version in letter format at Dallas Morning News, you are welcome to respond as well. The links are provided below. # # RESPONSES AND THOUGHTS Thanks for expressing your opinions   We all should be concerned about the hearings and hope and pray that Mr. King would be honest, sincere and fair, although his record is marred with bigotry. We hope he will not destroy the fabric of our society and pit one American against the other.   Acknowledging that “some of our own” are a security threat to our nation is the right thing to do; Mr. King is not the right one to do that with his own bias and his support for IRA terrorism. We Muslims should have done it ourselves, since we did not, we have to accept the bad choice of Mr. King. I trust our Systems and the moral goodness of our nation, if Mr. King takes the wrong step, the American people will not put up with it, as they have done that time and again. I trust the Americans, the moderate Americans who are a majority and have supported and turned around Vietnam War, Iraq war, abortion issues, civil rights and other issues.   I welcome the hearings, Muslims have nothing to fear and nothing to worry, let the man fall flat on his face “if” he resorts to untruths. What if he turns out to be honest and finds guys like Shehzad? Then we owe him gratitude, not just Muslims but the whole nation. Just as we produced the Quraan conference in Dallas to evaporate the lies the right wingers had propagated, this will perhaps become the first nail in their coffin and hope they will stop pitting one American against the other to have political gains. Solutions abound.   If nothing else comes from the hearings, one thing is for sure. Muslims are not a monolithic lot and they are no different than any of the 301 million of us. Each one of has a different thumb print, eye print, DNA, different sizes, shapes and colors, political affiliations. Let there be different faiths or no faiths as well. That is God’s universe.

The Muslim Agenda

THE MUSLIM AGENDA,
A book by Mike Ghouse.

It is diametrically opposite of what a typical Muslim is conditioned to think, 'we have to rule the World', 'we have to convert', 'we have to impose Sharia' or, 'we have to come together to defeat the enemy'. This quirky hallucinative rhetoric does not bode well.

A chapter in the book deals with an Agenda for Muslims that can achieved by the year 2030, a generation from now. It will set the tone for Muslims to understand the need to have a plan and define our purpose and work towards it.

To be a Muslim is to be a peace maker, one who mitigates conflicts and nurtures goodwill for the whole humanity. A Muslim is one who works on contributing towards benefiting God's creation; life and matter. He also plants the saplings or seeds to benefit the future wayfarers with its shade or fruit, and a Muslim is one who cares for his neighbors.

In another chapter, the visionary Muslim walks in a group, any group and he or she is looked up as a peace maker, someone who brings goodness to others. Indeed, we have to consciously create a respectable space for us in affairs of the World. We have to earn the respect of the community as the trustworthy, the peace makers and the Amins.

"Serving humanity" should be our attitude and we must consciously serve in every possible way and get involved in the governance of nations where we are not and bring about justice and peace to the society at large.

This book is about my journey starting out as a Muslim to distancing myself from Islam as a Pluralist Youth, to staying out of religion for over half of my life and finding peace and comfort being a Muslim Pluralist a decade ago. It was a verse from the Bhagvad Gita that turned me around, "finding the truth is one's own responsibility," indeed it was, and it inspired me to seek the truth from the myths that surrounded Islam. I was on the Radio for about seven hours on September 11, 2001, getting every community leader from Atheist to Zoroastrian and every one in between to make sense out of the chaos on that day. Interfaith prayers were initiated that week and it was from that day I resumed being a Muslim.

Karen Armstrong's book on Muhammad helped me understand the Prophet's role in creating just societies, it was also for the first time, I understood Muhammad as an individual committed to peace and justice in the world, as opposed to a distant divine figure. Every year we talk about Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King as the peace makers, now, I have added Muhammad as the peace maker in the conversation.

Finally, the conference on demystifying the myths about Qur'aan was a capstone to my journey and I have a lot more to go, nothing ever has been done like this before.

I believe the purpose of religion, any religion for that matter is to create a world of harmony amongst us. To be a Muslim is to be a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer.

I have two books schedule to be completed and released soon.
Continued at: http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2010/12/back-to-basics-book-by-mike-ghouse.html

Mike Ghouse runs the Foundation for Pluralism championing the idea of co-existence through respecting and accepting the otherness of other and has dedicated his life to nurturing the pluralistic ideals embedded in Islam through the World Muslim Congress.

Mike is available to speak on Pluralism, Islam, Civil Societies, Peace & Justice at your school, work place, meeting, conference, seminar or your place of worship. He is a regular commentator on the national TV, Radio and Print media offering pluralistic solutions to the issues of the day. He is a speaker, thinker, writer and a peace activist.

Mike's work is reflected at three websites & twenty two Blogs listed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/

Empowerment of Women on Radio 1220

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN was the topic I was invited to talk about on AM Radio 1220 in Fort Worth, Texas. It was nice to share about respecting every one's space and offering pluralistic solutions to issues of the day. My host, Lubna Ashraf is an anthropologist by training and has been serving communities with passion. S...he had great questions to follow through and I hope the program answered the questions women had about empowerment at home and work. As always callers enhance the conversations.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010 - 9:00 - 10:30 AM.

Mike Ghouse is a speaker on Pluralism, Civil Societies, peace and Islam and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day; a frequent guest on the media. His work can be found in three websites and 22 blogs listed at www.MikeGhouse.net

Parliament of Worlds Religions in 2014

The theme that might capture our imagination and encapsulate our issues in 2014 would be, “A legacy for the next generation” or “A legacy for seven generations.” It is not a new idea; it is a tradition of the native peoples of America.The issues that affect our lives in the coming decade will continue to be environment, water, hunger, religious and ethnic intolerance. If we shy away from consciously shaping our future, we may drift into the abyss of incoherence. We may be fighting against deeply entrenched positions rather than finding solutions to the common issues.

Continued: http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2010/07/parliament-of-worlds-religions-summit.html

http://www.mikeghouse.net/