wfn.org | May 20 CWS Webcast on Interfaith Disaster Response

["Carol Fouke" <carolf@ncccusa.org>]

National Council of Churches/Church World Service
CWS5/7/02 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hearing the Muslim Community: Preparing for Interfaith Disaster Response
May 20, 2002, 2- 4 p.m. ET Webcast Live on FaithandValues.com

May 7, 2002, NEW YORK CITY - In communities across America, in one of the
continuing tragedies of the September 11 attacks, neighbors regard each
other with heightened suspicion. A May 20 event sponsored by Church World
Service will seek to respond.

Although America remains a predominantly Christian nation, it also is home
to between five and six million Muslims in cities and towns across the
country, according to The Pluralism Project at Harvard University. In the
wake of 9/11, a wedge of fear has fractured what was already, in many cases,
a community of solitudes.

Church World Service is among America's leading agencies for disaster
response, working on behalf of 36 Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox
Christian faith groups. "As we've responded to 9/11, one of the things we've
come to understand more fully is that effective disaster relief has to be
about more than just meeting physical needs," said Rick Augsburger, Director
of the CWS Emergency Response Program.

"It's about helping the community to come together and strengthen itself as
community. An event like 9/11 challenges our ability to work together in a
very fundamental way."

A panel discussion sponsored by CWS will address these challenges, beginning
with hearing American Muslims speak about their experiences after the
attacks, then moving to consider next steps in building interfaith bridges.
How does the Muslim community want to be understood? How can Christians work
with Muslims in the U.S. to bridge what appears to be a growing divide? How
can these faith groups work together in times of disaster to strengthen and
build better communities?

The discussion will take place May 20th, from 2 to 4 p.m. ET, in the studios
of Detroit's WXYZ, Channel 7. It will be Webcast live on FaithandValues.com.
Viewers may interact with the panel by email to webcast@faithandvalues.com.
Additional support comes from the Christian Council of Metropolitan Detroit,
Channel 7, FaithandValues.com and Pacific Media Ministries.

Panelists include:

	The Rev. Dr. Charles Mabee, author of Reading Sacred Texts through American
Eyes and Reimagining America.  Dr. Mabee is an Old Testament scholar who
directs the Master of Divinity program at the Ecumenical Theological
Seminary, Detroit. He is currently working on a new introduction to Islam
for American college students.

	Victor Begg, president of the Unity Center Mosque, Bloomfield Hills,
Michigan, and vice-chair of the state's Council of Islamic Organizations.
His extensive involvement in community and interfaith affairs includes
serving as a board member of the National Conference for Community and
Justice (NCCJ) and an elected member of his local Board of Education.

 	Imam Hassan Qazwini, religious leader of the Islamic Center of America in
Detroit.  Imam Qazwini was born in Karbala, Iraq and graduated from the
Islamic Seminary in Qum, Iran.  In 1996 he immigrated to the United States
and directed the Azzahra Islamic Center in Orange County, California, until
moving to Detroit in 1997.

  	Dr. Abdul Hakim Jackson, associate professor of Arabic and Islamic
studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Dr. Jackson was born in
Philadelphia and received his PhD in Oriental Studies-Islamic Near East from
the University of Pennsylvania. He has worked with the NCCJ, Austin
Metropolitan Ministries, and the Islamic Society of North America.

 	Broadcast journalist Arthur Cribbs Jr. moderates the panel. Mr. Cribbs, a
former executive director of the United Church of Christ's Office of
Communication, is now pastor of the Christian Fellowship Congregational
Church in San Diego and the President of Pacific Media Ministries in San
Diego.

FaithandValues.com is an interfaith Web site supported by mainline faith
groups representing 200,000 congregations with a combined membership of more
than 120 million Americans. Additionally, it offers Web site development and
hosting and provides streaming audio and video services. For more
information, call 859-422-0425 or visit the Web site at
www.faithandvalues.com

Church World Service (www.churchworldservice.org) works in more than 80
countries to meet human needs and foster self-reliance. CWS works on behalf
of the 36 Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox member communions of the (U.S.)
National Council of Churches in programs of social and economic development,
emergency response, assistance to refugees, education and advocacy, and
ecumenical relationships. For more information about Church World Service
call 1-800-297-1516.

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Media contacts: NCC/CWS: Carol Fouke, 212-870-2252/2227; news@ncccusa.org
FaithandValues.com: Douglas Smith, 859-422-0425; dsmith@faithandvalues.com