wfn.org | NCC praises Obama address to Muslims

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

>NCC welcomes Obama Cairo speech,
>calls for continued dialogue with Muslims

New York, June 4, 2009 -  Senior staff of the National Council of  Churches praised President Obama's address to the Muslim world today,  and renewed the Council's commitment to friendship and dialogue with  Muslim people of faith.

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC General Secretary, and Dr. Antonios  Kireopoulos, Senior Program Director for Interfaith Relations, said they  were gratified by the President's declaration in Cairo that Muslims  share with all Americans common principles of "justice and progress,  tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."

In a letter to Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President of the Islamic Society of  North America, and Dr. Sayyid Syeed, ISNA's national director of  interfaith and community alliances, the NCC leaders said they were  "moved to contact you old friends to express a similar recommitment to  friendship and dialogue."

"The 35 member communions of the National Council of Churches,  representing millions whose devotion to God is expressed through their  faith in Jesus Christ, have long recognized the commonalities we share  as children of Abraham with Muslims and Jews," the NCC letter said. "As  President Obama said today, God's vision is that the people of the world  can live together in peace. Allow us to respond by declaring that we  share his view, and we echo his sense of calling: 'Now, that must be our  work here on earth.'

>The text of the letter:

>June 4, 2009 

Dr. Ingrid Mattson, President

Dr. Sayyid Syeed, National Director for the Office of Interfaith and  Community Alliances
Islamic Society of North America
Plainfield, Ind.

>Dear Ingrid and Sayyid, 

I am sure you share our gratification over President Obama's call in  Cairo today for "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims  around the world."

The President called for a relationship based on the reality that Islam  and the United States share common principles of "justice and progress;  tolerance and the dignity of all human beings."
 
Particularly gratifying to us was the fact that Mr. Obama testified to  his own experience as a Christian with Muslim communities around the  world, and paid tribute to civilization's debt to Islam.  

Of course, these are not new sentiments or a new American policy. Mr.  Obama's declaration that "Islam is a part of America" was recognized and  often stated by other U.S. Presidents. But Mr. Obama's decision to make  America's relationship with Islam the topic of a major address in a  major Arab capital has amplified the message around the globe.
 
As we listened to the President's address this morning, we were moved to  contact you old friends to express a similar recommitment to friendship  and dialogue.
  
The 35 member communions of the National Council of Churches,  representing millions whose devotion to God is expressed through their  faith in Jesus Christ, have long recognized the commonalities we share  as children of Abraham with Muslims and Jews. As President Obama said  today, God's vision is that the people of the world can live together in  peace. Allow us to respond by declaring that we share his view, and we  echo his sense of calling: "Now, that must be our work here on  earth." 

>May God's blessings be on us all. 
>Sincerely,
>Michael Kinnamon
>General Secretary 
>Antonios Kireopoulos
>Senior Program Director for Interfaith Relations

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212  (cell) , pjenks@ncccusa.org