Can we call Muslims and Buddhists who work for peace “children of God”? How can we not?

How can we call ourselves “children of God” if we do not work for peace?

This beautiful piece came from a facebook group. It is urging everyone take a stance for peace before the Olympic Games in Beijing.

—————-
Subject: For Religious Freedom!

Dear Friends , Muslims and non-Muslims,

This group has kindly agreed to notify you on how you can help the Tibetans without leaving your computer. As you maybe know, Muslims(Uighurs) in China are very ill treated and are discriminated in several parts of China for the only reason that they believe in the Abrahamic God.

Tibetans have suffered a 50 year old occupation by the brutal regime of the Chinese Government. While the message of Compassion of H.H The Dalai Lama, head of Tibetan Buddhism, inspires millions of people from all different religions, China refuses to listen to him and keeps on torturing and killing Tibetans.

We are now 479, 842 persons who are going to light a candle for Tibet during the opening ceremony of the Olympics. You can too by registering on http://www.candle4tibet.org

Muslims from all around the world have shown support to the Dalai Lama. Notable Muslims include Muhammad Yunus and Imam Mehdi Khorasani of Marin County

and everyone please join our new group
“Muslims For The Dalai Lama”
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16888427970

Mijdaff posted this announcement to the cause STOP caLLing MUSLIMS TERRORISTS ! on Facebook.

I know that was 10 months ago, but I’ve only just seen it.

I’m talking to some year 9 students about wealth and poverty next week so I was looking for resources and this report comes with a whole bunch of useful resources:

World Institute for Development Economics Research

Has anyone else been teaching on this subject to a large group? I’ll let you know how it goes. I’d be interested to hear anyone else’s experiences too.

I have just seen Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”, and I just need to blog to get some of the anger out of my system.

I walked out of it thinking of nothing so much as the lynching that (ex-President) Najibullah received at the hands of the Taliban when they took Kabul. Eight months after it happened, I was driven past the traffic post in down-town Kabul from which his body hung for many days as a lesson to unpopular presidents.

I have pledged to be a peacemaker, so I will not lead a lynching. Peace, like love, needs to be made and lived and breathed with every breath. But as I walked out of that theater, and I thought of the damage to our planet that our government seems to be encouraging I couldn’t help thinking about ex-Politicians who had found themselves in the hands of a public who cared about things other than the short-term, economy-centred idols that were used to generate fear and votes.

I’m interested to hear how others have found the movie and what you think we could achieve together.

Priority is given to supporting programs that strive to involve the most marginalized and exploited members of each community, regardless of their religious or political beliefs.

State based activities and gatherings are organised by educators and activists in capital cities and churches across Australia. Contact the state office closest to you to see if they can link you up with can.be people near you.

home page | contacts page | online forum

Getting the API key means you have to create a free blog on their site. I don’t have a use for another blog at the moment. I called it wecanbe.wordpress.com – with the username wecanbe and the password planbe
If anyone wants to play with it – feel free.

Ralph

My intention was to make something that punters can print and stick up in their bedrooms to remind them about the things they are learning to be.

I’ll try to link it to the ‘join’ page (http://wecan.be/wp-register.php)

here’s a link to the “better-than-nothing” pdf

here is a link to the word doc I put it together in (yes – that’s all I had).

I have never met anyone who told me they were with the “Jesus Radicals”, but they have a great web site, and reading their stuff makes my heart glow.
They run a very interesting online forum that lists location for it’s members – could be a good way to link up with good people.

If you know more, please comment to let us know too.

This site and this one carry more information on the movement.

The Catholic Workers I knew ran a fantastic, shared, inner city house whose door was always open, lived out of a common purse, constantly and peacefully protested governmental violence and injustice and worked in many creative ways to build a better community. The main family moved to a different place to do similar things, but I think there are others using the same house (listed below).

If you find a Catholic Worker household, or are in one yourself, please comment on this post or let me know so we can publish more details.

You may be able to contact Catholic Workers in Australia through

West End Catholic Worker
269 Boundary St (PO Box 187)
West End
Brisbane 4101 Queensland
Australia
Phone: 07-38441369

If you want to “Be with the poor” in more then just spirit, you want to check out (and maybe join or support) Servants to Asia’s Urban Poor.

Servants is “a network of Christian teams living and working amongst the urban poor in Asia’s mega cities, participating with the poor to bring hope and justice through Jesus Christ.”

Live it! and they have a great online forum.

“The Waiters Union is a network of residents in West End (Brisbane, Australia) who are committed to developing a sense of community in the locality . . .” and trying out the be.attitudes.

The Waiters have been a supportive, formative and transformative social space for lots of folk. Dave Andrews has lived there for over 20 years.

see their site | get in touch