ISNA Calls Emergency Meeting of Top Faith Leaders to Address Anti-Muslim Fear, Intolerance

(Washington, D.C. Sept 7, 2010) The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) will host an emergency interfaith summit today, Tuesday September 7, to address the recent surge in anti-Muslim rhetoric and Islamaphobia.  Directly following the summit, top Christian, Jewish, Muslim and other faith leaders from across the country will brief media on the outcome of the meeting to address the growing tide of fear and intolerance that has emerged in the wake of the New York Muslim Community Center debate.

The press conference will take place Tuesday, September 7 at 1:00 p.m. in the National Press Club’s Murrow room, four days before the anniversary of 9-11 and before the planned burning of the Holy Koran in Gainesville, Florida.  Media coverage of the press conference is welcomed.

The meeting, organized by ISNA, aims to raise a shared religious voice that has been largely missing in the debate until now. Participants are expected to release a joint declaration underscoring the clergy’s moral responsibility in communicating the need for solidarity and compassion and to lay out a plan of action for interfaith collaboration going forward.
 
Participants will discuss the state of interfaith solidarity and propose solutions to the anti-Muslim discrimination and hatred that has emerged in recent weeks.

Among those expected to attend are Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the Archbishop Emeritus of Washington, Bishop Mark Sisk, the Episcopal Church’s Bishop of New York, and Rabbi David Saperstein from the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Leaders from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Council of Churches, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, Archdiocese of New York and Archdiocese of Washington are also expected to participate.