Members of the Northern Virginia Catholic-Muslim Dialog group were hosted for a review and planning meeting at IIIT earlier this month. The meeting was a follow-up of an agreement signed between Catholic and Muslim religious leaders signed more than a year ago.
Fr. Don Rooney, Fr. Bob Menard, Dave Natella, and Rick Caporali constituted the Catholic team while Dr. Muhammad Shafiq, Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed, Imam Johari Abdul Mailk and Farhanaz Ellis represented the Muslim side. Also participating from the Muslim side were IIIT officers and staff including Dr. Jamal Barzinji, Dr. Hisham Altalib, Dr. Abubaker al Shingieti, Dr. Iqbal Unus, and Khalid Troudi.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Hisham Altalib thanked all present for participating and strengthening the dialog and thus helping build bridges between the two communities. Father Rooney expressed his appreciation for the great motivation and participation in the first year, while expressing his fear that the dialog may be weakened due to a lack of activities in the past few months.
All present agreed to take some concrete steps for the next year. The following activities were proposed:
1. Designated members will work together on the face-book.
2. Four community programs will be conducted per year, one in each quarter.
3. The first program would be on May 12, Monday, 08 in a Catholic Church on Ascension
4. The second program will be on Monday September 15, at Dar al Hijra, on Ramadan and Lent
5. Third program would be on Pilgrimage on Jan 12, 09 at a Muslim place
6. Fourth program will be on “Common Word” on May 24/25, 09 in a catholic place.
The committee will meet again to review the yearly progress in June 09.
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