Friends for a Non-Violent World

February 20, 2011
In This Email Blast
Workshop March 18, 2011
Share Office Space with FNVW
Conference April 9, 2011
Conference on Islam Feb 24 - 26
Ways of Peace II: April 9, 2011
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Creating A Culture of Peace Workshop

When:  Wednesday, March 18th through Sunday, March 20th (exact times still to be determined)

Where:  Faith Mennonite Church;  2720 E. 22nd Street, Minneapolis, MN  55406

Cost:         $100 per person; scholarships available

Deadline:  March 4th, 2011

Further info:   
 

Phone 612-375-9483
 

Email

[email protected]

www.faithmennonite.org

Looking for Office Space? Check out FNVW
 

Friends for a Non-Violent World is looking to share our spacious offices with a compatible community organization or non-profit.

 

 
  • Space at 1050 Selby Ave,  St Paul  55104
  • $800/mo for 800 sq. feet
  •  Plus shared full kitchen & bathroom
  • Street-level office space
  • Access to a large conference room
  • Sharing high-speed internet and printer/copier is negotiable
  • Utilities not included; charged on prorated basis


 

FNVW is looking to share our office space with an organization or individual who honors our mission:

FNVW is a Quaker-inspired organization of people who affirm the dignity inherent in each human being. We share a commitment to advancing non-violence as an ethic for honoring human dignity and a strategy for achieving peace and justice. 


 

For more information, please call Judy at the FNVW office, 651-917-0383 or email to [email protected].

 
Peaceable-Kingdon


 


 

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Faith-based groups bulletin announcement:

 

Please distribute this to your members, and feel free to forward it to all possibly-interested parties.

 

Friends for a Non-Violent World, the University of St. Thomas Muslim Christian Dialogue Center and its Justice and Peace Studies Department invite you to a timely conference: 

 

Ways of Peace II: Nonviolence in the Islamic Traditions, on April 9, 2011, 9:30am - 6:30pm at the University of St Thomas, OEC Auditorium.

 

The current demonstrations in Egypt, and recently in Tunisia, Yemen and Jordan, point to an exciting trend:  People in Muslim-majority countries peacefully seeking less-oppressive societies.  As Afra Jalabi, Canadian scholar, activist and conference speaker, said of the demonstrations, "A nonviolent giant is waking up the world over..."

 

Ways of Peace II: Nonviolence in the Islamic Traditions aims to address misperceptions and anti-Muslim sentiment, support civil rights of all individuals, and promote peace-based traditions in Muslim communities and countries.  We believe this is crucial for increasing understanding, promoting peace and resolving local and global conflicts in the 21st century.

 

We have lined up a diverse group of experts from Minnesota, Turkey, Canada and the U.S.  The conference will mark the regional premier of Badshah Khan: The Frontier Gandhi, a new film about this little-known Islamic leader, who assembled 100,000 Muslims in pre-partition India to work in the nonviolent movement for independence from Britain.

 

Ways of Peace II is the second conference in a series, organized by Friends for A Non-Violent World (FNVW), to explore the roots, history and practice of nonviolence in various faith and secular traditions.  On October 31, 2009, Ways of Peace I brought together scholars like June and Walter Wink with activists like Kathy Kelly to explore nonviolence in the Christian tradition.  [See video footage of Ways of Peace I at www.fnvw.org]

 

Conference fee is $15; $10 for students. 

Prepay $10 to guarantee lunch catered by UST.  

More information, registration and online payment at www.fnvw.org 

 

Shared Cultural Spaces, Islam and the West in the Arts and Sciences

The University of Minnesota's Program in Religious Studies will be presenting  Shared Cultural Spaces, a conference on Islam and the Humanities.  Below you will find a preview of the dramatic performance which anchors the conference.  For more details about the entire February 24-26 conference, please click on this link:
 
https://sites.google.com/a/umn.edu/sharedspaces/

Journey, by Mohammed Ghaffari

    We are excited to present a dramatic performance and subsequent discussion of one of the spiritual and scientific masterpieces of the medieval Islamic world, Ibn Tufayl's Hayy ibn Yaqzan.

   
 

    Translated into English in the 17th century but only now dramatized by director Mohammad B. Ghaffari for its premiere at our forum, this masterful work was the inspiration for Daniel Defoe'sRobinson Crusoe , published in 1719.


 

    Ghaffari calls his translation and re-imagining of the story of Hayy ibn Yaqzan "Journey ," and we invite you all to experience Hayy's journey with us for the first time in centuries.


 

    The journey of Hayy bin Yaqzan is one of discovery as the parentless boy Hayy, raised in the wild, evolves in his understanding of natural principles and spiritual life. Defoe's protagonist re-enacts the same journey as he too attempts to reach spiritual knowledge.


 

    But while Hayy never seeks to impose his paradigm on the people he later meets, Crusoe yokes a Christian spiritual quest-specifically toward Protestant individualism-to colonialism and early global capitalism. 


 

    Demonstrating the profound influence of Muslim literature on the West, the performance and discussion of Hayy ibn Yaqzan's story will represent a centerpiece of our forum.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

8:00 p.m. 

Kilburn Arena Stage,

Rarig Center

West Bank campus, U of M


Friday, February 25, 2011
8:00 p.m. 
Kilburn Arena Stage,
Rarig Center

West Bank campus, U of M

Saturday, February 26, 2011
8:00 p.m. 
Kilburn Arena Stage,
Rarig Center
West Bank campus, U of M

Here is a link to the play and cast details from Minnesota Playlist

<http://minnesotaplaylist.com/performance/audience/journey>

Admission to the play and conference are free, but reservations for the play are requested.
 

-- William O. Beeman, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota 395 HHH Center301 19th Avenue S. Minneapolis, MN 55455Tel. (612) 625-3400
Ways of Peace II: Non-Violence in the Islamic Traditions
April 9, 2011 at University of St Thomas, St Paul, MN
 
There is exciting progress confirming a terrific program for Ways of Peace II, the second in a series organized by FNVW. The series is exploring the roots, history and practice of nonviolence in various faith and secular traditions, and for this one we are teaming up with University of St. Thomas' Muslim Christian Dialogue Center (MCDC).
 
We have four top-notch presenters confirmed, with more to come:   Dr. Adil Ozdemir, co-director of MCDC; Ms. Afra Jalabi, an Arab-Canadian journalist, peace advocate, and WISE Shura Council member;
Dr. Fatma Reda, a physician and Qur'anic scholar in local Muslim communities; and Dr. Yahya Michot, professor of Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary.

We are delighted that Representative Keith Ellison will speak if his schedule allows, and we are negotiating to screen The Frontier Gandhi: Badshah Kahn, A Torch for Peace, a film by Terri McCluhan.

The Ways of Peace II Conference aims to bring  local Muslims and non-Muslims together to address misperceptions, anti-Muslim sentiment and the honest questions people have, by lifting up the non-violent traditions within Islam.


For example, followers of the Islamic faiths exceed one billion people, yet Muslims have often come to be represented in the media by the violent groups with political agendas that comprise a tiny sliver of the Muslim population.  While there is much focus on religiously charged conflict and violence, there has been little attention paid to non-violent beliefs and approaches in the Islamic traditions. 


As in other mainstream religious traditions, there are also Islamic proponents and practitioners who have and are challenging the dominant orthodoxy and are advocating alternative ways of approaching human conflicts and achieving peace and reconciliation.

 

FNVW supports the civil rights of all individuals, and wishes to promote a deeper understanding of Islam's use of and contribution to non-violent theory and practice because it is crucial to resolving local and global conflicts in the 21st century. 
 
Ways of Peace is co-sponsored by the University of St. Thomas Muslim Christian Dialogue Center, its Justice and Peace Studies Department, and FNVW.
Way of Peace II
Erika Thorne, Director
Friends for a Non-Violent World
 
1050 Selby Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104
651-917-0383
www.fnvw.org