ISB President Elect Maqbool Patel welcomed attendees to the center and spoke on the peaceful nature of Islam, its diversity, and its tolerance towards other religions.
The Gwyn Oak Islamic Community’s Ayyub Hanif offered a reminder about hope in Islam.
The third speaker, El-Hajj Mauri Saalakhan, Director of the Peace and Justice Foundation and author of “the Palestinian’s Holocaust” presented a short summary of the painful history of Palestine. He described Britain’s Balfur declaration of 1917 promising Palestine will be the homeland for European Jews. He also described the militant nature of the Jewish immigrants entering Palestine before 1948. Palestinians were forced to leave their homes and farms by violent attacks and threats from these militant Jewish migrants. Saalakhan also highlighted the nature of the conflict -- occupation by force and forced eviction.
Dr Bashar Pharoan of the ADC was the fourth speaker. Pharoan highlighted the massacre of the Palestinian civilians during the recent Gaza invasion. Homes, schools, mosques, hospital, news stations, one church and other institutions were attacked. Pharoan highlighted the hopeful nature of Palestinians, despite the steep hills they had to climb year after year, since the Nakba (“catastrophe”) of 1948. Pharoan called for overcoming the fear of speaking up for justice, and for all religions to live in peace and mutual respect in Palestine. The final speaker was Imam Yahya Hendi, a lecturer at Georgetown University. He expressed the pains of growing up in occupied Palestine; he also preached the message of tolerance among Christians, Muslims and Jews. The memorial concluded with invocation and a Janaza prayer in absentia for all the Palestinians killed due to Israeli invasions.
This report is based on an ADC press release from Dr. Bashar Pharoan. To learn more about the ADC, visit http://adc.capwiz.com.
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