Justice for All Speakers Forum

Sunday, APRIL 19th at 4:00 p.m. at the Unitarian Universalist Church, Poughkeepsie

"CREATING A PEACEFUL, BELOVED AND ALL INCLUSIVE NATION " (Unitarians)with:

Samina Faheem Sundas, Founder and Executive Director of American Muslim Voice

Ms. Samina Faheem Sundas, is the founder and Executive Director of the American Muslim Voice, and

Co-founder of  Fear To Friendship, a group dedicated to subside the fear after 9/11 by forming life long friendships.

She is also founder of the "Global Peace Partners" .

Her focus is on community building, forming life long friendships among all Americans and to create a culture of peace,

acceptance, mutual respect and harmony She believes that we can achieve that goal through education and interaction.

She is a member of the steering committee for Multifaith Voices For Peace & Justice, Bay Area, Ca, Board Member Friends

of Human Relations, Santa Clara, CA, Chair of the peace building committee of the HRC, Santa Clara, CA, Advisory Board

member of Peninsula Community Foundation and a founding member of Defense Committee of James Lee Muslim Chaplin.

She was also the coordinator of the Muslim Nationwide Hot line, to help people regarding INS Special Registration and to

protect civil liberties for all.

She is a board member of the San Jose Peace Center. Samina is also on the Steering Committee for Olive Branch

Interfaith Peace Partnership.

For the past four years she has been speaking extensively on immigrant and civil liberties, issues, particularly the USA Patriot Act.

She was on the panel of Amnesty International USA National Hearings on Racial Profiling, held in Oakland on September 9, 2003.

Ms Sundas has personally assisted two counties, ten cities and the state of California in passing resolutions against the USA Patriot Act.

She is part of the current historical movement working with faith/immigrants right groups to defeat HR 4437 and towards a more

humane immigration reform.

American Muslim Voice Goals:

* The AMV is committed to bridge the gap between all communities and foster life long friendships with all.

* We will work with all Muslim and non-Muslim organizations/groups who share our dedication and commitment

to protect and preserve civil liberties and constitutional rights for all and protect human rights.

* We regard all humans as equal and will stand by all oppressed and targeted communities in their plight.

We feel strongly about protecting and improving human rights globally.

Immediate Goals:

* We will promote the cause of the Muslim community in America. Advance public understanding of issues relating to the Muslim community.

* We will try to reach out to our fellow Americans and educate them about the plight of Muslims and Arabs since 9/11. We will Identify and oppose

discrimination against Muslims and all other minorities.

* We plan to educate and mobilize Muslims in America to stand up to protect their liberties and constitutional rights, particularly related to effects

of the USA Patriot Act, detentions under Secret Evidence Act, arbitrary detentions by the FBI and INS Special Registration.

Sunday, MAY   17th at Pleasant Plains Presbyterian Church

" CREATING THE JUST AND SUSTAINABLE WORLD OF TOMORROW - - TODAY "

      Kavitha Rao and Jeff Golden, Co-Founders of the Common Fire Foundation

How we came to our life's work:

Growing up, Jeff thought he could make the greatest difference in the world where he perceived the greatest extremes, by getting involved in US foreign policy. In his time abroad his thinking shifted to look at ways he could create deeper and more lasting transformation at the grassroots level. He became a high school teacher in the bilingual program in San Francisco, teaching political and literary history of Latin America. He then spent 5 years starting and running a non-profit that used the Internet to bring traditional and alternative world and US studies to life for over 60,000 students via a free website, and then headed a non-profit that runs two international youth scholarship camps.

All of that work led him to where he is now. For five years he has devoted himself to his work at the Common Fire Foundation, seeking to nurture spaces in the world where people and learn about and actually experience on a small scale the kind of world that they would like to create on a large scale.

After working with environmental justice issues in the Bay Area, Kavitha became a correspondent for the Odyssey's World Trek for Service and Education (the internet based nonprofit Jeff refers to above), traveling for 2 years to over 30 countries, reporting on history, culture, contemporary issues and grassroots movements of countries overlooked in most American textbooks for the Odyssey's free educational website. During these 2 years she had the honor to interview several people doing incredible work in their communities, and time and again was moved by their humility, love and commitment. When she returned to the US she dedicated herself to re-thinking her own activism in the US, and how people with privilege can live and act in solidarity with peoples around the world, making our activism a way of life, not simply a hobby or a phase to burn out from. Influenced by her yoga practice, her studies of Nonviolence and work with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and her mother's explorations of intentional communities in the US, Kavitha has focused on her work with Common Fire for the past several years, recognizing the longing so many people have for greater connection and purpose.

How people can join us:

At a core level, the vast suffering and destruction in the world are not the result of political or economic problems. They are manifestations of the underlying culture from which they surge. It does little good to struggle to create change in the world if in our own lives and work we are recreating the very norms that give rise to that violence and destruction. It is essential that we create communities that nurture the greatest aspects of the human spirit while consciously avoiding supporting the systems and cultures that are feeding into the vast problems in the world.

Rather than waiting for a "revolutionary moment" on a national or global scale, rather than waiting for some great leader/s to step forward and turn the tide, we invite people to explore ways that they can create the justice and sustainability



You can help support our forum!!

if you would like Videos or DVDs of past speakers to use with your youth groups, in the classroom
or for individual viewing. The following are now available:

Jeff Cohen: The Problems of Corporate-Owned New Media: An Inside View
Joshua Casteel: Abu Graib: An Insider's View
John Fife: No More Deaths ( A Look at What's Happening Along the US-Mexican Borders)
Dr. Ismail Acar: Christian-Muslim Relations
Robert Martin: A Race to Become Human : The Alternative to Violence Project

Dr. David Woolner: American Foreign Policy in FDR's 4 Freedoms of the 21st Century

Dr. Howard Van Till: What's Real & What Makes Us Think We Know?

If you are interested in purchasing any of these videos for only $5.00 and/or are interested

in learning more about our forums please contact Sue Moshier at smoshier50@yahoo.com

or by calling 876-6194.

My dear sisters and brothers,

This fall, Saint Margaret�s Episcopal Church, located in Staatsburg, NY, (north Hyde Park), has launched a Speakers Forum, under the title Justice for All, to raise awareness about the intimate and necessary connection between the Judeo-Christian tradition and action of behalf of justice for the poor, the marginalized, the disenfranchised and the oppressed both in our nation and in our world. It is hoped that raising consciousness will serve to motivate more and more good people to bring some of their energy to bear in advocacy for and in service to God�s great ongoing work of establishing justice upon the earth.

Given the intrinsic and abiding relationship between our faith tradition and the requirements of justice for all, an authentic response to human misery can never solely and exclusively rely on simple acts of charity on behalf of identified victims. No, faith always urges us to discern and address those underlying social complexities and agendas that necessarily produce victims. Believers and all people of good will must remain informed, poised and ready to take action with regard to systems, structures and interests that invariably give rise to the pain of humanity. The martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero gave voice to this reality when he said, "If I feed the poor, they call me a saint; if I ask why there are poor, they call me a communist." And the simple truth about the priority of justice is captured in the words of Saint Ambrose, who said, "We cannot give charity to a poor man, we can only return to him what is his by a prior right." Recently, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, commented, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."

In these difficult and troubled times, filled with war and threats of endless war, we also do well to remember the wise admonition, that those who truly desire peace - will work for justice. When justice is multiplied upon the earth, only then will peace flow like a river.

The Speakers Forum will convene on the third Sunday of the month at 4 PM and will host speakers from various disciplines, backgrounds and organizations. Each will address some aspect of justice

St. Margaret's Episcopal Church

East Elm St. & Old Post Rd.

      Staatsburg, NY 12580

            845-889-4181



        This forum is co-sponsored

by:

The

Pleasant Plains Presbyterian Church

2 Fiddlers Bridge Road

Staatsburg, New York 12580

845-889-4019

The Speakers Forum

is sponsored by:

ST. MARAGARET'S

EPISCOPAL CHURCH

East Elm Ave & Albany Post Rd.

Staatsburg, N.Y.

845-889-4181

&

PLEASANT PLAINS

PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

2 Fiddler's Bridge Rd.

Staatsburg, N.Y.

845-889-4101

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