• Research and Evaluation: Advance research and knowledge, and implement evaluation on themes such as: democracy, nonviolence, pluralism, human rights and peacebuilding as they relate to Islamic religion and societies.

• Peacebuilding Intervention and Training: Design and conduct training modules and intervention processes for government and non-governmental organizations as well as various communities and grassroot groups, utilizing a group of trainers and practitioners with enormous experience and expertise in various areas of the world, such as Sri Lanka, Philippines, Egypt and Palestine.

• Inter-Religious and Intra-Religious Dialogue: Develop and participate in forums to promote interfaith dialogue and actions between Muslims and non-Muslims. Organize and facilitate meetings to promote internal dialogue among Muslims on themes of community, nonviolence, democracy and peacebuilding.

• Development and Relief: Conduct training and interventions to assist in the implementation of sustainable development and relief programs (refugees and IDPs, health, eduction and post-conflict reconstruction activities) in conflict affected areas. Assist in coordinating emergency, humanitarian and development efforts among and between Muslim NGOs, building partnerships and networks on the ground to better facilitate relief operations in shorter periods of time and coordinate efforts with minimal duplication and overlap.

• Resources and Publications: Develop and distribute educational resources and guides on Islamic dialogue, leadership, human rights and sources of peace and conflict resolution. Create an Islamic Peacebuilding Database to provide networking opportunities in addition to community support and cumulative knowledge creation in the field.

• Education and Curricular Development: Continue ongoing work of identifying and evaluating the condition and development of madrassahs in the Islamic world, including examination of curriculum and the socio-political conditions influencing madrassah operations. Salam is also actively engaged in promoting curricula which support nonviolent and conflict resolution skills as found in Islamic history and tradition.

• Provide scholarly and professional knowledge and expertise to governmental and non governmental organizations and individuals on various dimensions of political, socio-cultural, religious, and economic aspects of conflicts in Islamic context

• Enhance the knowledge base of  for conflict resolution and peace among practitioners, academicians, and policy makers

• Further the inter-religious dialogue among Muslims and non Muslims in western and non-western societies, as well as promote an action orientation towards peace and justice among the different communities

• Advance the integration of local traditions and values in areas of peace, conflict resolution and development

• Explore, develop, and utilize resources in Muslim communities to contribute to peacebuilding and development efforts in various conflict areas in the world.

Chad project

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Niger project

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• Inclusivity: recognizing that creating a space for all parties affected by a conflict will certainly enhance the possibilities for a satisfactory resolution. Promoting inclusivity of diverse beliefs and views is essential for building healthy relationships

• Justice: In conflict situations satisfying people’s sense of justice is a condition for reconciliation and healing. Salam’s orientation and approaches are based on contributing to the understanding and framing issues related to justice, with a purpose of building a solid foundation for peace.

• Nonviolent approaches are the means to insure sustainable and durable resolution of any conflict of interests or values. Regardless of their religious, national, or cultural background individuals have the capacity to learn and practice nonviolent strategies to resolve their disputes.

• Environment of communities and individuals: The ability to build lasting peace depends to a great extent on overcoming the asymmetries between parties. Empowering those involved in conflict situation with knowledge, skills, access to resources, and general awareness of the conflict and its causes and dynamics, reduces the asymmetric relations inherited in a conflict dynamics and create an atmosphere conducive to peace-building and sustainable development.

Equality: raising awareness of people against inherent assumptions of superiority based on categorical differences, such as: religion, gender,

Fostering Relationships Through Discussion:Islamic Sources of Peace and Nonviolence

Following an initial trip to Iran in October of 2007, where scholars from Salam Institute for Peace and Justice and The United States Institute for Peace (USIP) met with Iranian Scholars to discuss peace, conflict resolution, and theoretical and practical approaches to peacemaking, it was decided that the continuation of such dialogue between scholars was needed. Believing that continued scholarly exchange will contribute to research, publication, and significant future exchanges on the important subject of Muslim approaches to peace and non-violence, upon return to the United States the idea of a second exchange, this time of Iranian Scholars to the U.S. , was developed (Phase Two of the program). Junior level scholars were then identified with the assistance of our partner contacts in Iran and a 15-person contingent of Iranians visited the United States in May 2008.

While in Washington , D.C. , May 2008 program participants meet with NGO representatives and think tank analysts for briefings on the status of current initiatives to resolve international conflicts. They met with religious leaders, in particular members of the Muslim and Christian faiths, to discuss their efforts at interfaith dialogue and conflict resolution. They examined current humanitarian operations, peacekeeping activities, and economic development programs through participation in American University ‘s Summer Peace-building and Development Institute (PDI). Briefings with conflict resolution professors from American University , the U.S. Institute of Peace, and George Mason University also provided an opportunity to focus on the various theories of preventive diplomacy and conflict resolution, as well as on post-conflict reconstruction and reconciliation.

The five-day training seminar arranged at the PDI at America University included participants from around the world. Topics covered included “Religion and Culture in Conflict Resolution,” “Applied Conflict Analysis and Negotiation,” and “Youth, Conflict, and Peace-building.” The Iranian scholar’s participation in these seminars was both helpful to them in planning for their work back home, and well received by those from other regions who participated in the PDI program. Many PDI participants commented on how beneficial it was to have the perspective of the Iranians in their group discussion and strategic planning.

The Salam Institute’s phased plan for the continuation of the Iran program includes continued exchange between senior scholars through a planned closed-door academic conference in Turkey January 2009 (Phase Three) followed by a mid-2009 exchange of ideas and best practices among University administrators on developing conflict resolution programs and teaching conflict resolution skills (Phase Four). This fourth phase of the program will involve developing a sustainable partnership between American and Iranian Academic Institutions.

This four-phased Iranian program plan is aimed at fostering and sustaining people-topeople dialogue, as well as skills transfer on Islamic principles of peace. An example of the success of this objective occurred when the May 2008 program participants visited three cities ( New York , Louisville , and Seattle ) outside of Washington , DC . This varied experience of American culture allowed participants to share a much richer experience with American colleagues and citizens than would have been possible if they had come only for PDI seminars. Providing the May 2008 participants with an opportunity to meet average people in large and mid-sized American cities, it is this type of people-to-people sharing that Salam Institute is committed to continuing. As this is an on-going project Salam Institute is continually looking for those interested in supporting this important work. We encourage you to contact us for more information about how you can assist.

FELLOWSHIPS

Salam Fellows

Abbas Barzegar

Identity & Muslim Inter/Intra-Faith Dialogue in Atlanta:
A Discourse-Performance Centered Approach

Abbas Barzegar, a PhD student in the West and South Asian Religions at Emory University, intends to examine the complexity and cultural, religious, and political diversity of the American Muslim community, recognizing and relating the critical importance of accurate frameworks for understanding community dynamics to the broader inter-religious context of coexistence.
Specifically, Mr. Barzegar will conduct a mapping of various aspects of the American Muslim community in the Atlanta, Georgia area for the purposes of designing appropriate inter-religious conflict transformation manuals and Imam trainings that seek to engage the American Muslim community more extensively and to concretely link the intra-Muslim dialogue to wider interfaith coexistence in the United States. This will involve producing case studies of three different Muslim organizations in the area as well as highlighting the work of various Muslim organizations engaged in peacebuilding, development, nonviolence and interfaith relations in the Georgia area.

This project initially began with a grant from Harvard’s Center for the Study of Religion’s Pluralism Project surveying Muslim organizations in Denver, Colorado and assessing their varied reactions and community responses to the September 11, tragedies.  Mr. Barzegar has been an adjunct faculty at the Metro State College of Denver and has won numerous awards for his work in canvassing various aspects of the American Muslim community, as well as the political opinions of Muslim youths in Iran, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, in addition to his long-standing record of community service.

abarzga@emory.edu

‘Abd al-Hayy Michael Weinman

Action Research, Dialogue, and the American Mosque

‘Abd al-Hayy Michael Weinman is developing “Envision Islam in America” (EIIA), a long-term community-based action research project that is creating an on-going forum for 1) dialogue within the American Muslim community and 2) for coordinating information to engage the larger American public. Organized as a collaborative effort to forge greater links and ties between Islamic communities and the American academy, the EIIA project has initiated a pilot program based in Albuquerque, New Mexico designed for replicability across the U.S..  As part of this project, Mr. Weinman is developing trainings, workshops and manuals that involve interactive community dialogue to address the specific needs and concerns of the American Muslim community.   In pursuit of  community practices that are “best” from a communication perspective, the EIIA project uses appreciative inquiry dialogic methods to provide a positive foundation for education and intra-religious coexistence.   This important initiative is carried out in partnership with the University of New Mexico, the Islamic Center of New Mexico, the Salam Institute in Washington DC, and other groups, including the Muslim Students Association (MSA).
Mr. Weinman has a background in communication studies and education, with academic and civic interests in introducing, promoting, and researching dialogic communication in American Muslim communities; community building through participative action research; mediation in community; and conflict resolution. He is currently a PhD candidate at the University of New Mexico Department of Communication and Journalism.

weinman@unm.edu

Sabirah Ashki, Zelah Melinda Witter

Islamic Approaches and Principles of Dialogue

Sabirah’s research focuses on the researching and studying applicable Islamic principles found in the Qur’an and Hadiths for the development of a distinctively Islamic approach to dialogue. This research is intended to investigate the role of Islam in peacebuilding and in communication, and how these are contextualized and understood among Muslims and within an interfaith context. These in turn will facilitate ways in which dialogic skills may be cultivated and employed as a peacebuilding tool within the American Muslim community and in relation to others.

Ms. Ashki has had extensive experience in the private sector, education, and counseling in addition considerable experience in the study of religion and spirituality. She is deeply involved in Iraqi Kurdistan as an area of interest, and is currently the Mustafa Barzani Peace Fellow at American University Center for Global Peace. She completed her Master’s degree of International Service this past May, with the intent of pursing a degree in Islamic Studies.

sabbieashki@yahoo.com

Diana Bandak

Diana Bandak will be conducting research for the Salam Institute that focuses on mapping interfaith resources in the United States with the Muslim community. A key component of this research is documenting practices, organizations, publications and other resources that are actively engaged and contribute toward respect for diversity and advances the vision of peaceful coexistence among religious communities in the U.S. Particular attention will also be paid to the role of Muslim women in organizations and groups that work toward interfaith coexistence and peacebuilding.

dibandak@gmail.com

Patty Anton

Patty Anton intends to conduct an investigation into the ethics of dawah. Her study will seek to identify points of agreement and divergence on the practice of dawah among contemporary Muslims, particularly those offering aid to people of other faiths. This research will explore Muslim perspectives of their mandate to give dawah and what they see as the scope, priorities and limits of dawah. Furthermore, the study will look into the textual evidence and support which are deemed salient to the contemporary understanding dawah in the American context.

Ms Anton has been a dialogue trainer for Hands Along the Nile and diversity coordinator for Connecting Cultures, in addition to working as a training coach for the United States Institute of Peace and a research training coach for Project LIGHT (Learning Islamic Guidance on Human Tolerance). She has worked extensively on interfaith work and conflict resolution training in addition to extensive community service.

almadaniyyah@gmail.com

Ibrahim Kazerooni

Imam Kazerooni, a long-time activist in interfaith relations and bridge-builder between Christians and Muslims in the United Kingdom and in the United States, is focused on developing a “lessons learned” analysis of the golden period of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim coexistence in Al-Andalusia, Spain for its relevance and applicability to the American experience of pluralism and diversity today. An exploration of the conditions and variables that led to peaceful coexistence will be conducted for positive models which could be replicated today. In addition, Imam Kazerooni will partner with the Salam Institute in the conduct and evaluation of Imam trainings in the United States.

Imam Kazerooni attended the Islamic Seminary College in Al-Najaf and Qum, and has published on tolerance, pluralism and fundamentalism and taught courses on Islamic exegesis, law and mysticism. He has also been honored as an Ambassador for Peace by the Inter-Religious and International Federation for World Peace, and currently lives in the Denver, Colorado area working on a Master of Theological Studies in the Iliff School of Theology.

mkazerooni@hotmail.com

Afra Jalabi

Afra Jalabi focuses on developing resources of Islamic principles of nonviolence based on close analysis of the Meccan and Medinan period. Having worked for a number of years on Islamic sources of nonviolent peacemaking, her research approaches the complexity and challenges of the subject for peacemakers to “re-contextualize nonviolence as an indigenous Islamic alternative that has been forgotten and marginalized.”  In compiling historical and traditional resources on nonviolent conflict resolution and social change, Ms. Jalabi seeks to re-examine the nature of activism and underlying principles of coexistence through a Muslim lens.

Ms. Jalabi was raised in Syria, Germany and Saudi Arabia before immigrating to Canada. She has a B.A in anthropology and political science from McGill University, a master’s degree in journalism from Carleton University; and was a columnist for 4 years for Al-Jadeedah magazine. She has been a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Law and Religion (Hamline University).

Her interests lie in the theory of nonviolence, early Islamic history and texts, Quranic exegesis, and feminist theory. She has lectured about these themes in Canada and the States for the last few years. Ms. Jalabi has been also a research assistant and editor for her uncle, Jawdat Said, who is one of the few nonviolent theorists in the Muslim World. She also has been to several conferences as participant, interpreter or moderator, including a recent conference in Rome (June, 2004) on nonviolence and dialogue which included a 2-day workshop with his holiness, the Dalai Lama.

malabi@sympatico.ca

Putut Widjanarko

Indonesian Muslims in New York City: A Transnational Community in the Making?

Putut Widjanarko is in his third-year of his Ph.D. Mass Communication program at the School of Telecommunications, Ohio University, Athens. He completed his undergraduate degree in physics engineering at the Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB) and has a Masters degree in management from Sekolah Tinggi Manajemen Bandung (both Indonesia). With his Fulbright scholarship, he earned his MA degree in Media Studies from the School of Telecommunications, Ohio University. He is the (non-active) Managing Director of Mizan Publishing, one of the leading Islamic publishers in Indonesia. Putut and his wife, Elin Driana, who is a Ph.D. student in Education Research and Evaluation at Ohio University, have three children, Faikar, 11; Hanum, 9; and Ranti, 3.

His main interest is the relationship between technology, especially new communication technology, and culture in its broadest sense.  He is also interested in culture studies and science and technology studies.  His dissertation, which is partly funded by Salam: Institute of Peace and Justice, will investigate issues of identity and community-building among Indonesian Muslim migrants in New York City. By observation of how the Indonesian community is using media to broaden participation in activities such as community services, interfaith organizing, and volunteer efforts for various social causes, this study will provide insight into how Indonesian migrants in New York City are positioning themselves in relation to the to the transnational Muslim ummah, their country of birth, and the larger society in which they find themselves. This study will emphasize how the consumption and production of media affects the acculturation of Indonesian transnationals by helping them interpret their positions within various cultural and religious communities in the United States in general.

In addition, he will compile a list of Muslim peace organizations that focus on peace, nonviolence, development and interfaith relations in Indonesia for purpose of a larger collection with the Salam Institute.

putut.widjanarko@ohio.edu

Bonita McGee

Bonita McGee intends to focus on the Imam attitudes and education in the American Muslim community as it relates to addressing violence within Muslim homes with the goal of producing a series of protocols and training manuals for wider dissemination among American Imams around the country. She has primary concentration in the area of domestic violence in Muslim communities. Ms. McGee also deals with the dynamics of intra-Muslim dispute resolution and gender relations, with particular attention paid to the role of Imams and leadership in the community, and highlight the particular importance of integrating the role of women in the community for wider issues of coexistence and diversity.

Ms. McGee has extensive experience of outreach and activism in the American Muslim community, as President and Co-Founder of Muslim Family Services (formerly Muslim Women’s Network & Community Services), and as a counselor in the Domestic Violence Unit of the DC Superior Court. She has served as co-Chair of Domestic Violence Awareness and Conference Program Chair at the Islamic Society of North America and a Board Member of the Islamic Social Service Association of the US and Canada. She has received a number of honors, including the Walter and Marian English Award for social services in 2001. Ms McGee recently received her Masters of Arts in Islamic Studies in the Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences in Leesburg, Virginia.

mcgee.31@osu.edu

Saman Z. Hassan

Leadership Training for Imams

Entrepreneur, educator and activist, Saman Z. Hassan, has worked for the past decade to inspire social change in her native Muslim country, Pakistan. Her activities have focused on bringing attention to issues related to gender, violence and human rights. She has been collaborating with a local non-profit foundation INRFVVP (International Network For Rights of Victims of Violence in Pakistan) working to protect women‘s rights in Pakistan.

Currently Ms. Hassan is working on completing her doctoral degree in Educational Leadership from Spalding University in Louisville, KY.  She is teaching as an adjunct faculty member at Ottawa University in Jeffersonville, Indiana. She is presently working on various research projects including: developing leadership workshops on conflict resolution, cultural diversity, Inter- faith communication and diversity. With Salam, Ms. Hassan is researching and developing leadership training protocols, manuals and workshops for Imam trainings in the United States, designed for wider applicability and use in the United States Muslim community.

Saman786@aol.com

The Conflict Transformation Project was funded through a grant from the Department of Justice for the purpose of building interfaith relations and mutual understanding between American Christian Evangelicals and American Muslims in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, and for creating and promoting joint conflict transformation projects, trainings, manuals, and goals.

In partnership with the Fuller Theological Seminary, the Salam Institute has sought to engage the full spectrum of views and opinions of American Muslims on dialogue with Evangelicals by reaching out to different members of the Muslim community living in the United States. To this end, the Salam Institute has entered into a collaborative partnership with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the Graduate School of Islamic Social Sciences (GSISS), and the Mohamed Said Farsi Chair of Islamic Peace at American University.

With the support of this consortium, the Salam Institute has sponsored two consultations with members of the American Muslim community. The first was held in tandem with the annual meeting of ISNA in Minneapolis, MN, in November 2004. The second was held at American University, Washington DC, in February 2005. Through the course of these and other consultations, a range of issues was put on the table as representative of American Muslims’ concerns, as well as prospective positive visions of the American interfaith community.

The first joint conference of American Muslims and Christian Evangelicals was held in Maryland in April 2005. The returns of this very important meeting are currently being compiled for a jointly authored publication.

Fuller and Salam brought eighteen Muslim and Christian peacemaking practitioners together on November 12-13, 2005, to collaborate on developing a peacemaking training manual. Activities from April through July 2006 will test the assembled manual through actual training in five American cities. All final revisions will take place in July and August, leading to the manual’s publication in August 2006.

Among the anticipated outcomes emerging from the Conflict Transformation Project are an Islamic Guide and Manual to Interfaith Relations, to be jointly sponsored and distributed by ISNA, and an edited volume on Islamic approaches to peace building, which will include a number of papers presented by Muslim participants and fellows and will highlight the importance of intra-religious dialogue for peaceful coexistence.

The Conflict Transformation Project is also actively engaged in supporting and promoting emerging Muslim scholarships for work focusing on Islam, peace building, development, nonviolence, and inter/intra-faith dialogue and understanding in the United States. Toward this end, the Salam Institute has established a Salam peacebuilding fellowship program, which solicited grant applications from young Muslim scholars across the country in early 2005, to sponsor and encourage high-quality research in the field. For the 2005-2006 school year, the Salam Institute selected 11 outstanding scholars whose research will undoubtedly contribute much to the discourse on and understanding of Islam and peace.

In summary, Fuller and Salam have been collaborating for two years in a two-tiered project to seek common practices, patterns, and pathways for conflict reduction and resolution, as well as for dealing with differences within our individual faith communities. The scholarly level has brought Muslim and Christian thinkers together to jointly write and publish materials that will form the basis for education about practices pertaining to peacemaking and the resulting understanding of each other’s values, vision, and faith.

The community leadership is now bringing key leaders together for dialogue training events and the exploration of collaborative work in our communities to build bridges of understanding, reduce tension, and increase respect. We believe that we can work together to strengthen our mutual understandings and to live in secure and productive relationships.