{"id":7795,"date":"2001-10-07T19:33:45","date_gmt":"2001-10-07T23:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wtb.org\/?p=7795"},"modified":"2018-12-27T16:32:40","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T20:32:40","slug":"organizational-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/?p=7795","title":{"rendered":"Organizational Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Betsy Wiggins <\/strong>sent this\nletter reporting on the first organizational meeting of 20 women and\nanticipating the upcoming meeting to which 80 women had been invited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dear\nFriends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a\ncrazy time for me (I imagine for you) since we met October 7. Thanks to all of\nyour expressions of encouragement, support and enthusiasm, we have an extremely\ninteresting opportunity to come together with women of all faith communities of\nSyracuse in response to the world-shaking events since September 11. I feel as\nthough my head is one of those little glass globes of a winter scene you shake\nto make snowflakes swirl around. It seems with each passing day since September\n11, my mind has been shaken by either a news report about some new or suspected\nact of terrorism, or collateral damage of innocent people by not very smart\nbombs, or the successive unveilings of how US policy in Afghanistan, Pakistan,\nEgypt, Israel and Palestine have culminated in the religious, political and\neconomic turmoil we are all now living with. When I turn on a radio or TV, read\nemail and newspapers, or talk to a friend, my thoughts and emotions are sent\nswirling around and around looking for reason. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has\nbeen running through my brain since our first meeting October 7 and as I\nanticipate our next meeting this weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, it\nwas terrifically affirming to hear every single one of us state that the idea\nof getting together and learning more about each other was a welcome idea, as\nwell as how sincere and candid we tried to be with each other. We shared the\nreality of living in the US in this extraordinary time since 9\/11\/01. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a\ngroup of women from the US, Jordan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Algeria and Egypt who\nwant a deeper understanding of religious diversity locally and worldwide and\nrepresented the faith communities of Sunni Muslim, Shiite Muslim, Judaism, Zen\nBuddhism, and various Christian faiths. Catholic, Nation of Islam, Mormon,\nOrthodox Christian, Bah\u00e1\u2019\u00ed, Sikh, Jain, Native American, and other faith\ncommunities of Central New York were not represented. We are actively pursuing\nways to include other faith communities through women who attended this first\nmeeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from\nthe common concern of learning more about our diverse faith community, women\nparticipating in this first meeting discussed how Muslims of different sects of\nIslam follow the Qur\u0384an and apply its instruction to practicing acts of daily\nliving. We discussed women\u2019s issues concerning financial independence and\nresponsibility, owning property, the right to vote, access to education,\nprofessional development, as well as care and education of children. These\nwomen are thoughtful, full of care, connected and respected in diverse areas of\nour community such as education\/ESL (English as a second language), religious\nstudies\/clergy, literacy, health care, religion, counseling, arts,\njournalism\/law, community politics, and writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I\nlistened, I became aware of a dynamic at work that I had not previously\nconsidered. The women from the mosque were all well-acquainted, eager to share\ntheir personal stories and feelings about events related to 9\/11, their\nfamilies and faith\u2014specifically the Sunni faith tradition of Islam. The non\u2013Sunni\nMuslim women, one of whom was Isma\u0384ili Muslim, were not all previously\nacquainted with each other, though all were known to me and were present\nbecause they felt it important to learn more about Islam and other faith\ncommunities in Syracuse. The exception was a scholar of history who was Isma\u0384ili\nwith as different a viewpoint on Islam compared to the Sunni women as Catholics\nare to Baptists. Non-Muslim women listened to the discussion and realized that\nthe religion of Islam is as diverse as Christianity. Much of the discussion\ninvolved Sunni Muslim women explaining the way they interpret the teachings of\nIslam directing their lives in a personal sense, and how other Muslim\ncommunities nationally and worldwide choose to practice the religion of Islam.\nAs a group we decided it was important to focus on two issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022   Community education\nregarding the many sects of Islam and how women (and men) in this community\nadhere to practices for daily living that differ between sects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022   Identifying common\nconcerns of all of these women regarding issues of harassment\u2014in schools, at\nwork, regarding travel, financial issues related to renting or buying real\nestate or cars, discrimination (purchasing\/rental of housing, cars, employment,\nstudent\/work visas), social services such as unimpeded efforts to donate to the\nneedy (international contributions of goods).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are all\nlistening, watching and reading local, state, US and international news on the\nradio, newspapers, TV and the Internet and trying to get a fuller sense of this\nstory of US actions and their result in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran,\nAfghanistan, India and Malaysia. It is a disturbing, disillusioning and\nrelentless education of opportunism and blind neglect in this country as events\nunfold. Because we represent a multi-faith group of intelligent women engaged\nin our community we have an opportunity to critically listen, learn, understand\ncommon concerns and act in ways we feel will address immediate and anticipated\nneeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have\nlearned there has been very little awareness of Islam in traditional American\nsociety. The American experience is one of complete freedom of conscience and\npractice, and constitutionally guaranteed in the first article of the Bill of\nRights. We are belatedly in the process of learning about the great tradition\nof Islam as yet another form of expressing freedom of religion in this country.\nConcurrently, Muslims are in the process of learning how to be one religious\ntradition among many, and this is a mutual educational necessity. Respecting\nall and privileging none is now being denied of Muslims, regardless of how\ndifferent they may be from each other, just as the US has long had to deal with\nthe enormous variety of Christians and the significant differences among Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we\nshould attempt to continue to critically evaluate enormously complicated\npolitical, social, economic and religious issues that confront us in a world of\nnew fears that challenge us to look beyond our personal experience to the\nimmediate and long-term future needs of both our local and world community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please let\nme know if you plan to participate in the meeting for this Sunday, October 21,\nat 2:00. It will be here at 305 Carlton Drive. This message is being forwarded\nto some new participants who I encourage to call or respond by email. We want\nto continue the dialogue, identify common concerns and develop community\nprojects. If you are unable to come, please let me know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                  Again,\nthank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                      Betsy\nWiggins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to all of your expressions of encouragement, support and enthusiasm, we have an extremely interesting opportunity to come together with women of all faith communities of Syracuse in response to the world-shaking events since September 11.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[20],"class_list":["post-7795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-programs","tag-dialogue",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7795"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8504,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7795\/revisions\/8504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wtb.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}