Please share these brief videos — which offer just a glimpse into the conference depths — with all who have an interest in human rights and interfaith dialogue. For a fuller exploration of the conference, please see our first podcasts.

Thanks again to professional filmmaker Liza Figueroa Kravinksy who recorded the December 2009 conference and to Daniel Brookman, our student audio/internet consultant, who prepared the audio for the web.

Perhaps those interested in furthering dialogue regarding the Cordoba House proposal for New York City would find the following useful:

“The Concept of Human Rights within Judaism, Christianity and Islam”
—Moderator: Rabbi Ellen Lippman, Rabbi, Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives and member RHR-NA board of directors;
—Dr. Glen Stassen, Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary; author of Just Peacemaking
—Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim Chaplain, Georgetown University; founder/president, Clergy Beyond Borders
—Rabbi Simkha Weintraub, Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services
—question/discussion period, part 1

Imam Hendi speaks of Islam’s belief in pluralism and support of interfaith understanding. Rabbi Weintraub offers, among other useful comments, a story about interfaith work around NYC’s Ground Zero. Dr. Stassen’s reviews the relationship between Christianity and “American identity.”

The audio is presented in two parts. Be sure to check out the continuing discussion.

Thanks to CBB’s student audio/internet consultant, Daniel Brookman, who prepared the material for the web, and to Liza Figueroa Kravinksy, of Art Palette Productions, who recorded the December 2009 conference.

The first speaker’s remarks are uploaded as one file; subsequent talks are presented in shorter segments.

Framing the Topic: Religion in the Public Square

Here is the entire presentation of Rabbi Sid Schwarz, founder of PANIM: Jewish Institute for Leadership and Values, author of Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World, and founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation.

This video clip includes an introduction by Cynthia Schneider, distinguished professor of diplomacy at Georgetown and former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, who moderated the session.

Exploring Religion in the Public Square

Sherman Jackson — Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Visiting Professor of Law and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor; author Islamic Law and the State — focuses in on one specific religion in one public square: Islam in the U.S.

Part 1 — “Islam in the Public Space”
Part 2 — “Identity Formation in America”
Part 3 — “Islam Assessing America”
Part 4 — “American Reality, Muslim Responsibility”
Part 5a — “Islam and Pluralism”
Part 5b — “Islam and Pluralism: Historical Example”
Part 6 — “Domestication, Politicization and Islam”

Examining one Example in Detail

David Gushee — distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University and author of The Future of Faith in American Politics — further concretizes the topic with the example of Christian responses to torture in U.S.

Part 1 — Part 2 — Part 3

Check back for more uploads or subscribe — for our News page — for email notifications.

The gathering, held primarily on December 14-15, 2009, at American University’s Kay Spiritual Life Center, also permitted a number of smaller and less formal meetings of participants within and across faith groups.

For some of the international Muslim participants, the gathering provided their first opportunity to shake hands with Christian and Jewish clergy or even to meet a Jew. For others, the conference was a first opportunity to grapple with such topics as the role of evangelism/outreach in Christianity and Islam in interfaith action.

Faith-specific teachings were shared, commonalities recognized, and fundamental difficulties explored. Next steps were discussed and relationships fostered. Participants reported hearts opening and minds changing. Rather than offering bland recitations of their faiths’ more positive texts, participants were self-critical and even repentant for their communities’ failures.

“It was fantastic!” Rabbi Marc Gopin, world leader in conflict resolution, conference participant and Clergy Beyond Borders (CBB) board member, said afterward. “Important things happened that will change our work.”

Conference Basics

The conference program and participant list were developed in concert with Evangelicals for Human Rights, Imams for Human Rights and Dialogue, and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America. Five panel sessions each included presentations from one Christian, one Jewish, and one Muslim clergy member and/or scholar. Question and answer periods were lively, sometimes heated, and discussion continued during meals and in the hallways.

Six international clergy members, whose participation was supported by the United States Institute for Peace, provided their perspectives during a special session set aside for that purpose, as well as throughout the conference. International participation helped illustrate urgent needs for interfaith understanding worldwide – between Christians and Muslims in Pakistan, for example – as well as the power of dialogue to spur collective action in crises. U.S. and international participants alike noted dangers of isolation, recognized that no one community had “the answer,” and identified areas where an international network for faith-based human rights activism could make a strong and immediate impact.

All sessions were filmed for future reference and sharing.

Interfaith introductions and meal, December 14

Behind the Dais

The first CBB event helped forge relationships beyond the clergy network itself.

The Kay Spiritual Life Center at American University was an active “participant” in its way, with facilities and staff – particularly Chaplain Joe Eldridge and administrator Christine Gettings — offering deeply felt hospitality. Future collaborations seem likely and desirable.

Evangelicals for Human Rights (EHR), Imams for Human Rights and Dialogue, and Rabbis for Human Rights-North America co-sponsored the conference, providing panelists and helping to create the program. In addition, Mary Head, EHR’s project administrator, provided on-site logistical support for the event, along with Virginia Spatz, CBB’s program director.

The owner of a local halal caterer, while not able to offer a supervised kosher kitchen, worked with CBB staff to create meals that honored Jewish participants’ dietary restrictions, expanding his own knowledge and sensibilities as well as those of the participants. Mealtimes offered impromptu lessons in comparing halal and kosher requirements as well as eco-kashrut practices including recycling and composting.

“I have previously planned conferences for several hundred, involving simultaneous interpretation and other complicated logistics as well as cross-community sensitivities,” reports CBB’s program director. “I have never been involved in anything as complex as CBB’s first conference, however, and have never seen 80+ people — with rare exceptions, which only proved the rule — enter into such palpable spirit of cooperation and interest in cross-community understanding. There were elements that might have gone more smoothly. But there was an extraordinary energy at this gathering that clearly had value in its own right, beyond whatever is accomplished by CBB in the future.”

Future Considerations

Widening Base. Next time – and participants were adamant that there must be a next time – women must be more fully represented among international invitees ( and a wider range of Christian religious leaders should be recruited. This time, three of the five rabbis and two of the Muslim scholars were women; there were suggestions, however, for widening the concept of “clergy” to “religious leaders,” in ways that encourage more Muslim and Christian women’s participation.

“The Kabob.” One participant, attempting to decipher ‘CBB’ in English script, asked about all the references to “this kabob.” In response, Rev. Majid Abel of Pakistan began telling people, “I am prepared to stand for ‘the kabob.’” He was not alone among participants in being eager to take up the work of Clergy Beyond Borders.

Adamant as participants were that there should be a “next time,” most were equally determined that CBB not devolve into an annual conference but become a vibrant force for change, supporting clergy around the U.S. and beyond to improve human rights, work for justice and seek peace.

1) “The Concept of Human Rights within Judaism, Christianity and Islam”

Dr. Glen Stassen, Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics, Fuller Theological Seminary; author of Just Peacemaking

Imam Yahya Hendi, Muslim Chaplain, Georgetown University; founder/president, Clergy Beyond Borders

Rabbi Brent Spodek, Rabbi in Residence, American Jewish World Service
 [R. Spodek was unable to reach DC due to airport conditions; his presentation was offered by R. Simkha Weintraub, Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services]

Moderator: Rabbi Ellen Lippman, Rabbi, Kolot Chayeinu/Voices of Our Lives and member RHR-NA board of directors [Rev. Carole Crumley, Senior Program Director, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Development, originally scheduled moderator, was unable to attend due to illness]

2) “Human Trafficking and Slavery in the 21st Century”

Rev. David Batstone, professor of ethics, University of San Francisco; president, “Not for Sale” Campaign

Dr. Azizah al-Hibri, professor, Richmond University Law School; founder KARAMAH: Muslim Women Lawyers for Human Rights

Rabbi Rachel Kahn Troster, Director of Education and Outreach, Rabbis for Human Rights

Moderator: Dr. Jamal Barzinji, Vice President, International Institute of Islamic Thought

3) “Prisoner Treatment in Peace and War”

Rev. Tim Floyd, professor and director Law and Public Service Program, Mercer University; author of Can a Good Christian Be a Good Lawyer?

Imam Radwan Mohammad Mardini, American Muslim Center, Dearborn Michigan

Rabbi Melissa Weintraub, North American director, Encounter; author on war ethics and religious responses to terror

Moderator: Rev. Joseph Eldridge, Chaplain, American University

4) : “Role of Religion in the Public Square of a Pluralist Democracy”

Rev. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics, Mercer University; author, The Future of Faith in American Politics

Rabbi Sid Schwarz, founder PANIM: Jewish Institute for Leadership and Values; author Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World; founding rabbi, Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation ; founding rabbi, Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation

Dr. Sherman Jackson; Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Afro-American Studies, Visiting Professor of Law, University of Michigan; author Islamic Law and the State

Introduction: Houda Ezra Ebrahim Nonoo, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Bahrain (sent regrets)

Moderator: Cynthia Schneider, Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy, Georgetown University; former U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands

5) “Human Rights Post 9-11, Civil Liberties and Respect for Immigrants and the Other”

R. Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer, director, Department of Multifaith Studies and Initiatives and associate professor of religious studies, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College

Rev. Rick Love, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Yale University Divinity School; member, EHR Steering Committee

Dr. Ingrid Mattson, director, Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Director of Islamic Chaplaincy Program, Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations; president, Islamic Society of North America

Moderator: Imam M. Bashar Arafat, Founder, Civilizations Exchange and Cooperation Foundation

6) “International Voices for Human Rights”

Moderator: Rabbi Marc Gopin, Director, Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, George Mason University

Rev. Majid Abel, Presbyterian pastor active in several local and national interfaith efforts, Lahore, Pakistan

Imam Umer Ilyasi, President, All India Organization, New Dehli, India

Imam Khaled Ramzi Salem Karim, Imam, Amman, Jordan

Imam Mohamed Mufti, Imam, Amman, Jordan

Imam Abdujalil Sajid, Chairman of the Muslim Council for Religious and Racial Harmony, of the United Kingdom, Brighton, England

Muhammad Zabair Abid, Deputy Secretary General, National Peace Committee for Interfaith Harmony, Islamabad, Pakistan

Please check back for information about video and audio recordings from this dialogue — or send an email to cbbconference at gmail.com to get on our mailing list