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6 Jul, 2015

Interfaith Ramadan dinners in Detroit seek to promote unity

Detroit, Michigan, (IINA), Monday 06 Jul 2015 – Hundreds of people packed a Dearborn Heights mosque last week for an interfaith Ramadan dinner that featured Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders preaching message of unity and tolerance, according to Detroit Free Express. The event falls on a Jewish day of fasting, an overlap that organizers say highlights commonalities between Jews and Muslims.

(Image from Detroit Free Press)

The two dinners are part of a number of interfaith Ramadan events that have been taking place in metro Detroit.

“The message of our faiths is the same,” said Imam Muhammad Ali Elahi, leader of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, the mosque that hosted Ramadan Iftar dinner.

“We have so many commonalities, much more than our differences. We need to, as the Qur’an teaches us, to have dialogue with the entire humanity, and especially Jews and Christians.

Imam Husham Al-Husainy, of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center, said: “We are here united, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim, under the light of God. If the maple tree is able to make syrup out of the rays of the sun, than we the believers better make love and harmony and unity from the light of God.”

Elahi said that Ramadan is a time of cleansing of sins and reflection, calling upon religious leaders can play a role in reducing extremism in society.

The head of the FBI office in Detroit, Paul Abbate, also attended the dinner, speaking to the crowd before the dinner, as did Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic leaders.

(Image from Detroit Free Press)