This semester a Muslim professor from Iran is teaching \u201cIslamic Spirituality\u201d and a Jewish rabbi from New York City is teaching \u201cSpiritual Writers and Spiritual Writings.\u201d Both of them join an instructor from EMU\u2019s Bible and religion department<\/a> to lead a class on \u201cComparative Monotheisms: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.\u201d<\/p>\n EMU is focusing on the three world religions that worship one God \u2013 Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Over the centuries Christians, Muslims and Jews have fought each other savagely. Millions have died in the name of their God. But the three religions share a common birthplace \u2212 the Middle East \u2212 and a common ancestor, Abraham. And they have enjoyed periods of peaceful co-existence.<\/p>\n CIE\u2019s logo features Abraham\u2019s tent, which the center \u2018s website describes as \u201copen to the four winds, a safe place of hospitality towards strangers and engagement with them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn today\u2019s world and in a pluralistic society like ours, it is important that our students learn to know people of other faiths,\u201d says Martin. \u201cOur students will be going to places \u2212 both in the United States and abroad \u2212 where they will encounter people of other faiths.\u201d<\/p>\n Martin says the historic differences between the three religions are exacerbated today by the Israel-Palestine conflict, the rise of Muslim extremism, and the United States\u2019 counter-attacks after the terrorist attack on New York City in 2001. He decries the prevalence of \u201cIslamophobia\u201d in the United States.<\/p>\n CIE, which is funded entirely by foundation grants and private donations, offers several courses each semester by visiting scholars. The team-taught \u201cComparative Monotheisms\u201d course this semester draws two dozen undergraduates, graduate students, seminarians and members of the community.<\/p>\n \u201cStudents ask all sorts of questions, from theology to history, ancient or contemporary,\u201d says the Muslim scholar, Amir Akrami, PhD. \u201cHowever, the focus of our work is on prayer, scripture, reasoning, politics and action.\u201d<\/p>\n Akrami, who has taught at EMU since September 2012, is from the Iranian Institute of Philosophy<\/a> in Tehran. He was a regular participant in the internationally respected Building Bridges Seminars around the world.<\/p>\n Akrami\u2019s wife, Sheida Shakouri Rad, PhD, joined him at EMU a year ago. She is teaching Farsi, the language of Iran, this semester. Last semester she taught \u201cWomen in Islam.\u201d She is on leave from the University of Tehran, where she has been a professor for 15 years.<\/p>\n The two other professors for the comparative-monotheism course are Niles Goldstein, an award-winning author and ordained Reform Jewish rabbi, and Reuben Shank, an EMU adjunct faculty member who is Mennonite and studying for a doctorate in religion at the University of Virginia.<\/p>\n The fifth CIE course this semester is \u201cThe Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Film,\u201d taught by Bob Bersson, PhD, a retired professor of art and art history at James Madison University in Harrisonburg and founder of the local Interfaith Initiative for Peace and Justice<\/a>.<\/p>\n In addition to bringing scholars to campus, CIE offers an annual Interfaith Peace Camp for children<\/a> each summer, which includes trips to the local mosque and synagogue. Other events have been a Wednesday film series and Thursday forums.<\/p>\n CIE\u2019s director likes the way that interfaith engagement sometimes emerges from work on the ground at disaster sites, both at home and abroad. \u201cPeople of different faiths find themselves working together,\u201d says Martin, \u201cand they get to know each other.\u201d<\/p>\n One result of Martin\u2019s interest is an upcoming speech at EMU on how \u201cdisasters blow down fences and make good neighbors\u201d by a federal government official, who is a former Mennonite pastor. He is David Myers, and he will speak on March 20. He is a senior advisor at the Federal Emergency Management Agency<\/a> in Washington D.C. and works in faith-based and neighborhood partnerships for both the White House and the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>.<\/p>\n Martin experienced the connection between disaster relief and interfaith engagement first hand when a major earthquake hit Iran in 1990, killing more than 35,000 people. He worked at the time as program director for central and southern Asia for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)<\/a>, a North American relief, development, and peacebuilding agency that works in about 60 countries.<\/p>\n MCC wanted to respond to a country considered a U.S. enemy, \u201cto demonstrate that we would respond to human need wherever it occurred, irrespective of the religion and politics of the country,\u201d Martin says. But the United States and Iran had no diplomatic relations (and still don\u2019t), making travel to Iran difficult, and MCC wondered whether the hardline Muslim government would welcome an overtly Christian aid agency.<\/p>\n \u201cIt turned out, however, that Iran was more comfortable with an explicitly Christian organization than with secular agencies,\u201d says Martin. \u201cThey understand the motivation that comes from religious faith.\u201d So MCC was able to establish a long-term relationship with the Iranian Red Crescent Society on disaster relief and reconstruction as well as assistance to refugees.<\/p>\n The post-earthquake work then led to interfaith dialogue in the form of student exchanges and Muslim-Christian conferences every two to three years. The sixth conference will be held this May in Qom, an Iranian city known for being a center of Islamic scholarship. Martin will attend, along with some EMU students.<\/p>\n Martin was a program director with MCC from 1989 to 2007, based at its headquarters in Akron, Pa. After that he went to the American Friends Service Committee<\/a>, an international Quaker organization, in Philadelphia. He helped build connections between Iranian institutions and the United States and advocated for better relations between the two countries.<\/p>\n He started his career as an MCC volunteer in Nepal, where he met his future wife, Kathy Yoder. Later he worked at the International Irrigation Management Institute<\/a> in Sri Lanka. A graduate of Stanford University, Martin earned graduate degrees at Cornell University \u2013 a master\u2019s in public administration and a doctorate in agricultural economics.<\/p>\n The vision for interfaith engagement at EMU grew out of conversations among faculty, resulting in a formal proposal to the Board of Trustees, which it approved in 2009. The center opened later that year in the seminary building, with seminary professor Gerald Shenk, PhD, as part-time director. Martin was appointed director in 2010, serving part time and commuting from Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n![\"Ed](\"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/02\/MG_7504-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Focusing on the three Abrahamic religions<\/h3>\n
Course co-taught by Muslim, Jewish and Christian scholars<\/h3>\n
Films, interfaith peace camp, lessons from disaster work<\/h3>\n
![\"Peace](\"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2014\/02\/B-Striebig-IMG_467043-300x181.jpg\")
<\/a>MCC exchange welcomed in Iran<\/h3>\n
Under the direction of Dr. Ed Martin<\/h3>\n
Near and far support<\/h3>\n