LARGEST FESTIVAL OF ISLAMIC ARTS’ RETURNS TO SOUTHERN TEXAS FOR EIGHTH YEAR IN A ROW

The 8th annual Islamic Arts Festival took place over the weekend in Spring, just thirty miles north of Houston, which is home to an estimated 200,000 Muslims. This year, over 6,000 people personally visited the event during its two-day run — over 1,000 of them were non-Muslims.

Khawaja Azimuddin, a member of the Islamic Art Society’s board, said creating the festival eight years ago was a way to show American Muslims in a positive light.

“The original thought behind organizing the festival was to promote something positive within the Muslim community in the country,” he said. “Quite often Americans hear negative news about Islam and Muslims. The festival is an opportunity to reach out to the American general public and inform them about the creative side of the Muslim community. We only use art from artists residing in America and Canada and we want to tell the American public that yes, this art is created by your fellow Americans, neighbors, colleagues and coworkers.”

While the festival showcases Islamic art, Azimuddin said it is important for both Muslims and non-Muslims to attend, as even some Muslims don’t know the “rich heritage of arts” in Islam.

“Art is a universal language and through art, we can communicate better than any other media,” he said. “It opens up people for dialogue and Muslims in non-Muslims can come together and understand each other. More than a thousand non-Muslims visit our festival, making it the biggest interfaith event in Houston. They also get a tour of the art inside the masjid and learn about our traditions.”

The festival featured the work of 45 artists — the largest display of Islamic arts in the country — including the work of some students.

“Some emerging artists, as well as students from local schools, also displayed their art pieces,” he said. “Artists were present throughout the event which gave visitors an opportunity to talk with the artists and learn about their art and the inspiration behind their art.”

Azimuddin also said that visitors especially enjoyed the live interactive sessions of calligraphy, Ebru, painting and henna.

Also in attendance were Texas State Representatives Lacey Hull, Tom Oliverson, Sam Harless, Jacey Jetton and Jon Rosenthal, as well as Harris County Commissioner R. Jack Cagle.

The Islamic Arts Festival is one of the many events the Islamic Arts Society organizes every year to bring the Muslim and non-Muslim communities together. By promoting Islamic art, Azimuddin said, the society “hopes to promote mutual understanding and to bring the broader American community together.”

Our Hindu-Jewish Romance

Hinduism Today Magazine
April-May-June 2008

Hindus and Jews love each other. We all know that. This does not mean that we love our Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or secular neighbors any the less, but we Jews and Hindus have an instinctual simpatico. I will explain why this is the case.

First, Jews have lived freely in India for perhaps two thousand years. When the Cochin Synagogue celebrated its four hundredth anniversary in 1968, it was a major news event in India. Hindus pride themselves on tolerance, and India’s unique position as the only nation in the world with no anti-Semitism reinforces this cherished self-perception. When Jews come to learn that some of us have lived freely, peacefully and creatively for so long in India, we are surprised and delighted, and we admire Hinduism as the only civilization immune to Jew-hatred. We learn that anti-Semitism is not universal, and that it is possible to preserve Jewish identity and religion in the absence of persecution. For this, we feel deep gratitude.

Second, ours are the two oldest religions in the world. Judaism is the mother of the younger faiths of Christianity and Islam, just as Hinduism is the source of Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. Our ancient religions have sacred languages, Sanskrit and Hebrew, and hereditary priesthoods, brahmins and kohanim. We have dietary codes, we purify ourselves in special tanks, and our brides circle their husbands seven times. The ritual parallels seem endless.

The Hindu American community, like the Jewish American community, is enriched by internal pluralism, each group comprising both traditional and secularized people. We encourage our liberals to collaborate, and at the same time we are pleased by interreligious cooperation between swamis and rabbis.

Both Hinduism and Judaism are non-proselytizing faiths, so we find it difficult to understand those who target us for conversion. We are sensitive about monotheistic zealots who besmirch our religions, and we work together to strive against such defamation. In America, Jews are “elder brothers “ of Hindus; as such, we instinctively jump to defend a Hindu community’s plans to build a temple when, as is sometimes the case, local folk object. Jews believe that our freedom of religion is best protected by ensuring that all religious minorities enjoy this same right.

On the traditional side, leading rabbis and swamis recently overcame one thorny issue that has stood in the way of our mutual affection. For the past 1,500 years or more, what in English is called “idolatry “ has clouded Jewish perceptions of Hinduism. Happily, this issue may have been resolved once and for all at a February 2007 dialogue in New Delhi between members of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, a body which speaks with authority in the Jewish world, and the Dharma Acharya Sabha, a similarly august Hindu group. Led respectively by Rabbi Yona Metzger and Swami Dayananda Saraswati, the rabbis and the swamis issued a nine-point statement of principles, the first of which removed the “idolatry “ issue from the table: “Their respective Traditions teach that there is One Supreme Being who is the Ultimate Reality, who has created this world in its blessed diversity and who has communicated Divine ways of action for humanity, for different peoples in different times and places.” This acknowledgement by credible rabbis and swamis that the same G-d is the source of their two faiths is a major step forward for our relationship, enabling our traditionally religious members to join our secular ones in this symbiosis of mutual support and enrichment.

The poet asks, “How do I love thee?” We Hindus and Jews count many ways indeed.

Source:

https://www.hinduismtoday.com/magazine/april-may-june-2008/2008-04-our-hindu-jewish-romance/

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