CharterforCompassion.org Launches – Add your voice!
The first step in the creation of the Charter for Compassion has begun. Over the next four weeks people from all over the world will write the Charter. Using an innovative group-decision making platform from Kluster, submissions will be collected and rated in order to see which ideas have the most traction globally. A Council of Sages, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Sister Joan Chittister, Prof. Tariq Ramadan, and Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, will gather together to read the world’s words and mold the final version of the Charter. In 2009, the final Charter for Compassion will be launched into the world to live in people’s lives.
Join us on this amazing journey. Share your words. Share your story. Let your voice be heard.
I’ve been an international school counselor for 12 years in various countries around the world. No matter the language, compassion transcends words. It does not require language. It requires simple acts of the heart. Humanity claims compassion as its language. It is what what all forefathers taught centuries ago, to keep us from rather destroying ourselves to protecting one another.
I am amazed that I just finished “The Spiral Staircase ” this morning and stumbled onto this website, propelled by a need to express a lifetime of thoughts and feelings concerning our world. I am a great admirer of Ms. Armstrong. I have read “History of God” , “Through the Narrow Gate”, etc. I have friends ,also, who have read Ms. Armstrong’s books and we talk at length about her ideas and knowledge.
I am a mother of three, a wife, a part-time librarian and a full time member of the human race. In my own feeble way, I am trying to educate myself in the different religions and have always been drawn to the impossible task of understanding God and the universe. Now, suddenly, I find this movement concerning the Charter for Compassion. Along with the election of Barack Obama , this is too coincidental to be ignored. People,like me, who sat on the sidelines in shocked silence finally spoke. The rock has been overturned ,exposing the ugliness of human nature to the light of reason ,and like the wicked witch of the west ,it is beginning to shrivel and melt ,albeit in an ugly way. I want to be part of this charter for compassion. Just tell me what to do. I am not rich or important but I have a big mouth and I am not afraid to use it. I have spent my whole life looking for a way to change the world and I still possess the idealism I took on as a child the ’60s.
I have tried to teach my children to be compassionate, to walk in the other person’s shoes and not judge other people. It’s very hard to do, but at different times we have made a difference, because our response to someone has,in turn, changed a friend’s response to that person. I’m ready to do more and hope that I can be of some use to this movement.
What a beautiful vision you hold. May many be blessed by your efforts.
I am directing a documentary film, [BeyondBeliefFilm.org], with a quite parallel sacred intention -to explore the origins and consequences of tightly held but unexamined beliefs and belief systems. It will hopefully deconstruct some of the obstacles that prevent folks from seeing past their harmful beliefs and discover new worlds of human commonality and potentiality.
The intended audience of this film project goes beyond “preaching to the choir” and aims the content and language toward the minds and hearts of “the middle” -those who might still be open to new ideas were they to hear them. While I dearly wish to, I don’t know how effective it would be to also aim for entrenched fundamentalists of any stripe. [Willful ignorance rooted in fear is tough to melt. It is probably best accomplished by sustained loving compassion and deep listening...]
The Beyond Belief project has already filmed interviews with ordinary and prominent women and men. Several clips can be viewed online at: BeyondBeliefFilm.org. [Click on "film clips"].
We are now looking to locate and film deeply compelling “against the grain” true dramatic stories that either happened in the past or are preferably unfolding in the present that show how an individual or group was/is able, against great odds to overcome habitual belief systems and discover our common humanity.
Are there ways in which your efforts and ours can synergize? We enthusiastically seek your input and are willing to share our work with you in the higher good.
Blessings,
Jim Lemkin
director@BeyondBeliefFilm.org
First and formost we must recognize that all people are of one Race, the Human Race, sharing much in common. For example we all Laugh and Smile in the same languge.
Much of the conflict in the world is the result of focusing on the “differences,” when much of what appears to be diffrent shares common ground. We all come into this world through the same process. Humans have the unique ability to mate with members of any ethnic or cultural group, giving birth to children of various hues and physical characteristics.
We all need Love, food, shelter and clothing, although it may be expressed in different ways, look and taste different.
If we all take the time to stop, look, listen and get to know one another we will find we have much in common.
To quote Ghandi: “Be the change you wish to see in the world”
Peace begins within.
Rich Dowling
[...] tedprize.org) [...]
The Jewish Study Association Yeshurun Judaism against Zionism (www.bloggen.be/jesjoeroen and http://www.bloggen.be/yechouroun) is active in this domain. In cooperation with our Muslim partner Centre Zahra (www.centre-zahra.com) we authored this summer an Appeal to Initiate a Strategic Friendship Alliance between Judaism and Islam against Zionism. Friendship between religions is only possible with denouncing and discarding Zionist idolatry. Authentic Judaism is not Zionism and Zionism is not Judaism. The religious Zionist rabbis have no right to speak in the name of Judaism. Compassion for all human beings, true humanism is the message of unfalsified Judaism. Peace to all people of goodwill.
It’s tragic that the Charter For Compassion has selected Tariq Ramadan to be a member of its “Council of Sages.” http://charterforcompassion.com/about/ramadan
Ramadan is, to say the least, a controversial figure.
A few years ago, the U.S. State Department rejected his visa application. State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said, “The consular officer concluded that Dr. Ramadan was inadmissible based solely on his actions, which constituted providing material support to a terrorist organization.” (http://www.nysun.com/national/oxford-scholar-denied-visa-due-to-alleged-hamas/40328/)
In 2001, one of Ramadan’s interfaith partners, Fr. Christian Delorme, said “One of Ramadan’s interfaith partners, Fr. Christian Delorme, said: “I am today convinced–and it took me time to understand it–that Tariq Ramadan’s thinking and actions are dangerous. I believe he is not at all a man of dialogue. He knows how to charm his audience, but in reality, he wants a total separation between Muslims and other communities. I am convinced that Tariq Ramadan deeply hates the West.” (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/800naxnt.asp?pg=2)
In a televised debate with Nicolas Sarkozy, Ramadan was pressed by Sakozy to condemn unequivocally the stoning of women. Ramadan wouldn’t do it. The most he would do is call for a “moratorium” to facilitate a “true debate” on the subject.
But most damning, is what Ramadan has said about his grandfather, Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood:
“I have studied Hassan al-Banna’s ideas with great care and there is nothing in this heritage that I reject. His relation to God, his spirituality, his mysticism, his personality, as well as his critical reflections on law, politics, society and pluralism, testify to me his qualities of heart and mind. . . . His commitment also is a continuing reason for my respect and admiration.” (http://www.city-journal.org/2008/bc0229iw.html)
That kind of praise is staggering, and should certainly disqualify Ramadan from any kind of “charter for compassion,” let alone supported by an organization like TED.
For those who don’t know much about al-Banna, here’s just a taste…
From a speech of his (http://www.westernresistance.com/blog/archives/003067.html)
“For we want the flag of Islam to fly over those lands again, who were lucky enough, to be ruled by Islam for a time, and hear the call of the muezzin praise God. Then the light of Islam died out and they returned to disbelief. Andalusia, Sicily, the Balkans, Southern Italy and the Greek islands are all Islamic colonies which have to return to Islam’s lap. The Mediterranean and the Red Sea have to become internal seas of Islam, as they used to be.”
Much more about Tariq Ramadan can be found in Caroline Fourest’s devastating expose, Brother Tariq: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-Tariq-Doublespeak-Ramadan/dp/1594032157
So the big question remains. What system of checks and balances is approving the use of TED’s prize money toward elevating (and perhaps even paying) someone who has “respect and admiration” for a Muslim movement committed to Islamic conquest?
Sorry, demagogic “westernresistance” is against Islam in the same way Nazism acted against Judaism.
Slandering and slur against the Islam is unacceptable! Maybe “Kamala” wants to have Tariq RAMADAN replaced by a certified US Wahabi cleric, friend of G.W. BUSH, to preach “compassion”? True Religion must oppose the antireligious, antihuman aspects of “western freedom” such as Zionism, Darwinism, Neo-conservatism. Would “Kamala” please reveal his or her true identity?
Yep – I would agree with that.. Thanks for the line.
One day, while enjoying a simple lunch in a Carinderia in my hometown , Magsingal, in the Philippines, I observed 2 school children ask for broth to supplement their lunch. One had 2 cups of rice and a hardboiled egg; the other, had just a cup of rice. Looking at them, it was not hard to conclude they were malnourished. I introduced made arrangements with the restaurant owner to provide these kids lunch. It cost 50 pesos (about US$1) for both. A meal consisted of a cup of rice, a serving of meat, and a mandatory vegetable dish. After some time we, our extended family, increased the number to 10 kids. One of the mothers between sobs managed to say, “Thank you, at last, my child had for the first time tasted meat.”
We required and monitored the recipients not to gamble, not to drink, and must be willing to work.
We, my wife and I, are planning to go back home and spend the rest of our years there. This Thanksgiving our extended family will discuss and decide what to do with the lunch program. It is just so heart rending; no one – absolutely no one – should go hungry.
I would just like to point out that there are more than 200 religions practiced in this world and in almost every single one of them there is an ethic of reciprocity, a “golden rule”, by which followers are supposed to live (even in the constructs of Satanism, this rule exists, and the only two “belief” systems which do not have some allusion to this rule are agnosticism and atheism, because the two contain no moral code) It is the only rule that is needed, yet it is the most difficult rule to live by.
If God is perfect and if ID is a viable theory and counterpoint to evolution, then how did God create a complex and faulty organism called man? Does this mean God is faulty, or did I not get enought sleep yesterday?