Istanbul, mid-December 2025. The global interfaith organization* of which I am currently the president organized, for the first time since October 7, 2023, a meeting of its Middle East – North Africa branch, with 50 participants chosen from among the leaders of the many “cooperation circles” that the organization has in these regions, for 4 full days.

They came from Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Morocco, Tunisia, Lebanon, Egypt… There are Sunni Muslims, Shiite Muslims, Jews (Orthodox and Reform), Orthodox Christians, Coptic Christians, Protestant Christians, Druze, Baha’is, a Scientologist.

I was, how can I put it, a little anxious about having Israeli Jews and Palestinians, and other worthy representatives of the Arab world, in the same room. I was wrong.

You don’t learn about the world through the media, whether social or otherwise. You learn by traveling, and for the past two years, Israel and Palestine haven’t been among my destinations. You also learn by listening to people who live what you want to learn about. And I learned so much in four days.

Everything that happened in Istanbul is shrouded in secrecy for the safety of the participants, especially regarding their identities. That is why I will primarily use fictitious first names.

From anti-Jewish fighter to peacekeeper

One of us, Amin, came to tell me his story. He’s in his fifties, slim, with an elegant bearing, a weathered face, and dark eyes that sparkle with life. Amin has lived in a refugee camp in Palestine, seemingly his whole life. He told me that when he was younger, he was a “fighter” against Israel. He was convinced that a good Jew was a dead Jew, and that he would earn his place in paradise by killing the enemy. Until the day he met our interfaith organization, fifteen years ago. In short, this encounter made him realize that he could talk to a Jew. And that if he could talk to him, it meant that the Jew was also a human being. With this realization, he understood that he had been lied to all his life, and he decided to dedicate his life to helping people see their humanity as something that transcends all prejudice. “  We are first and foremost human beings, before we are Jews, Muslims, Christians, or anything else,  ” he told me. “  Without that, we are nothing, and war begins .”

Not only has Amin come a long way, but in his refugee camp, he faces daily the influence of Hamas and others who don’t share his view of the enemy’s humanity. He also has to deal with the abuses sometimes (or often, depending on who I listen to) committed by Israeli soldiers, which only complicate matters. But he remains steadfast. He explains that he teaches young people how to pass checkpoints by observing Israeli soldiers and imagining them at home, with their families, at the beach—anywhere they would find a human image, regardless of the soldiers’ behavior. The result, he tells me, is often (though not always) miraculous. It’s the soldiers who then change their attitude and become, in effect, more humane.

His analysis is this: each of the two groups (Israelis and Palestinians) sees the other as something devoid of humanity. If one of them infuses humanity into their gaze, then the other receives it and becomes what they have always been: human. It’s not much, but it’s all they have to fight for, and ultimately, it’s all that can make a difference in this part of the world. For him, that’s a divine mission.

The enemy children

Steven is a devout Israeli Jew who runs an organization in Tel Aviv that teaches dialogue for peace to young people. When the October 13th massacre occurred, he felt compelled to do something to prevent succumbing to hatred. He knew that nothing would ever be the same again, and even before, things weren’t great… So he launched a project for the young people who followed him—Palestinian Muslims and Christians, and Israeli Jews, Muslims, and Druze—to preserve and strengthen what he calls “the connection beyond divisions.” Through writing, young Israelis and Palestinians collaborate to express their suffering, their difficulties, their hopes, their resilience, and their courage—the courage to imagine a future of peace where the present seems to contradict them. Two books have already emerged from this project.

Yet his project was not universally accepted. Many of his students’ parents called him to criticize the fact that their children might sympathize “with the enemy.” He, too, remained steadfast. Often, it was the children themselves who convinced their parents of the merits of the approach, and of the “lack of merit” in the enemy’s rhetoric.

Do they hate it a little, a lot, passionately, or not at all?

One day, I asked Mohamed, a Palestinian from Bethlehem, if it was true that people in the West Bank hated Israelis. A somewhat silly, naive question, but if I didn’t ask him, who would I ask? Mohamed was Muslim, but he told me he didn’t really practice. He didn’t really care about practice. For him, God doesn’t express himself through practice. To each their own path. He replied, ”  That’s true, but not only that. You have to understand that for many Palestinians, all they know about Jews are the soldiers, those they encounter at checkpoints, those who regularly mistreat them, those who have sometimes killed children in their neighborhoods. Before, there were more Palestinians who went to work in Israel and had more opportunities to interact. Since October 2023, that number has drastically decreased, and the divide has widened even further.” So yes, many people hate Israelis. Perhaps you would hate them too if you were in their situation. And then there’s the propaganda. Propaganda has a field day. It dehumanizes Jews, and every time a Jew commits a wrong here, it wins. There’s only one solution: dialogue and the recognition of our shared humanity. This shared humanity comes up like a recurring theme, day after day, conversation after conversation.

Equal height and equal rights?

Then there’s Karin, an Israeli journalist, who manages to speak to me privately. She tells me I absolutely must talk to Sara, a young Baha’i woman from Jordan, because she’s convinced that a solution in the Middle East might come from the Scientologists and the Baha’is, because the Jews (including herself), Muslims, and Christians are too entangled in these age-old conflicts; they’re trapped in existential struggles that prevent them from seeing things from a broader perspective. They want to save their own skin, and to do that, they have to destroy “the other.”

So I talk to Sara, who is absolutely fantastic. Every day she takes five hours on trains (yes, trains, not just one) to help children in a refugee camp on the border with Palestine. Once, I ask her if Baha’is face discrimination in Jordan. She immediately says no, but when I ask her a little more, I learn that they don’t have the same rights as others (which, of course, is the very definition of discrimination). The difference in rights, from what she tells me, mainly concerns family rights, but the more I talk to her, the more she shows me that they are, in fact, discriminated against. We get used to everything, to the point where we don’t even see the problem anymore. She says she loves her country, and that for that reason, she’s willing to accept the hardships. I tell myself that I love my country too, but that doesn’t change my rejection of discrimination. I think we’re being taken for a ride when they manage to make us believe we have to accept the unacceptable in the name of some kind of patriotism. But anyway, it doesn’t matter, Sara is brilliant and full of genuine kindness.

There’s also Kamal, a Lebanese Druze. When Kamal learns that I’m friends with Sheikh Bader Kasem, a prominent figure in Druze Islam (who lives in Israel), he wants to learn more about Scientology . When he learns that I, too, believe we are immortal spiritual beings who pass from body to body, life after life, he’s happy because he’s no longer alone.

All these religions are a breath of fresh air.

There’s also Mina, a Christian from Egypt, a renowned professor of medicine, who didn’t even know my religion existed. It’s the first time he’s heard its name. He knows me, but it had never occurred to him. So, he starts talking about it while we’re all gathered together. And everyone begins discussing how there’s nothing better than learning that there aren’t just five major religions in the world (Christianity, Islam, Druze, Judaism, and Baha’i). They want me to tell them about all these religions they know so little about. It’s a breath of fresh air for them. The world is vast, diverse, and rich. It reinforces their belief that the most important thing is that we are all human. Hallelujah.

Adar, for his part, is Kurdish, from Iraq. He talks about Mandaeism , an ancient religion that now only has a few thousand followers, mainly in Iraq. I ask him if he practices it; he says no, he’s Christian. But he says that in Kurdistan, everyone does what they want. I doubt it, but I don’t really know. So he invites me, along with his two companions, one of whom is part of the Kurdish government. I said I’d go. And I will.

The other’s language

And then there’s Shlomo. Shlomo is Jewish, but he taught Arabic in Israel his whole life. For him, language is the gateway to peace. If you speak the language, you understand. If you understand, you don’t wage war. He published a Hebrew/Arabic dictionary, which has been reprinted several times. He explained to me that his parents, in his younger years, were very disappointed with his life path. Teaching Arabic, you have to be a little crazy. But anyway, he became the National Inspector of the Arabic Language, a lecturer at the Faculty of Education of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Israel’s representative to the European Committee for Reading and Literacy. So they were forced to admit that he had made something of his life, and they changed their minds. Shlomo seems not to care; he’s old and he’s seen it all. And yet he is still present at all the gatherings, even at over 80 years old.

Mariam, from Hebron in Palestine, is a Christian. She speaks a grating Arabic, not because it isn’t beautiful, but because she speaks so loudly and always seems to be yelling at you, even when she smiles and you understand that she likes you. She complains. She complains about Israel, which “makes her life miserable.” She complains about Hamas, which “makes her life miserable,” she complains about the Palestinian Authority and its “corrupt President,” which “makes her life miserable.” But she pats everyone on the shoulder, Jews included, with an energy that knows no bounds.

She also tells me about the Israeli settlers. She says that in many places the settlers and the Palestinians get along very well. They live together and work together. Why am I surprised?

Peace?

Understand this clearly: these are not pro-Israel Arabs. They are not pro-Palestine Jews. They are not eccentric dreamers from some beatnik fantasy. These are people who have lived through the harsh realities of war, and who continue to grapple with them, but who have not lost their intelligence or their humanity.

Finally, on the last evening, we celebrated Hanukkah, lit the candles, and listened to the prayers in Hebrew. No photos, please; it’s not like we’re having a village festival. And taking photos is dangerous. But we celebrated anyway. Together.

And then everyone went their separate ways. On the group messaging app, which some had to leave and delete from their phones before returning to their countries, the conversations continued for several days. Everyone went back home, to the fight, the fight for a better world, for a better region, for a better neighborhood, for better people. We promised we would see each other again. And we did.

And we know. We know that peace is possible and that those who say otherwise are, deep down, the ones who don’t want it. We know that war is not inherent to humankind, because, precisely, humanity is the solution to war. From the moment we see it, recognize it, and grant it its humanity. Does that sound naive? No, it’s a flower nourished by the blood of victims, which, despite everything, has grown, and which defies the status quo.

* This is the world’s largest grassroots interreligious organization, with over 1,200 affiliated groups in more than 110 countries. Founded by the former Episcopal Bishop of California, Reverend Bill Swing, it celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. Beyond its creation and scale, these 25 years have primarily demonstrated the strength of its model: decentralized interreligious cooperation, driven by local actors themselves. URI has enabled very diverse communities to meet, overcome religious and cultural divides, and work together for peace, reconciliation, education, equality, social justice, and the care of the Earth. By prioritizing inclusion, shared governance, and concrete action over rhetoric, it has helped to embed interreligious dialogue in daily life and make it a genuine driver of lasting social transformation.

This article was first printed in French, on Rebelles. It is reprinted with permission.

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Pope Leo XIV left Rome for a tour of Turkey and Lebanon and prayed Tuesday at the ruins of the 2020 Beirut port explosion, a site that has become a stark symbol of Lebanon’s dysfunction, impunity, and unresolved trauma. His visit marks the final day of his trip to the country.

Relatives of some of the 218 people killed in the blast stood silently as Leo arrived, holding photos of their loved ones. They gathered beside the skeletal remains of the last surviving grain silo and the charred piles of cars ignited by the explosion. Pope Leo stood in silent prayer amid the wreckage.

The August 4, 2020 blast, one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in the history of the world — occurred when hundreds of tons of improperly stored ammonium nitrate detonated in a port warehouse. The explosion tore through Beirut, caused billions of dollars in damage, and devastated entire neighborhoods. The explosion generated a seismic event measuring 3.3 in magnitude, as reported by the United States Geological Survey. Its effects were felt in Lebanon and neighbouring regions, including Syria, Israel, and Cyprus, over 240 km (150 mi) away.

Five years later, families of the victims are still demanding justice. No officials have been convicted, and the judicial investigation has faced years of obstruction. Locals say that the Hezbollah, a terror state, within a state is to blame. Of course it’s hard for people to say that publicly or they will be assassinated in Lebanon.

Later, the pope celebrated Mass along the Beirut waterfront, calling for Lebanon to be a “home of justice and fraternity” and a “prophetic sign of peace” in the region.

In his homily, Leo acknowledged the many layers of crisis that have scarred Lebanon, referencing the port blast, economic collapse, and “the violence and conflicts that have reawakened ancient fears.”

He said it is natural for people to feel “paralyzed by powerlessness in the face of evil and oppressed by so many difficult situations.”

But the pope urged the Lebanese not to surrender to despair, insisting that hope and justice are essential parts of the country’s future.

“Let us cast off the armor of our ethnic and political divisions, open our religious confessions to mutual encounter and reawaken in our hearts the dream of a united Lebanon,” he said. “A Lebanon where peace and justice reign, where all recognize each other as brothers and sisters.”

“Lebanon, stand up,” he added. “Be a home of justice and fraternity! Be a prophetic sign of peace for the whole of the Levant!”

Lebanon was never meant to be a Catholic country, but it was designed as a multi-confessional state with political power shared between Christians and Muslims. Under the 1943 National Pact, the president must be a Maronite Christian, giving Christians a guaranteed leadership role. Decades of civil war, demographic shifts seeing Christians flee, and regional conflicts have since eroded that balance, leaving the system strained and often paralyzed.

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Kayaköy, a ghost town in southwestern Turkey stands as a haunting reminder of the religious turmoil that once shaped Turkey. This village was once part of a thriving community with its stone houses, churches: its history is inextricably linked to the larger political shifts of the early 20th century and the dislocation of entire communities due to the collapse of empires and the drawing of new national borders.

Kayaköy was known as Levissi until the early 20th century and was home to a population of predominantly Greek Orthodox Christians, coexisting peacefully with their Turkish Muslim neighbors. The town’s hillside location offered stunning views of the surrounding valleys and hills, and it boasted a bustling, self-sufficient community.

Its residents were known for their craftsmanship, especially in stonework, and they built homes that sprawled over the hills in orderly rows, each meticulously designed to preserve sunlight and ventilation without blocking one another’s views.

At the town’s peak, Kayaköy was vibrant with schools, churches, businesses, and homes—an ideal symbol of harmony between different ethnic and religious communities. But during the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the rise of nationalism, and the aftermath of World War I a new reality would unravel this peaceful coexistence.

Kayaköy became a ghost town in the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey. In the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War (1919 to 1922), the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, mandating a compulsory population exchange. This treaty forcibly relocated around 1.5 million Greek Orthodox Christians from Turkey to Greece and 500,000 Muslims from Greece to Turkey.

Related: this village in Turkey speaks a bird language

Kayaköy’s Greek residents were among those impacted by this forced exchange, and they were uprooted from the land they had called home for generations.

The town’s Greek Orthodox churches, such as the Panagia Pyrgiotissa, were left abandoned. Though Muslim families moved to Kayaköy to replace the Christian Greeks, many of them found the area inhospitable, preferring to settle elsewhere.

Over time, Kayaköy was completely abandoned.

Today, Kayaköy stands as an open-air museum and a memorial to the forced migrations. Tourists can wander among the stone houses and visit the two large churches, which have been partially restored, but the eerie quiet remains. If you love ghost towns – this one is worth a visit.

Why the area remains closed off, you can continue your ghost town in Turkey to Burj al-Babas where hundreds of Disney-style homes were built for the rich. The company went bankrupt and almost 10 years later, the houses are still standing.

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Historically marginalized and evicted from Giza in 1970, a community of Coptic Christians took up residence at the foot of the Mokattam hills in south east Cairo.

Burned by their previous experience, the religious group hesitated to build permanent churches in their settlement, which is now lined with mountains of trash, until 1976, when a fire broke out in Manshiyat Nasir.

The first 1,000 square foot cave church was carved at the foot of Mokattam mountain. The largest in the Middle East – the Monastery of St. Simon the Tame, a Coptic Christian saint – has an ampitheater that boasts a seating capacity of 20,000 devotees.

St. Bola’s Church, St. Marks Church, and St. Simon the Tanner’s Hall are among the six additional cave churches carved out of the rock, which continue to serve the community to this day.

Despite their status as outcasts, the Zabaleen have proven themselves to be not only excellent craftsmen whose attention to detail in the cave churches is sensational, but their garbage recycling operations are exceptionally efficient.

The subject of a popular documentary, the Zabaleen also used to raise pigs, which are considered haram (unclean) by Muslims, to manage Cairo’s organic waste as well. But then the government culled most of them in response to the swine flu epidemic in 2009.

A small handful of pigs have made a quiet comeback since then, though they remain in hidden corners of Garbage City.

Getting pork out of Egypt

Although Egypt has lost a lot of its tourists as a result of the post-revolution instability and occasional bouts of violence, the Cave Churches continue to attract a few.

If you are amazed about the power of garbage collectors, see how the Turkish garbage collectors in Ankara have built a massive library from books they found in the trash.

Images via Flickr. This story was updated in 2024 by Karin Kloosterman.

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It may not have yielded a prize-winning bottle, but excavators in Israel are excited about uncovering an ancient wine press, probably used for making low quality wine and vinegar, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority which has just released news of the find. The wine press was found in a Byzantine settlement next to an ancient clay “light house” which resembles a small church, suggesting the press was owned by early Christians. The site was excavated before new construction took place at a spa in the area of Hamei Yo’av.

The 100-square-meters wine press, says Rina Avner, the excavation director, consisted of a large treading floor sarounded by six compartments that situated north and east of the treading floor.

The treading floor slopes westward causing the juice to flow westward through and into a settling vat. The juice flow from the treading floor passed to the settling vat, where the waste and dirt sank. Two additional pipes connected the settling vat with two collecting vats. The three vats are situated in a row along the wetern wall of the treading floor.

“At the center of the treading floor we found the cavity of a screw that enabled to press the grape waste from the compartments and to produce viniger and low quality wine, mentioned in Rabbinic sources as “paupers’ wine”,” says Avner.

(Related: read more about modern winemaking in Israel here)

The owner of the wine press was probably a Christian, the excavators surmise, because near it they found a ceramic lantern decorated with five crosses. The lantern was designed as a miniature church building, with an oval opening on one side that enabled its owner to insert an oil lamp.

The other sides of the lantern were decorated by geometric impressions creating a design of palm branches. The crosses were carved in the walls of the lantern, so when the lantern was lit in a small room glowing crosses were projected on the walls and the ceiling.

Sa’ar Ganor, the Ashkelon district archaeologist of the Israel antiquities Authority pointed out that “the wine press at Hamei Yoav and three similar wine presses are located along the ancient road leading from Beth Guvrin to ancient Ashkelon and its port, to facilitate the transportation and exportation of the wine to Ashkelon and from the port of Ashkelon to Europe and North Africa.”

The wine press will undergo conservation and will be incorporated into the modern complex of the garden project near the spa of Hamei Yo’av.

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Nazareth, a Galilean City between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sea of Galilee is an important one for all major monotheistic religions. Most notably it has become a must-see pilgramage site for Catholics looking to see the Basilica of the Annunciation, and Mary’s Well. The city is believed to be the hometown of young Jesus. And it is there where faithful believed he attended synagogue and gave sermons. In a bold attempt to keep the busload of tourists in Nazareth for more than an hour or two in the crumbling city, the delightful Fauzi Azar Inn, in the Old City of Nazareth, has designed a must-see Old City Tour. The best part is that it’s free, the better part is that you’ll see nothing like it if you ventured around the Old City on your own, or even on an expensive historical and religious tour.

Touring Nazareth is a great way to learn how to support the local economy and learn more about the traditional ways of life in Nazareth, as they were then, and as they are today.

Given by volunteer Linda Hallel, explore Nazareth with her as she shows you the points of interests that most Israelis an tourists most certainly have never seen themselves. While she asked us not to expose all her secrets –– what fun would it be to take the tour then? — below we’ll show you some pictures of Hallel’s stops on the tour that won our hearts, and also convinced us that Hallel must be no less than an angel for her peace work and commitment to local charity.

On the tour we got a sneak peek into the White Mosque of Nazareth, a place where some amazing interfaith community work is going on in the form of a new school for Muslim, Jewish and Christian kids soon to be opened.

Taste the best coffee in Nazareth (roasted, ground and prepared by shop owner above), quite possibly the best in the Middle East at this stop on the free Old City Nazareth Tour. We sampled Arab coffee, boiled for hours and served at weddings and funerals. It was a bit sour, but an interesting cultural experience.

See the 150-year-old spice mill (in top picture above, lower pics in the shop) which still works to this day, although it can be heard kilometers away when the steam engine fires up. Walking through this spice shop makes you feel like you have stepped into another century.

Tour some of the neglected an ancient Nazarene architecture, built over centuries and by different ruling societies. Hallel will show you some layers and ask you thought-provoking questions about culture, people and place.

There are loads of other “insider” stories and treats to be seen and tasted, but Hallel made me promise to only reveal a little. Stay at the Fauzi Azar Inn for the free tour, which happens daily on weekdays. For a nominal fee it is also possible to take the tour without staying at the inn. Book ahead because there might not be room at the inn if you don’t plan ahead.

One of the last real carpenters of Nazareth.

I won’t reveal much about Hallel here either, because I feel the personal stories she shared with us on the tour were personal. What I can say is that she is American, is living in Nazareth, and has a strong connection to the Holy Land and to this Old City. She will share with you the things about Nazareth that she loves, while sparing you the tours through history and churches that you can do on your own, tours I find achingly boring anyway.

She’s quite a character, and obviously much loved in this Arabian city, population 85,000. The imam of the White Mosque told us that he wishes Hallel would run for mayor of Nazareth one day. He helps her find needy people in the community who can benefit from donations made to the tour. In my eyes she is an angel.

::Fauzi Azar Inn

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Whilst Christians make up a tiny minority of the Middle East’s population, their faith does have a lot to say on climate change

From Jews celebrating Sukkot in green style, Muslims promoting a green hajj and Baha’is working to promote sustainability, the Middle East is something of a green faith haven. However, the role that the Christian community plays in promoting environmentalism both in the West and the Middle East tends to get overlooked. In this post, I explore various Christian values such as ‘love thy neighbour’ and caring for the poor which are encouraging church-goers worldwide to tackle the global issue of climate change.

Sharing Equally and Living In Dignity

Around a month ago, Christian leaders alongside Rabbis and Imams met in Jerusalem to talk about the role that faith can play in resolving the ecological crisis. At the event, Bishop Shomali of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said, “We are accountable for how we use this Earth. The earth is like our home, and those who live in the same home should know how to live together…The main religions should study ecological issues together because we have a common destiny. ”

Indeed, it is widely held in Christianity that the earth and its resources are for people to share equally and all humans have the right to live in dignity. In the past, poverty has been seen as the major barrier to realising this equality but now a consensus is slowly emerging that climate change – and the unfair impact it will have the world’s poor – is another dimensions which needs to be addressed.

Ending Poverty and Love Thy Neighbour

Over the weekend, I joined a protest of over 1,000 Christians in the UK who called on the government to do more to protect the poorest from the impacts of a warming planet. Many of the people I spoke to told me that a sense of justice and the need to protect the poorest from droughts and floods had brought them to the rally. At the heart of their motivation to take action was the ‘love thy neighbour’ principle which meant that they couldn’t stand by whilst the planet becomes more inhabitable and more people are pushed into poverty.

In fact, some environmental leaders such as Bill McKibben (who is a Christian) have already called on environmental and faith organisations to get together to halt runaway global warming. Speaking at a faith and sustainability lecture in Cambridge, he also explained that the West had so far failed in its duty to ‘love thy neighbour’. Even when you take into account the aid that the West has given to the developing world, McKibben insisted that it still didn’t make up for the greenhouse gases that they had also sent which would have profound impacts on the planet and their ability to live their lives.

With this in mind, it’s high time that people of all faiths got together, acknowledged the injustice of changing climate and worked together to halt it.

Photo by Arwa Aburawa

For more on green faith in the Middle East see:

Middle East Leaders To Launch Green Hajj Guide

Jews, Muslims, Christians In Israel Unite For Planet Earth

Under Siege In Iran: Baha’is Advocate Social Action, Human Rights and Sustainability

The post Green Christians Fight For Climate Justice appeared first on Green Prophet.

Next week, Jordan will be hosting a three day event on the ‘Environment in Islam’ which is the theme for the 15th General Conference of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.

The event, held on the 27-29 of September, is significant as it brings together a wide range of scholars from different sects of Islam who will contribute to the diversity of Islamic interpretation of the modern issue of climate change.

Jordan may have a mixed environmental record with a gray wolf population under threat and a dubiously ‘green’ airport being constructed, but it has been making some strides towards environmental progress. They are currently attempting to combine tourism with conservation to help preserve their ecologically fragile sites such as the ever-shrinking Dead Sea and are also planning to build a wind farm near the ancient city of Jerash.

Around 100 participants from 40 Muslim countries will take part in the conference in Amman and 38 research papers that explore the environmental issues and the link with Islam will be presented. The four topics up for discussion are: the environment in the Holy Qur’an and the Prophet Muhammed’s Hadith, animals and living creatures in Islam, Muslim’s interest in the environment historically and in modern times, as well as Islamic values and their role in presenting solutions for international environmental problems.

Exploring the Green Message of Islam

As well as the the three day event, there will also be a two-day closed symposium this weekend which brings together Christian and Muslim scholars to explore how religion views the environment in general. Organisers at the international Islamic non-governmental and independent institute have pointed out that the meetings are strictly non-political and scientific.

The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought was setup in 1980 by the His Majesty the late King Hussein Bin Talal to promote awareness of Islam and Islamic thought, call for a middle ground of moderation, and challenge unsound ideas and misconceptions about Islam. Exploring the green message at the heart of Islam is a great way to tackle misconceptions as it highlights the relevance of Islamic thought to modern concerns and common ground amongst the wider green community.

The Time To Get Organised for Climate Change is Now

The conference is also a welcome step towards better organisation amongst the Arab world in dealing with the issue of climate change. According to experts who attended the latest United Nations Development Programme regional meeting, lack of political will means that the Arab world will be one of the regions worst hit by climate change. With less water, hotter and less predictable climates, as well as growing GHG emissions the region is facing an uncertain future.

As Mostafa Tolba, former executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme told Reuters, “They are leaving entire generations who will wake up and find a disaster on their hands that they will be completely unequipped to handle.” Experts noted the increasing awareness of the issue amongst Arab governments but called for more to be done to engage the private sector and for businesses to invest in a greener future.

Top image via Jordan News Agency and lower image via Or Hiltch on Flickr.

For more on Islam and Environment:

Great Examples Of ‘Hima’ Or Protected Areas In The Middle East

Mud Structures in the Muslim World: Spectacular And Sustainable

UAE Scholars And Imams Speak Up For The Environment

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In the hustle and bustle of Jerusalem’s famous Old City bazaar, shopkeepers are busy selling trinkets to tourists, synthetic t-shirts and plastic souvenirs made in far-off China. But there is one place where the appreciation for old-fashioned ways still exists. At Bilal Abu-Khalaf’s shop, he imports his hand-woven silk, cotton and gold-threaded cloths from Africa. His fabrics are used to make robes for Christian priests, Muslim imams and ultra-orthodox Jews.

Stepping inside the shop, packed floor-to-ceiling with fabrics and pillows, one has the sense of entering Aladdin’s cave. The hectic pace is reduced as customers are given a cup of freshly brewed coffee and encouraged to slowly sip it as Abu-Khalaf prepares his wares.

Abu-Khalaf, a third generation fabric merchant, says he likes to dress like Abraham of the bible, in a striped white jellabiya robe, silk sash about his waist and topped off with a red fez. “You know we like the old touch… because you know, the people when they come to the old city, they like to see what it was before,” Abu-Khalaf says.

Jerusalem is positioned geographically as a city linking Asia, Africa and Europe. Modern politics, however, make it more difficult nowadays to do business across borders. But, fabric merchants like Abu-Khalaf receive special permits to travel to Syria to purchase the hand-woven cloths in the famous markets of Damascus and Aleppo.

Unfolding fabrics, Abu-Khalaf displays layer after layer of textiles, from Damascene silks to fine Indian saris and local Palestinian embroideries. One shiny piece depicts a horsemen and Arabian knights in battle, while another shows a forest scene with hunters.

“This is from pure silk, handloom work with a thread of gold. It is in eight colors and it takes 45 days to make just 10 meters [33 feet] of this,” Abu Khalaf says. “See how it changes color depending on the angle.”

It’s not cheap. Some fabrics can run from $300 to $600 a meter. Some of his fabrics have been sitting on the shelves for up to 45 years just waiting for the right customer.

“I sell the material for vestments to Catholic, Orthodox, Armenian, Ethiopian and Coptic priests. There are Jerusalem designs – the special Cross for the priestly robes in different colors according to the festivals: purple for Easter, red for Christmas, white for Sundays. The patriarchs wear red and gold with the pattern of a cross or an angel,” he says.

“I also sell material to the Jews for their kaftans. According to tradition, Abraham wore a white jellabiya with stripes, so the ultra-Orthodox Jews wear white with blue and gold stripes for the Sabbath and white with white stripes for festivals. They all come to my shop.”

From bishops to Hollywood set designers

Abu-Khalaf doesn’t advertise. Most people hear about his shops through word-of-mouth. Customers include cardinals and bishops, luxury hotels, the Israel Opera and even Hollywood set designers.

“My customers, let’s say, ambassadors or prime ministers, they like to have half a meter, they frame it as a picture which they give to other prime ministers as a gift. Some people like to do jackets, special jackets, or waistcoats. Some people like to use it as a tie or a shawl for ladies, or to cover an antique chair,” he says.

His shop is a few alleyways down from the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Christ was allegedly crucified, buried and later resurrected.

A few years ago, Abu-Khalaf wanted to expand his shop, but workers soon discovered something precious when they started digging. “They told me this was the Byzantine church of Santa Maria Maggiore,” he says, as church bells and market hawkers are heard outside his shop doors. “So I decide, instead of covering it over, to install a glass floor over it, so that anyone entering my shop can see what it was in Jerusalem.”

Pointing down, he says archaeologists gave him a map that speculated the rest of the church was likely still buried under his neighbors’ shops.

Abu-Khalaf clearly prefers the past to modern ways. Synthetic fabrics are an anathema to him. “If I touch them I feel like electricity is flowing into my hands,” he says grimacing.

“I’m an old fashioned sort of man. Why? It’s natural. Everything now is computers and synthetics. It is not real. But when I sell someone real and natural fabrics I have a pure heart and am happy. I love what I do.”

Abu-Khalaf’s ancestors came from Kurdistan with Saladin, the Muslim warrior, during the Crusades. His grandfather opened his shop in 1936 and his father and uncles later took it over. As a young man, Abu-Khalaf studied political science in Egypt, but during the tumultuous early 1980s he returned to Jerusalem to take up his ailing father’s business.

With one grown son studying to be a pharmacist, Abu-Khalaf has pinned his hopes on his two-year-old son to carry on the family business. “I want to teach the small son now. He is two years. He likes to come on Saturdays here. And maybe I teach him to be after me,” Abu-Khalaf says.

::Abu Khalaf online

(This story was reprinted from The Middle East News Source, The Media Line)

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