A WEEK ago last Monday the Multifaith Council of Northwest Ohio held its monthly universal worship service at the Hindu Temple of Toledo. As is their practice of inclusion, the participants included Christians, Jews, Hinduism, Muslims, Bahais, and Sufis.
The universal worship service was initiated in 1922 by an Indian Sufi teacher, Inayat Khan. He was a Muslim who believed in universality of mankind and thus found enough common threads in each faith tradition to bring people together for common worship. He belonged to the Islamic Sufi traditions that teach inclusiveness and was the first to introduce that face of Islam in the west. The Sufi order (tariqa) that he established is perhaps the youngest order among the 50-odd orders worldwide. The 13th century poet-philosopher Rumi, the founder of the Order of Whirling Dervishes, was one such master who still inspires people around the world.
(As an aside, Inayat Khan’s daughter Princess Noor was a spy for the British during World War II and played a vital role in providing sensitive information from behind the enemy line in France. She was captured, tortured, and executed at Dachau in Bavaria in 1944. Of late the British government has recognized her services and has honored her by erecting a bust of her in Gordon Square Gardens in London.)
The prayer service at the Hindu Temple was interesting and inspiring. There were readings from scriptures, music, dances, and silent prayers. They all converged to a single point: we are children of the same God. We may have different ways and paths but our individual journeys lead us to the same reality.
The news that day of a plot to attack a synagogue hung heavy that evening on many of the congregants. A catastrophe was averted in Toledo when Damon Joseph, 21, was arrested for planning an attack on a local Jewish synagogue. He was planning the attack to repeat what had happened in Pittsburgh a few months ago. A diligent and thorough undercover work by federal agents led to the arrest of the young man. He fits the pattern we have seen all too often in this country and also around the world where a young vulnerable person is brainwashed by web sites that preach hatred and assure them of a heavenly afterlife.
At this point we do not know much about Mr. Joseph except that he wanted to harm Jews and to kill a rabbi. The glorification of the Pittsburgh massacre in the dark corners of the Internet provided sufficient enticement for him. He was most likely a recent convert to the militant and virulent shade of Islam. However he was not known to have attended any of the dozen or so local mosques. If he had and if he had talked to anyone at any the local mosques, he might have realized that what he was planning to do was against the very spirit of Islam.
The same day when Damon Joseph was arrested, Elizabeth Lecron, 23, was also arrested on charges of planning to commit an “upscale mass murder” by blowing up a bar in Toledo. The two were not connected.
In our society gun violence in the name of religion, philosophy, or political rights has, unfortunately, become all too common. We go through the convulsive response to a mass atrocity. Our politicians tell us not to bring up the subject of gun control in the immediate aftermath of such a tragedy. They want us to talk about the subject some other times that never arrive. They repeat the worn-out refrain of “thoughts and prayers” for the victims and then they go to comfortably sit in the lap of National Rifle Association as obedient dogs. When questioned they wave the tattered fig leaf of Second Amendment to the Constitution that, according to them, guarantees an American citizen to own automatic rifles and shoot them at will. Civic responsibility, decency, and rights of others be damned.
In Toledo we are fortunate to have amicable relations among different religions. There is a genuine ecumenical spirit that prevails in our area. People visit each other’s places of worship and worship together often to the disapproval and annoyance of some of their orthodox and strict co-religionists. I wonder if the flocks need electric fences to keep them fenced in?
In Toledo we are also fortunate to have the likes of Judy Trautman, who co-founded the Multi Faith Council with her late husband Woody, and Lauraine Carpenter, a professional musician who along with other people continue to keep lit the flame of inter-religious harmony and understanding.
S. Amjad Hussain is an emeritus professor of surgery and humanities at the University of Toledo. His column appears every other week in The Blade. Contact him at: aghaji@bex.net.
First Published December 17, 2018, 11:30 a.m.
