2012
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Conference
Guidelines
For Compassionate Dialogue
Friday,
March 23
RCP CONFERENCE
OPENING
10:00 - 11:30 am
Greeting,
Conference Mission, Announcements, & Introductions:
Steve
Olweean,MA,
Bill
Secrest,
MA
Keynotes via Skype: Huston
Smith, PhD
Presentation: - Charter
For Compassion
-
Declaration of
Council of Religious Leaders in Israel
Dialogue and Community Building Experience
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
A
11:45
am - 12:45 pm
A
1: "Multigenerational
Trauma and Healing Ancestor Syndrome"
Each of us is a living story influenced by generations past. If
we learn what is difficult to hear and see what is difficult to see,
then we can better understand transgenerational transmission of unresolved
conflicts of hatred and revenge. Presents a model of healing based
in indigenous wisdom and shamanic understandings.
-
Myron Eshowsky, MS
____________________________________________
A
2: Roundtable: "Building
Compassion and Harmony Through The Academic Study of Religion"
A panel discussion will ensue covering topics concerning the academic
study of religion and how formal education can foster peace and conflict
resolution. Approaching religion from a "scholarly" perspective,
in a diverse classroom, often breaks down walls and insecurities when
attempting to engage the "other".
- Bill Secrest, MA, Tracy
Marshall, Loren Scribner, Anne Dinnan, Ryan Hammack
____________________________________________
A
3: "Combating
Stereotyping, Islamophobia, Xenophobia & “Appearance-ism”;
Being an Ally (Even to Yourself)"
Anya Cordell, Spirit of Anne Frank Award recipient, combats
"appearance-ism" (appearance-based judging). Anya, who is
Jewish, demonstrates becoming a powerful ally (even to yourself),
creating effective initiatives against Islamophobia/xenophobia, bridging
cultural barriers, undermining biased and stereotypical media messages,
and transforming views of yourself and others.
- Anya Cordell
~
Lunch ~
12:45 - 2:00 pm
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
B
2:00
- 3:00 pm
B
1: "Racism
and Violence Against Muslim Women: The Sociological Perspective Of
Islamophobia"
Since 9/11, Muslims and Arabs have suffered increased discrimination,
both by private actors and by the state. Although Muslims and Arabs
are victims of historical discrimination and stereotyping, the political
atmosphere has, since September 2001, become keenly Islamophobic.
We will critically examine how violence is understood and experienced
by Muslim women in North America; how violence against them affects
their sense of self, family, and community; and how it is shaped through
the intersecting matrices of identity, including race, gender, class,
religion, age, and marital status.
-
Gahad Hamed, PhD
____________________________________________
B
2: "Religion
and Peace: The Interfaith Dialogue Program in the Center for Conflict
Resolution and Reconciliation"
The presentation will
be about our interfaith project implemented by CCRR between religious'
leaders from the three Abrahamic religions, Islam, Christianity and
Judaism, For four years these religious' leaders have discussed the
role of religion in peace, the different values in the three religions,
and the responsibility of these leaders in guiding political leaders
according to these values and morals, as opposed to offering justifucation
for violence in the name of God.
- Noah Salameh,
PhD
____________________________________________
B
3: Roundtable:
"Sustainability
and Alternative Energy"
Sustainability issues
are of a global scale that affects lives socially, politically, and
internally. Finding energy alternatives and sustainable solutions
will help existing ecosystems last and strengthen compassion, humanity,
and peace among the world’s citizens as less strain is placed
on Earth’s resources.
- Anas Pasha, Kelly Williamson, Gloria Rivera, Ed McArdle
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
C
3:15
- 4:15 pm
C
1: "Beyond
Theories: Where the Rubber Meets the Road"
How does one apply the Golden Rule in situations where we try
to respect everyone's religious tradition and practice, while it is
obvious that a compromise has to be made. Who makes the compromise?
Does someone always have to compromise for an amicable solution? We
take an incident that happened among 3 women: a Hindu, Buddhist, and
Jew, in which respecting the religious traditions of 1 woman would
mean violating that of another. How do you solve these real life situations
when applying the Golden Rule? An interactive workshop in which the
incident is related, the group divides into smaller "pods"
to discuss what should happen, and then shares their deliberations
and discussions with the larger group.
-
Ruth Broyde Sharone
____________________________________________
C
2: "Preserving
Religious Liberty: Why It Matters"
Discuss importance of
preserving religious liberty for all faiths; explore examples of how
religious liberty is being challenged; and consider what we can do
to promote / preserve religious liberty.
- Daniel F. Dunnigan,
MBA
____________________________________________
C
3: Christian
Leaders as Peacemakers in the Middle East (and at Home)
Dearborn area Christian leaders have been
moved by their faith and growing understanding to "Walk the Talk"
by working for peace in the Holy Land. They will share their experiences
"on the ground" in Israel and Palestine and doing advocacy
at home.
Rev. Fran Hayes, Rev. Amy Kienzle
PLENARY
ROUNDTABLE
D
4:30 - 6:00 pm
"Islamophobia,
Racism, Anti Semitism, Scapegoating, and Compassion: Tapping Into
The Best In Society To Heal The Energy Of Fear and Ignorance"
Anya Cordell, Imam Dawood Walid, Daniel Dunnigan, Rev. Dennis
Flowers
Moderator: Steve Olweean, MA
~
Dinner ~
6:00 - 7:30 pm
EVENING PERFORMANCE
MAZAJ:
Arab-American blues fusion band
7:30 - 9:00 pm
Saturday,
March 24
PLENARY
ROUNDTABLE
E
10:00 - 11:30 am
"Social Media:
Bridging Divides And The Globe To Promote Understanding, Compassion,
And Solidarity" (A Global Roundtable)
The degree of accessible, direct, and immediate communication between
just about anyone on the globe with anyone else on the globe - unprecedented
in human history and growing daily, and the highly personal and democratic
nature of social media, opens new possibilities for the individual
in society to play a significant role in promoting positive social
change, locally and globally. A most recent example of this power
is seen in the Arab Spring movement sweeping across the Middle East
and the Occupy movement sweeping across the globe. Along with the
power of change for liberty, justice, and human rights is power of
change for healing negative stereotypes, enemy images, polarization,
and animosity, and bridging the divide. This roundtable explores these
transformative dynamics and possibilities for the future.
- Sulaiman Khatib, Tanya Awad Ghorra, Aseel Zahran, Mohamed Emira
Moderator:
Steve
Olweean,
MA
____________________________________________
CONCURRENT SESSIONS
F
11:45 am - 12:45 pm
F
1:
"PSYCHICIDE
- Dimunition and Dehumanising of "The Others"
Addressing
the concept of "dehumanizing," psychecide, and trauma to
psyche. How has our culture become Okay with caricaturization and
character assassination in name of humour, righteousness, or religion.
As examples, during holocaust it was acceptable to be anti-Semitic
so that the horrors inflicted were acceptable, and more recently this
same dynamic is experienced through Islamophobia. Comments like "deserve
to die", or the vitriolic and aggressive treatment of Obama based
on the 'suspicion' that he is a Muslim, are reminiscent of a hateful
image of The Other. We are living in an ideological war zone, and
need to redefine norms, ethics and human dignity.
-
Farha Abbasi,
MD
____________________________________________
F
2: "Creating
Peace"
Just as existential freedom is
a consequence of authentic engagement with personal responsibility,
peace is created by engaging and exploring latent and unconscious
conflicts within us. This workshop will utilize creative writing and
the visual arts to gain insight to the conflicts we project into the
world.
- Jim
Brown, PhD, Julie Moreno,
MA
____________________________________________
F
3: Roundtable:
"Buddhist
Practice: Off Tthe Cushion, Into the Community"
Panel of Detroit area Buddhist
practitioners will engage attendees in dialogue on how their Buddhist
Practice informs their everyday actions and focuses specific actions
within the community.
- Stuart
Smith, PhD, Melanie Davenport-Anzen,
Mary Grannan
~
Lunch ~
12:45 - 2:00 pm
CONCURRENT
SESSIONS
G
2:00 - 3:00
pm
G
1: "Tectonic
Leadership for Transforming the Middle East Conflict - a New Way of
Leading - a New Way of Being"
Tectonic Leadership introduces a revolutionary approach to leadership
and conflict transformation - meet leaders from opposing sides of
the Middle East conflict and learn how they take joint ownership in
transforming the conflict - see first hand how they face challenges
together and find solutions together.
- Brenda Naomi Rosenberg, Sarah Jaward, Sharhar Ben-Josef, Lara
Khadr, Hamzah Latif, Brian Merlos
____________________________________________
G
2: Roundtable:
"Local
And Global Manifestations Of Islamophobia, Solutions And Recommendations"
We will discuss the impact of Islamophobia on American Muslim college
students and develop a sense of urgency that Islamophobia should be
dealt with on a socio-political dimension to eradicate stereotypes
and demonstrate that Muslim students can be the catalysts to meaningful
and constructive dialogue.
- Mary Assel PhD, Hashim Al-Tawil
PhD, Adnan Salhi PhD,
____________________________________________
G
3: "Listening
with a Heart of Mercy"
Sharing the origin
and development of a serious conflict that developed between the presenter
and a a Muslim colleague; and then describing how we resolved it,
using our religious teachings and values to get there. We will then
divide up into small groups and speak about their own conflicts. This
session was presented jointly at the global Parliament of World's
Religions in Melbourne, Ausatralia.
-
Ruth Broyde Sharone
PLENARY
PANEL
H
3:15 - 4:45 pm
"Joining Together
To Heal the Emotional Distress of Negative Stereotyping and Bigotry"
This roundtable addresses the personal emotional and psychological
distress individuals and groups experience as a result of being targeted
as a community, how this effects relationships within and between
communities, and how both counseling professionals and clergy can
work together to support community members in alleviating this.
Included will be discussing the importance of supporting and orienting
clergy to mental health aspects, and exploring the possibility of
an interfaith coalition of professional counselors and clergy cooperating
on approaches to both offer services to individuals and families and
educate the public to this important mental health concern
- Farha Abbasi, MD,
Steve Olweean, MA, Myron Eshowsky,
MS, Stephen Fabick, Ed.D
SESSIONS
I
FACILITATED
DIALOGUE GROUP
(Conference-wide
group)
5:00 - 6:00 pm
An opportunity for all participants to engage in an
interactive, all-conference dialogue to process conference experiences,
share learning and wisdom, and address current issues. The intent
is to use dialogue and deliberation to promote mutual action planning
and collaboration beyond the conference for practical applications
in our communities to increase public awareness, understanding, support
pluralism, and reduce bigotry. This process and the RCP Conference
program as a whole are designed to lead to a final focused action
planning group on Sunday to produce concrete next steps for putting
principles into prctice in improving relations within and between
communities. The material is also included in conference proceedings
and outcomes, and used for future planning.
~
Dinner ~
6:00 - 7:30 pm
Keynote: US Congressman
John Conyers
EVENING SOCIAL
EVENT
7:30 - 9:00 pm
Sharing Creative Expressions:
Song, music, poetry, dance, story, short plays, videos
- Madalina Miron
and
Nicole Olweean
Sunday,
March 25
CONCURRENT
SESSIONS
J
10:00 - 11:00 apm
J
1: "Real
Conscience: Best Guide for Compassion and Harmony"
The real conscience promotes compassion and peace using reason
and the Golden Rule in making good choices. Bad choices result from
unbalanced feelings (all feelings relate to human needs) or unhealthy
"superego" shaped by social programming deviating from conscience.
Hate including self-hate involves harsh superego.
- N.S. Xavier, MD
____________________________________________
J
2: Roundtable:
"We Can
LIVE Without the Death Penalty"
Sixteen US States (four in the past five years) have abolished the
death penalty; Michigan was the first English-speaking jurisdiction
in the world to do so (1847). The movement's current efforts and participants'
ideas for eradicating this assault on human rights will be discussed.
- Geraldine Grunow, Ken Grunow, Bashshar Altawil, Kelcie Bourquin,
Lizzie Hines, Anas Pasha, Jihad Taleb, Andrew Baron
____________________________________________
J
3:
Roundtable:
"How the Youth can Put an End to Islamaphobia"
An
open panel where we can briefly discuss the issues that are effecting
our youth in regards to Islamaphobia- discussing the root of it and
how this generation has the utmost ability to stop it before it flourishes
into the minds of future generations.
Zeinab Saab, Wissam Bazzi, Belal Alzahiri, Bassam Talab
CONCURRENT
SESSIONS
K
FACILITATED
ACTION PLANNING GROUP
(Conference-wide)
11:15 am - 1:15 pm
Bringing the conference together for concerted action planning,
networking, and collaboration beyond the conference to put learning
into practice in our communities to educate, sensitize, and improve
relations.
CONFERENCE
CLOSING
1:30
- 2:30 pm
Processing Conference Experience,
Summarizing,
Cooperation, Next Steps, and Farewell
(Networking
Lunch Follows)
____________________________________________
2:30
- 3:30 pm
~
Networking Lunch ~
Final
informal opportunity to connect and to explore cooperation
and next steps beyond the conference
Guidelines
For Compassionate Dialogue
The
RCP Conference strives
to promote an inclusive, compassionate dialogue that honors different
personal experiences, perspectives, and narratives, while allowing
for better expressing and listening to each other as we work together
toward understanding and harmony. Our intention is to create an
open venue where we can engage meaningfully and invite in a public
dialogue that brings our joint wisdom to bear in exploring sometimes
difficult issues that effect us all. This is based on the premise
that it does not require that we be the same to be appreciate of,
at peace with, and secure in our relationships with each other;
only that we be familiar enough with each others story to share
the humanity and trustworthiness that resides in each of us.
We ask all participants to assist us by carrying and expressing
this intent throughout the conference.
We ask all participants to assist us by carrying and expressing
this intent throughout the conference.
NonViolent Communication Guidelines:
(Adapted from Marshall
Rosenberg)
Unique Assumptions—NVC begins by assuming
that we are all compassionate by nature and that violent strategies—whether
verbal or physical—are learned behaviors taught and supported
by the prevailing culture. It also assumes that we all share the
same, basic human needs, and that all actions are a strategy to
meet one or more of these needs.
While NVC is much more than a communication model,
the components below provide a structural concept of the process
that leads to giving and receiving from the heart.
Honestly Expressing how I am and what I would
like without using blame, criticism or demands
Empathically Receiving how another is and what
he/she would like without hearing blame, criticism or demands
Whether expressing or receiving, NVC focuses our attention
on four pieces of information:
Observations—Objectively describing what
is going on without using evaluation, moralistic judgment, interpretation
or diagnosis
Feelings—Saying how you feel (emotions and body sensations)
about what you have observed without assigning blame
Needs—The basic human needs that are or not being met
and are the source of feelings
Requests—Clear request for actions that can meet needs
Additional
Features of the
2010 RCP Conference
Evening Social-Cultural and Film Events
Rich Networking and Action Planning
Intentional Cross-Cultural Community
Displays
and Exhibits (*Additional Exhibit Space Available)
