Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sikhism!

Hello Interfaith!

A few weeks ago Angad Singh, President of the Sikh Students Association, and I talked about Sikhism in our Face to Faith and I thought I'd just include some quick facts here for anyone who missed the discussion.  Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that comes out of fifteenth century northern India- initially as a response to the caste system in India.  The religion was founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji and the succeeding ten Gurus. On the death of the tenth Guru, our holy scripture the Guru Granth Sahib Ji became the ultimate spiritual authority.  The main tenets of Sikhism are naam japo (remember God/meditate), kirt karo (work hard and honestly), and wand chako (share with/serve your fellow man).  Service is very important and holds greater value than prayer.  For example, each Sikh temple or gurdwara has a langar hall (community kitchen) in which volunteers cook food which they serve to the community.  Interfaith is a large part of Sikhism and passages in the G
uru Granth Sahib come from people of all different castes (according to Hinduism) and creeds including Islam, Sufism, and Hinduism. Sikhs can be easily identified with their turbans, something we choose to wear as a symbol of spiritual strength.  Our turbans caused a lot of confusion post-9/11 as many Sikhs were targeted as terrorists and harassed for this.  However, Sikhism is a distinct religion from Islam and Hinduism and does have its own history, philosophy, beliefs, and practices.  Today Sikhism is the fifth-largest religion with the majority of followers residing in India.  I really enjoyed talking about my faith with you all and please let me know if you have any questions.

Also, I wanted to let you all know of this really great event coming up on November 7. The Hindu Student Organization is organizing a Diwali celebration at Town and Gown and will be providing a free dinner and live entertainment by USC cultural groups.  Diwali, the festival of lights, is a very big holiday in India and is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains alike as it has a lot of cultural significance for Indians. Be sure to rsvp at <http://hsodiwali2010.eventbrite.com/> It's going to be a lot of fun and I really hope to see you all there!

science and religion

hey, so i realized that homework prevents me from getting to the meeting today but i wanted to share these funny pics i found about science and religion on the BLOG. (feel free to say it 9 more times if it makes you happy, lol)
http://www.infoaddict.com/wp-content/uploads/HLIC/doroteos2.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/touchingthevoid4601.jpg
http://failuretointegrate.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/svsr.jpg

Sikhism // Diwali



Hello Interfaith!

A few weeks ago Angad Singh, President of the Sikh Students Association, and I talked about Sikhism in our Face to Faith and I thought I'd just include some quick facts here for anyone who missed the discussion. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that comes out of fifteenth century northern India- initially as a response to the caste system in India. The religion was founded on the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji and the succeeding ten Gurus. On the death of the tenth Guru, our holy scripture the Guru Granth Sahib Ji became the ultimate spiritual authority. The main tenets of Sikhism are naam japo (remember God/meditate), kirt karo (work hard and honestly), and wand chako (share with/serve your fellow man). Service is very important and holds greater value than prayer. For example, each Sikh temple or gurdwara has a langar hall (community kitchen) in which volunteers cook food which they serve to the community. Interfaith is a large part of Sikhism and passages in the Guru Granth Sahib come from people of all different castes (according to Hinduism) and creeds including Islam, Sufism, and Hinduism. Sikhs can be easily identified with their turbans, something we choose to wear as a symbol of spiritual strength. Our turbans caused a lot of confusion post-9/11 as many Sikhs were targeted as terrorists and harassed for this. However, Sikhism is a distinct religion from Islam and Hinduism and does have its own history, philosophy, beliefs, and practices. Today Sikhism is the fifth-largest religion with the majority of followers residing in India. I really enjoyed talking about my faith with you all and please let me know if you have any questions.

Also, I wanted to let you all know of this really great event coming up on November 7. The Hindu Student Organization is organizing a Diwali celebration at Town and Gown and will be providing a free dinner and live entertainment by USC cultural groups. Diwali, the festival of lights, is a very big holiday in India and is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs, and Jains alike as it has a lot of cultural significance for Indians. Be sure to rsvp at <http://hsodiwali2010.eventbrite.com/> It's going to be a lot of fun and I really hope to see you all there!

Peace,
Jasneet




Sunday, October 24, 2010

Fast-a-thon November 3!



The USC Muslim Student Union and Ansar Service Partnership would like to invite you to attend our annual Hassan Hathout Fast-a-thon Banquet. Fast-A-Thon is an event hosted by Muslim student organizations across North America in order to create awareness about the issue of hunger, about the Islamic way of life, and to raise money for charity to be distributed to local communities. We will be inviting students of all faiths to sign up to fast from food and drink on November 3, 2010. Businesses and individuals may either sponsor a certain amount of money on behalf of each participant or make a flat pledge. All the money raised is given to the ILM foundation who will use it to distribute personal items,food, hygiene products and medical screenings for the skid row community in Los Angeles. The distribution event is known as Humanitarian Day. 

Dr. Hassan Hathout was a respected Muslim American scholar, physician, and leader of the Muslim community in the United States. We name the Fastathon after him to honor his wish that there exist in the future a national "Will-Power Day" of fasting. To find out more about Hassan Hathout, please visit http://www.hassanhathout.org/.

The banquet to break our fast on the day of the Fastathon will be held at 5:45 pm on Wednesday, November 3, 2010 and will be located at the Omar Al-Khattab Masjid (at the corner of Exposition and Figueroa). Food will be served for all of the attendees, and we will have a number of speakers, including Dr. Maher Hathout (Dr. Hassan Hathout's brother), Mr. Dafer Dakhil, and Mr. Ali Mir, Director of Muslim Student Life at USC.

Please sign up to fast for Fastathon by going to the MSU website at uscmuslims.com. On the RSVP form, please indicate whether you will also be able to attend the evening banquet.

Thank you very much.

Sincerely,
Muslim Student Union and Ansar Service Partnership
University of Southern California

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Face to Faith: Nondenominational Christianity

Hello Fellow Interfaith Bloggers!

My name is Emanuel, and I am a nondenominational Christian on the Interfaith Council. Today at IFC we talked a little bit about Nondenominational Christianity. We discussed the history of the religion (its foundation in Judaism, the many denominations it split in) and it foundation in belief in Jesus of Nazareth as the Savior/Messiah. One point was how Jesus extolled his followers to spread the message of how to live one's life with the greatest commandment to love one another as you love yourself, and love God above all things. I also mentioned how nondenominational Christianity tries to move toward a faith less focused on tradition and doctrine but on Biblical teachings and personal relationship with God to find truth in the way we should live our lives.

Alot of questions were answered from the spirituality of gospel music to how worship services are led. It was a great conversation and I hope that it got some questions answered.

Stay blessed,

Emanuel

Monday, October 18, 2010

Words of Power

The Interfaith Council is on a role. Our conversation last Tuesday night was one of the most interesting and informative discussions we have ever had. First off, we had a great presentation about Sikhism from Jasneet and Angad and learned everything about Sikhism from Kirpans to Kacheta. Our topic of discussion was "Words of Power". At the beginning of the meeting, we each wrote two or three words or phrases that meant something to us according to our faith tradition on small pieces of paper, folded them, and threw them all on a plastic plate. We took turns taking one piece off the paper and reading it, saying what the word meant to us, and trying to guess which tradition it came from. Some of the words we discussed were:

Compassion
Unconditional Love
G-d is Greater
Devotion
Presence
Awareness

The most powerful thing we found was that it was hard to guess the traditions the words came from because most of them related in some way to all or many faiths. Great job everyone! This week, we will be hearing our Face to Faith on Non-Denominational Christianity from Emanuel and discussing how our traditions deal with death. Just in time for Halloween :) See you Tuesday!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

On the heels of tonight's discussion...

...



What do you think of the French bill to outlaw the wearing of the Islamic veil? What of it's passing? What do you think about this clip? Is this a constructive way to protest the bill? Does this empower or belittle women who wear the veil?

I heart Ifaith!

This blog looks...fabulous! Great work team, interfaith cooperation on making the blog gnarly. Here is an opportunity that if you are a senior (or not) you will hopefully consider. The Faiths Act Fellowship is put on jointly by the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and the Interfaith Youth Core in Chicago, and the mission of the fellowship is to bring young people of all faiths and non-faiths together to support and mobilize others in favor of the UN Millennium Development Goals. Check out the website, the application is open, and if you have any questions, you can email Jem (mjebbia@usc.edu) or you can contact IFYC directly (connie@ifyc.org). Yay!

http://www.faithsactfellows.org

See you tonight!

Friday, October 1, 2010

Islamophobia Town Hall Forum

For those who are interested, this would be a great follow-up to our discussion a couple of weeks ago on the controversy surrounding the Islamic cultural center in New York: