He'll meet with Muslim leaders in a mission of peace in S.F.
Matthai Chakko Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, April 15, 2006
The Dalai Lama, a powerful icon for peace worldwide, will gather with
influential American Muslim leaders in San Francisco today to help refashion
Islam's image in the United States.
Concerned that Muslims are unfairly demonized in American popular
consciousness, the world-renowned Buddhist leader hopes to help show Islam
in what he sees as its truest form, one of peace.
"The enemy is not out there,'' said Tenzin Dhonden, the Dalai Lama's
emissary for peace. "The enemy is within you. ... How we see religion is in
our mind. But religion itself is the truth: peace and harmony."
The hurdles are numerous.
Polls in Muslim countries have shown that some Muslims think of the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks as a good thing, said Muslim scholar Sheikh Hamza Yusuf.
Co-founder of the Zaytuna Institute in Hayward, Yusuf advised President Bush
in the days after the attacks.
He also noted that polls have revealed that some Americans support bombing
Mecca, Islam's holiest city.
"Who are the extremists?" he asked. "It's all of us. There's no 'us' versus
'them' here. We've got extremists on both sides. If we let extremist agendas
chart the course for us on both sides, we're headed for a very, very
frightening world."
Speakers at today's invitation-only event at the Mark Hopkins Hotel,
"Gathering of Hearts Illuminating Compassion," say violent images of Islam
are sensationalized by a selective news media.
They say the faith of the vast majority of the hundreds of millions of
Muslims worldwide bears no relation to the beliefs of terrorists who claim
religious authority.
"That's not Islam," said Jack Kornfield, a prominent Buddhist teacher and
founder of the Spirit Rock Meditation Center in Marin County. "Those are
extremists and crazies. Quite honestly, you find that in every tradition.
Right now, our media is highlighting that." Kornfield is not participating
in today's event.
Even though Buddhist-Muslim relations are at the center of the gathering,
organizers are emphasizing an even broader understanding of faith: that all
religions are the same at their core.
This message plays well in the religiously diverse Bay Area, where believers
of all faiths often adapt aspects of other traditions.
Organizers also plan to address the rise of fundamentalism in many
religions, which they say can turn beliefs into political tools.
"It is hijacked religion that causes violence," said Huston Smith, an author
and former professor at four major universities and a speaker at today's
event.
"In warfare, you need power,'' said Smith, a Berkeley resident. "Therefore,
you have to believe that God is on your side and you are an instrument of
God to do his will through warfare and fighting and the laying down of
lives. The flip side of that is that the enemy is the demon, the axis of
evil."
The conference, limited to roughly 500 people, will consist of presentations
by scholars and religious leaders.
In addition to Yusuf, they will include Imam Mehdi Khorasani, a spiritual
leader born in Karbala, Iraq, who guides a 6,000-member congregation in
Fairfax, and the Rev. Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco,
an Episcopal church.
"As long as we are quiet and not trying to explain, the danger and
misunderstanding remains," said Khorasani, whose invitation to the Dalai
Lama prompted today's gathering.
Khorasani comes from a line of Iraqi Shiite clerics, though he tries to
avoid that sectarian label.
The Dalai Lama, whose own story is one of religion and politics intertwined,
has for decades advocated nonviolence.
Forced into exile from Tibet in 1959 after the Chinese government violently
suppressed an uprising there, the Dalai Lama is familiar with the idea of
occupation -- the concept that rallies Muslim resistance in Israel, Iraq and
the Indian state of Kashmir.
The Dalai Lama now lives in Dharamsala, India, but his call for peaceful
resistance to China helped earn him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
The gathering's speakers say they hope the event, however philosophical,
will plant a seed for the future. But what it will accomplish long-term may
be unclear.
"His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) is marshalling us to do our best,'' said
Smith, the religious scholar. "We cannot see the full consequences. We just
try to set the trajectory."
E-mail Matthai Chakko Kuruvila at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/04/15/MNGELI9PLR1.DTL
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