Similar not different

 

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brothers to dwell together in unity!”

Psalm 133:1

“Do things for people not because of who they are or they do in return, but because of who you are.”

Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

God is peace : Let us ask him to help us to be peace makers each day, in our life, in our families, in our cities and nations, in the whole world. Let us allow ourselves to be moved by God’s goodness.”

Pope Francis 12/25/13

“Do you know what is better than charity, fasting and prayer? It is keeping peace and good relations among people as quarrels and bad feelings destroy mankind”

Prophet Mohammed 

Coexist Through Knowledge

Coexist through knowledge is a call for peace and coexistence among people of different faiths and cultures, in order for them to learn from one another, share knowledge, and communicate it to those willing to learn, because the treasure is knowledge.

School closures and phased-out majors

This video comes as a warning about how much education is suffering in our country. It should be an alert for all of us to act to keep education and our children learning. This news also follows my blog from February 15, 2026: “Learn and when you learn, teach.”

This comes from not considering education as a priority.  Declining enrollment does not mean that young people and their parents are not interested in higher education, but that education has become an expensive privilege they can’t afford. Massachusetts is supposed to be an intellectual state, with more than 120 schools, including colleges and universities, mainly in the Boston and Worcester areas, and more than 250 in New England. Yet, private colleges are out of reach for most, and public colleges remain expensive for the middle and working classes.

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Theocracy and Religious Dictatorships

What is happening in Iran today is a consequence of forty-seven years of imposing an ideology on people and calling it religion to rally the ignorant masses. Those uninformed and often uneducated are easily manipulated and convinced that an ideology and a wrongful interpretation of a religion are based on the word and rule of God. In countries where the population is religious since birth and religion is innate and intuitive, invoking God captures listening souls and closes the way to inquire or ask questions because the people fear blasphemy due to reasoning, questioning, research, or examination of facts. Pragmatism is seen as a refusal of divine rule and power, and secularism is defined as blasphemy and disbelief. A secular person is called an atheist. The best way to convince people, brainwash them, and make them accept the power’s thinking and ideology is to attribute what they say to God and the Prophet. In many of these dictatorships, illiteracy is encouraged, and the country often has a high rate of illiterate people who can’t read or write, and illiterates with degrees.

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Is secularism disbelieving?

Secularism is mainly known as the separation of government and religion, in simpler terms, the separation of Church and State, based on or justified by Jesus saying:

“Well, then,” Jesus said, “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.” Mark 12:17

In Matthew 22:21, Jesus’s response to a trick question about taxes: “Then he said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s'” 

A lot of preachers define it as disbelief or atheism, especially the radical ones. The idea that a nation can be governed by civil laws written by humans and grounded in morals and ethical values is unacceptable to them. Often, morals and ethics align with religion or are based on religious rules, but the power that governs the nation is neither religious nor composed of religious representatives or leaders.  Secularism takes away the political power from the church, the mosque, the synagogue, or any deity. A peaceful coexistence between church and state is not atheism; many believers see secularism as beneficial, as it safeguards human rights, democracy, and personal freedoms, such as freedom of religion.

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“Learn, and when you learn, teach.”

This hadith from the Prophet Mohammed serves as a call to save humanity through knowledge. Prophets are teachers, so are scholars, priests, ministers, imams, and rabbis.

“Indeed, we revealed the Torah, containing guidance and light, by which the prophets, who submitted themselves to God, made judgments for Jews. So too did the rabbis and scholars judge according to God’s Book, with which they were entrusted and of which they were made keepers.” Quran 5:44.

 Ahmed Chawqi said, “Stand up for your teacher and honor him with praise, for the teacher is almost a prophet.” 

“And the treasure of your infinite depths would be revealed to your eyes.”

Khalil Jubran, aka Kahlil Gibran, from his work: “Self-knowledge.”

 Ignorance is the source of all the problems the world faces. Racism is built on ignorance because humans reject what is different or new to them. From racism and the refusal to accept and coexist with those who are even slightly different, hate was born, and hate creates violence because hate is based on ignorance.

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Tu B’shevat and Trees in the Scripture

Believers from the three faiths celebrated the holidays: the new year for all, Christmas for Christians, Hanukkah for Jews, and Muslims preparing for the holy month of fasting and prayer, which will start next month, according to the lunar calendar for lunar year 1447, corresponding to 2026 AD.  The Jewish community will celebrate Tu B’Shevat on the fifteenth day of the month of Shevat, which this year coincides with the months of January/ February.

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