Date: 04 August 2006

Imam Yahya Hendi is the Chaplain of the Georgetown University at Washington DC. He is also imam of a mosque in America. Imam Hendi visited the Australian intercultural Society and gave a small seminar on the importance of Dialogue amongst Abrahamic religions and beliefs. AIS board members and Imam Hendi had initiated a pleasant conversation during dinner, focusing on dialogue activities in Australia.  Orhan Cicek enlightened Imam Hendi on past projects that was conducted and has gave a scope of activities the AIS will be organising in the near future. The seminar was initiated with an introduction by Orhan Cicek. He introduced Imam Hendi, by citing his background and asked Imam Hendi to give his view of dealing with Muslims in America during these war times. Imam Hendi began his seminar with a pleasant prayer. He than expounded that he was from dust; he was “Dustian” and everyone is equal. He supplemented that originally he was born in Palestine. The country where many people has seen it as a holy land, and he has continued that the city of peace has changed to “city of war”. Imam Hendi emphasized that “…light will come after darkness…” and stated that Jesus would never come to a land where blood is spilled. In relation to Mr. Cicek’s question, he stated that there are eight (8) million Muslims in America and 17,000 of this population serve in the US army. Muslims in America are all highly educated, even the taxi drivers. There is no racism that he has seen in America like that of which is reflected by the media. Imam Hendi has also pinpointed that 'faith' is one and cannot have interfaith due to this fact. He said that the religious leaders are improving relations between religions and in addition, he proclaimed 'We have done wrong when we were criticizing each others books and beliefs. Social justice should be for everyone.' Imam Hendi has indicated three important points in order to provide peace: 1. Politics of justice 2. Economics of equity 3. Covenant of community He also referred to Islamic scholar, Fethullah Gulen. He believed that Fethullah Gulen has written many books and work on many projects for building bridges amongst religions with sincerity. Imam Yahya believes that people should read his books to start dialogue between religions. In conclusion, Imam Hendi has implied that Islam is not only praying five times a day but to uphold righteousness. Report by Bihter Altuntas