Najeeba Syeed-Miller is Assistant Professor of Interreligious Education at Claremont Lincoln University. She also founded, and serves as the director of, the university's Center for Global Peacebuilding.
Claremont Lincoln University is hosting a conference in a few weeks focused on peacebuidling.
Muslim Perspectives on Peacebuilding: Family, community and interfaith conflict resolution will bring together faith leaders, educators, researchers, activists and others to share approaches to peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
It’s scheduled for October 12 and 13 in Claremont, California.
Claremont’s Najeeba Syeed-Miller is assistant professor of interreligious education and the founder, and director of, the Center for Global Peacebuilding. She’s one of the conference organizers and is slated to speak during the event.
Syeed-Miller took a few minutes of her day to answer some questions about the conference.
Rosemary Pennington: What is unique about the Muslim perspective on peace?
Najeeba Syeed-Miller: One of the things we’ve learned in our work with people of many faiths is that peacebuilding is a moral and religious imperative for nearly every faith community.
For the Muslim community, there are many resources in the holy scriptures and practices to advance peace. Often the way that these get carried out are at the family and community level and there is a need to amplify the resources that help to build peace between the community members, between families and between religious communities.
We’ve found that one of the most interesting aspects of Muslim peacebuilding is the emphasis of prevention of detrimental conflict, the Prophet Muhammad’s example as a peacemaker in his family and community helps Muslims develop a model by which they can prevent conflicts from escalating to a higher level
RP: What sorts of conflicts will you be dealing with?
NSM: We are focusing on the American Muslim community at the very intimate levels such as the importance of premarital counseling as a form of helping to negotiate peace between a couple before they enter into marriage and to build healthy partnerships and communication styles.
We are also featuring workshops and sessions on intergenerational conflicts so that the community can be equipped to be inclusive of all generations, many Muslim organizations need to do a better job of developing a plan to broadly engage the full range of ages of the community. We are looking at the spiritual dimensions of Muslim peacebuilding so that those who want to explore further how to actualize peacebuilding from a starting point of the interpersonal will gain those tools.
We are looking at how to address mental health stigmas within the Muslim community, some sessions will focus on making Muslim organizations more effective in resolving Board and community conflicts. We are also focusing on non violence in Islamic education so students from Islamic schools, masjid adult training programs and others can learn how to exemplify a Muslim model of peacemaking.
Finally, we are looking towards how to engage in an interfaith context, some of our presenters will talk specifically about Christian-Muslim relations, others will discuss how to develop interfaith projects and joint spaces through design that can forward the mission of interreligious peacemaking.
RP: Who is your audience for this? Who do you expect to show up?
NSM: Our agenda was to highlight and promote peacemaking practices and research that are ongoing in the Muslim community. What is the American Muslim agenda for peace? How can it be well articulated in research and practices?
So far we’ve received a great interest by Muslim leaders in masjids, in community organizations and also from organizations that serve Muslim clients. This is a great opportunity for instance for a domestic violence shelter to learn how to offer culturally competent services to the Muslim community and how to partner with the community on mental health organizing.
RP: What can attendees expect from the two day conference?
NSM: They can expect solid research on the best practices to build peaceful families, communities and interfaith relations within the Muslim community. There are very few spaces that draw out specific practices that are indigenous to the Muslim community and Islamic perspectives that emphasize peace practices.
Attendees will leave with specific strategies to build peace and also cutting edge research in peacebuilding within the Muslim context and betweeen the Muslim communities and other groups. This is a space where Muslims and scholars of Islam can delve deeply into their tradition and exptraopolate real world tools to reduce tension and build models of peace making that will transform families, communities and social contexts.
RP: There are several organizations coming together to make this possible — how important were those partnerships to the planning and facilitation of this conference?
NSM: These partnerships were key, the Center for Global Peacebuilding is led by a faculty member who works with the Claremont Lincoln University Consortium of Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Jain and Hindu partners.
Academic partners were a key to engaging the many scholars who are presenting at the conference and we were able to reach out to some of the best scholars that work in this area because of the strong academic foundation of the conference. We engaged national Muslim organizations to reach the grassroots Muslim community to ensure that the content was relevant to the Muslims who are waging peace at the local level.
Finally, partners that work in the interfaith arena were a key way to galvanize those who are interested in hearing how the religion of Islam and its adherents are committed to peace and how to find ways to build bridges to advance peaceful ways of coexistence.
RP: Is there anyway for people to take part in the conference virtually?
NSM: We will be posting all the sessions online for people to share and learn about after the conference. We are also hashtagging #MuslimPeace before, after and during the conference on twitter, join the conversation!
RP: Anything else you’d like to add?
NSM: That this conference is an important one at a time when many are looking for tools for peace within Muslim contexts. It demonstrates that many are doing this work already and that there is a need to convene and learn more from each other to even further refine and define the Muslim agenda for peace at the spiritual, theological, community and interfaith levels.
There’s still time to register for the conference if you’re interested in attending. The registration deadline is Monday, October 1.
For information and to register visit: Muslim Perspectives on Peacebuilding.
Najeeba Syeed-Miller is an occasional contributor to Muslim Voices.
For more updates from Najeeba Syeed-Miller, check out her Facebook page and Twitter account! You can also check out her personal blog: Najeeba’s World.
