Americans Together

WHAT IS LOVE?

It has been my spouse's childhood dream to visit Spain, and it brings me tremendous joy to help her make it a reality. Love is about supporting each other's growth, finding happiness in life, and seeking solace in each other. It involves helping fulfill the dreams of those we love, such as taking my spouse to see what she has always wanted for her, visiting museums in Madrid, especially the works of her favorite artist, Diego Velazquez, and trying authentic Paella, which we enjoyed next to the Picasso Museum.

During our trip, we visited the magnificent La Sagrada Familia church in Barcelona, the tallest Church in the world. My favorite was the Cordoba Church and Mosque, where we took a picture capturing the Church in the center with the Mosque's architecture on either side. I appreciated Spain's practice of coexistence, known as La Convivencia, as described by Dr. Akbar Ahmed in his travels. Similarly, Jerusalem's construction of the Holy Sepulcher Church and Umar's Mosque within the same walls is a great example.

I am pleased that Spain has preserved its heritage by repurposing the abandoned materials of the Church and the Mosque. Despite Ferdinand's historical actions, I am gratified that the current generation of Spanish people is doing the right thing.

I express my wish that the United States had not removed the statues of the Confederate Generals; they are part of our history, and history should not be erased. All our history's good, bad, and ugly aspects should be preserved and acknowledged. What has happened in the past should remain in the past. I also hope that modern India takes measures to protect all its heritage Mosques and Temples. About 15 years ago, while traveling from New Delhi to the City of Agra, on my way to the Taj Mahal, I encountered a monument at the midpoint between the two cities that had been vandalized, with bricks being hauled away. I intervened and stopped the individuals involved, but they likely resumed their activities once I was gone.

When I have the time, I plan to write more about pluralism, love for each other, and love for humanity.

Dr. Ghouse is an Interfaith Wedding Officiant. A Muslim, Pluralist, activist, speaker, author, and a social scientist. President/ Center for Pluralism, Director/ World Muslim Congress, and partner at InterfaithMarriages.org - Google search for more

SPEAKING ABOUT OBAMA CARE - US SUPREME COURT

A huge crowd gathered in the footsteps of the Supreme Court, I was standing next to Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders, and all the key Democrats. It is when Trump wanted to revoke the Obama care but failed in the House. I asked Nancy If I could speak, and she allowed me to speak with a huge media presence. Of course, I always talk about Pluralism.

Mike Ghouse
www.CenterforPluralism.com

Buddhist-Muslim Wedding

I have officiated interfaith marriages of people from nine different faiths, but only one needs to be added: Zoroastrian. Once, I officiated a Zoroastrian interreligious marriage, so I have officiated weddings for people of all major faiths.

It's a testament to the diversity of our world that almost everyone who marries comes from a progressive household. This weekend, I'm honored to officiate two weddings in Edmonton and Houston, both of which reflect the beautiful tapestry of our society. The couple on Saturday, for instance, is a beautiful blend of cultures and faiths—the groom was raised by a Jewish father and a Christian mother, while the bride had a Muslim father and a Hindu mother.

Our weddings are inclusive, and people walk away respecting each other's faith as I focus on the essence of each religion rather than rituals, and every religion serves its purpose in restoring harmony to each individual.

God has blessed them all - they respect and accept all of God's creation without reserve.

Drs. Mylord Fatima Reyes Tosta and Mike Ghouse
Wedding Officiants of America
email: [email protected]
email: [email protected]
www.InterfaithMarriages.org
www.ceremoniasenespanol.com
https://muslimweddingofficiant.org/

The Magic Kingdom Wedding

We have officiated several Nikah, Christian, and Interfaith marriages in destinations like Cancun, Mexico City, Tulum, Cozumel, Buffalo, and the Magic Kingdom in Disney. We are heading to Spain and, later this year, to Edinburgh, Scotland, and Cape Town. We have perfected the Virtual Nikah and have conducted it in Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the UK, New Zealand, India, and other nations.

Drs. Fatima and Mike Ghouse
Wedding Officiants of America
www.InterfaithMarriages.org

DIVERSITY - A GUARANTEED SOURCE OF LIVING PEACEFULLY

If you can shed the bias towards others, you'll love the connections with every human that God or his systems have created. This creates a sense of freedom and brings meaning and joy to life. Embracing and respecting how people dress, eat, and practice their beliefs becomes an enriching experience.

Here is my diversity, and I hope you can write about it and share it with me.

I grew up in a diverse environment, thanks to my parents. My father, who was the mayor of our town, and I, along with my sister, celebrated festivals across different religions, including Hindu, Christian, Jain, and others. I carried on this tradition with my children, taking them to various places of worship in Dallas, including the LGBTQ church and Pagan gatherings. My mother conversed weekly with a Zoroastrian lady, while my father and maternal grandfather regularly discussed Shia-Sunni theology. I absorbed much of this diverse knowledge in pluralistic terms

In addition to this, my father's flour mill attracted people from various backgrounds, including Adivasis (tribals), Gypsies (Banjara/ Khandari), Dalits, Sikhs, Christians, and Hindus, all of whom came to get their grains (wheat, millet, and rice) ground. As a teenager working with my dad, I learned to respect the diversity of our community by listening to and asking questions of these diverse individuals who stayed in our mill for over an hour.

During my teenage years, I engaged in interfaith dialogues with Christians, Hindus, and Muslims, including my college professor, Dr. A. Ramachandra, and Fakhru Bhai, a weaver in these conversations. Both of them had expertise in Hinduism and Islam.

Friday was time at the Mosque, and Saturday nights were singing Bhajans (Hindu devotional songs) at the Hindu temple on my street in Yelahanka, my hometown; every Wednesday, I went to the Mahabodhi Center – Buddhist teachings, and once a month went to the Church.

I worked as an admin in a catering college called Food Craft Institute in Bangalore. There, we interacted with students from many countries and enjoyed different foods daily, over 200 cuisines in one year for three years. There is a lot of diversity in cuisines and cultures.

I worked in Saudi Arabia as deputy controller of the largest ($5.3 billion) project in the mid-70s for Fluor Arabia in Shedgum and Dhahran. It was a gas gathering project converting into Liquified Natural Gas - I managed 5 sites and interacted with 44 nationalities from South and South East Asia, Africa, and Europe and Americans who worked there; I loved their different accents in English, and now I can hear anyone speak English and understand it with fairly ease.

Between Food Craft Institute and Fluor, my ability to hear and pronounce different names and listen to different accents has increased tremendously in communicating with anyone.

I have gained enriching experiences in various facets of real estate, including home building, leasing, and property management. Throughout that time, I have had the opportunity to build six new homes and reside in diverse neighborhoods before finally settling in an all-Black community in Southeast Washington, DC.

Within the Center for Pluralism, I have taken the initiative to organize and lead four annual events featuring workshops exploring 12 distinct religions and engaging radio shows. Do seminars on 12 different faiths and produce and anchor 780 hours of radio shows on religions. Dallas Morning News has published about 250 articles on interfaith and over 100 articles in the Huffington Post. Over 300 newspapers have published my work across the world. My aspiration is to encapsulate these remarkable experiences in a book.

One of the most fulfilling aspects of my life has been officiating over 400 weddings between individuals from different faiths (9), races (4), and ethnicities (over 50). Additionally, I have liaised with more than 500 families to ensure seamless and joyous wedding celebrations. These experiences have also allowed me to travel to over 50 cities across America and Canada and even partake in destination weddings in Mexico, with plans for Spain and other locales shortly. Additionally, I have conducted Nikah (Muslim wedding) ceremonies over Zoom in Sweden, Norway, the UK, Germany, New Zealand, and India (India: three Muslim-Hindu and one Sikh-Muslim).

I believe embracing diversity enriches life and brings a profound sense of joy and meaning. It fosters an environment where we can appreciate and celebrate the distinctive modes through which people express themselves through their attire, culinary traditions, or spiritual beliefs. By learning to respect and acknowledge the uniqueness of others, we pave the way for harmonious coexistence, thus diminishing conflicts and giving rise to viable solutions. This, to me, is the epitome of pluralism at the Center for Pluralism.

The above is a summary. God willing, I plan to write a book in the hope that it will provide insights into the joy of living in peace "with a bias towards none (Lincoln)." I know that we are tested when genocides are happening around when tyrants harass their people. I feel that I can answer my grandkids that I have made every effort, spoken, written, and continue to write to do my share of Tikkun Olam, Islah al Alam, or repairing the world to restore Dharma.

I am 72 and on dialysis, and I am thankful to God every morning that I am alive. My greatest happiness is my wife, and we are enjoying our lives. She is God's blessing to me, and together we love our life.

Mike Ghouse