Freedom Loves Company

From the Progressive Spirit Archives, here are two interviews from 2012 and 2013.Cultural Anthropologist, Carol Delaney discusses her book, Abraham on Trial: The Social Legacy of Biblical Myth. Dr. Delaney explores the roots of patriarchy by asking the question, what gave Abraham the right to sacrifice Isaac?  What is the legacy of this myth on the way we regard children today?

Brene Brown is the author of Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. Dr. Brene Brown has done research on topics no one wants to discuss, shame and vulnerability. Yet it is through these human experiences that we find the courage to “dare greatly” and become “wholehearted.” In this candid conversation she weaves her own experience with her research and thus inspires us all to live courageous lives.

Why do the powers that be try to convince us that there is a “clash of cultures” or a conflict between Islam and the West or between Islam and Christianity?  

To answer that, Dr. John Andrew Morrow discusses his book, The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World.  We learn that Christianity and Islam co-existed peacefully with full protections for Christians for 1400 years. These covenants 

“uniformly state that Muslims are not to attack peaceful Christian communities, rob them, stop churches from being repaired, tear down churches to build mosques, prevent their Christian wives from going to church and taking spiritual direction from Christian priests and elders, etc. On the contrary, the Prophet commands Muslims to actively protect these communities ‘until the End of the World’.”

In this informative conversation we learn about the rise of European Colonialism and its handmaiden, Islamic Fundamentalism (now funded and supported by the U.S., the Saudis, and Israel) and the role of these modern powers in smearing Islam and framing Muslims as “terrorists” for geopolitical interests. 

Dr. Morrow invites us to wake up and learn our history. Find his writings on his website, John Andrew Morrow, and learn more about these historic covenants at Covenants of the Prophet.

Dr. John Andrew Morrow was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1971. Raised in a multilingual family, he lived in Montreal for ten years and in the Greater Toronto Area for another twenty. The product of a Catholic education, he completed his elementary school in French, his high school in English, and his university studies in English, French, and Spanish. He embraced Islam at the age of 16 after which he adopted the name Ilyas ‘Abd al-‘Alim Islam. After completing his Honors BA, MA, and PhD at the University of Toronto, where he acquired expertise in Hispanic, Native, and Islamic Studies, he pursued post-graduate studies in Arabic in Morocco and the United States. Besides his Western education, Dr. Morrow has completed the full cycle of traditional Islamic seminary studies both independently and at the hands of a series of Sunni, Shi’i, and Sufi scholars. Not only is he a senior scholar, academic, and professor, he is also a respected ‘alim holding the titles of ustadh, duktur, hakim, and shaykh. 

Dr. Morrow has spent over a decade and a half in the United States working at various universities including Park University, Northern State University, Eastern New Mexico University, the University of Virginia, and Ivy Tech where he was unanimously appointed to the rank of Full Professor. One of his most noteworthy and memorable experiences involved working as a professor of advanced Spanish, Islamic culture, and world literature for the Institute for Shipboard Education’s Semester at Sea Program. Aside from his academic duties, Dr. John Andrew Morrow is the Director of the Covenants Foundation, an organization dedicated to disseminating traditional, civilizational, Islam; promoting Islamic unity; protecting persecuted Christians; and improving relations between Muslims and members of other faiths. He regularly travels the world to promote peace and justice.

Dr. John Andrew Morrow is a Native North American and a proud member of the Metis Nation.

Isaac Butler and Dan Kois take us backstage and behind the scenes of the iconic play, "Angels In America" in their book, The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels In America. The book is an oral history, telling the story of the play and its influence from the voices of over 250 actors, actresses, and others who have given Angels In Americaits wings over the past 25 years. According to Isaac Butler, the political and social views of the play are still as relevant in the Trump era as they were in the Reagan era.

Angels In Americais currently running on Broadway through July 15th.

Isaac Butler is a writer and theater director, most recently of "Real Enemies", which premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Dr. Peter Carter is founder of the Climate Emergency Institute. He has served as an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change’s fifth climate change assessment in 2014. He has also presented on the implications of global climate change on food security for the world's most vulnerable regions and populations at science and policy conferences in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and South America.

He along with Elizabeth Woodworth, who has written extensively on climate science and activism, have co-written Unprecedented Crime: Climate Science Denial and Game Changers for Survival.

They make the case that fossil fuel companies and the banks that fund them have committed and are committing crimes against humanity. They can be stopped.

Anthony Flaccavento was my first guest ever on this program when it was called Religion For Life. I had him on again last year when we discussed his book, Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up: Harnessing Real-World Experience for Transformative Change. He has been a farmer, entrepreneur and consultant for over 30 years. He is on the leading edge of building sustainable economies and communities and he hopes to bring this vision of Rural Progressive Politics to Washington. He is running for congress in Virginia’s Ninth District which encompasses Southwest Virginia.

Linda Kohanov is the author of the bestseller, The Tao of Equus. She teaches and speaks internationally. She established Eponaquest Worldwide to explore the healing potential of working with horses and offer programs on everything from emotional and social intelligence, leadership, stress reduction, and parenting to consensus building and mindfulness. We talk about her latest book, The Five Roles of a Master Herder: A Revolutionary Model for Socially Intelligent Leadership.

Anthony Flaccavento begins at 2:57.Linda Kohanov begins at 29:16.

Professor Paul Ortiz is Associate Professor of History at the University of Floridaand is Director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.  Professor Ortiz has published and taught in the fields of African American history, Latino Studies, the African Diaspora, Social Movement Theory, U.S. History, U.S. South, labor, and documentary studies. He currently works with students in these and related fields.

He has written several books including Emancipation Betrayed: The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 received the 1990 Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Book Prize.

His latest book and our topic of discussion today is An African American and Latinx History of the United States. 

From Beacon Press:

“Incisive and timely, this bottom-up history, told from the interconnected vantage points of Latinx and African Americans, reveals the radically different ways that people of the diaspora have addressed issues still plaguing the United States today, and it offers a way forward in the continued struggle for universal civil rights.”

It is not unusual to have a Nobel Prize winner write a book. But what about those who lose the Nobel Prize? Not too many write that book. Dr. Brian Keating did. He is an astrophysicist who teaches at the University of California at San Diego.  He almost won the Nobel Prize, but not quite.

Professor Brian Keating is an astrophysicist with UC San Diego’s Department of Physics. He and his team develop instrumentation to study the early universe at radio, microwave and infrared wavelengths. He is the author of over 100 scientific publications and holds two U.S. Patents. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2006 and a 2007 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers at the White House from President Bush for a telescope he invented and deployed at the U.S. South Pole Research Station called “BICEP". Professor Keating became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2016. He co-leads the Simons Array and Simons Observatory Cosmic Microwave Background experiments in the Atacama Desert of Chile, and is the author of Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science's Highest Honor.

On April 28th2018, The Husayniah Islamic Society of Seattle sponsored an interfaith educational event called Husayn Day.  The event was a reflection upon Husayn, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Rather than bow to his oppressors, he, along with 72 family members were killed in Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE. He is considered a martyr for justice, truth, love, and resistance. He is a leading figure in Shia Islam and his death is mourned each year by between 15 and 20 million pilgrims who visit his shrine during the forty-day period of mourning from Ashura to Arbaeen.

In the these two episodes, you will hear speeches from the presenters on Husayn and the yearly pilgrimage to his shrine. The presenters include, Dr. John Morrow, Sister Nicole Correri, Sheikh Fadhel Al-Salani, Sheik Ahmed Bahriny, Mohammad Baig, and me, John Shuck. 

The west is ignorant about Islam and, in particular, Shia Islam and the person of Hussain. Twenty million people visit his shrine each other. This the largest annual gathering of human beings on planet Earth. Yet, Western media ignores it.   

In this episode you will hear more about Husayn, and how he is for those who are devoted to him, a door to truth and justice, and how his sacrifice revealed the true Islam, the Islam of love.

In this episode you will hear from…

Sheikh Fadhel Al-Sahlani.  Shiekh Al-Sahlani is the current leader of the Al-Khoei Foundationin New York.

Sheik Ahmed Bahriny. Sheik Ahmed Bahriny is the resident imam and religious director of the Islamic Education Centerin Potomoc, Maryland. 

Mohammad Baig. Mohammad Baig leads the Alwalayah Communityin Montclair, California.

John Shuck. Minister at Southminster Presbyterian Church, Beaverton, Oregon.

May 15th marks the 70th anniversary of Israel's statehood. Palestinians refer to this as the Nakba, the Catastrophe, when more than 700,000 Palestinians left their homes from fear or were forcibly removed by Israelis who took their homes. On this 70th anniversary of the occupation, the people of Gaza have been staging a non-violent demonstration, The Great March of Returnthat culminates Tuesday the 15th.

According to the Middle Eastern Monitor, "The demonstrations of the Great March of Return and Breaking the Siege started on 30 March 2018. Since then Israeli forces have killed 53 demonstrators and wounded more than 8,500 others."

On this special edition of the Beloved Community, John Shuck's guests will speak about the ongoing Nakba for the people of Palestine and Gaza from their unique perspectives.

Waddah Sofan was shot and paralyzed by Israeli soldiers during the First Intifada in 1989. Waddah lives in Portland and considers himself "part of Palestinian/American, Muslim, Middle Eastern, people of color and disabled communities."

Gilad Atzmon, is a British Jazz artist and author. Gilad was born in Israel in 1963 and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music, Jerusalem (Composition and Jazz). Gilad writes on political matters, social issues,  Jewish identity and culture. He will be in Portland for a jazz concert May 14th and a talk on Truthfulness May 15th.

Retired Episcopal priest, Richard Toll, also of Portland, is president of the Board of Trustees of Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA). Rev. Toll received an honorary doctorate from the Church Divinity School of the School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California for his  commitment to justice and peace in the Holy Land.

On April 28th2018, The Husayniah Islamic Society of Seattle and Global Initiatives co-sponsored an interfaith educational event called Husayn Day.  The event was a reflection upon Husayn, the martyred grandson of the Prophet Mohammad. Rather than bow to his oppressors, he, along with 72 family members were killed in Karbala, Iraq in 680 CE. He is considered a martyr for justice, truth, love, and resistance. He is a leading figure in Shia Islam and his death is mourned each year by between 15 and 20 million pilgrims who visit his shrine during the forty-day period of mourning from Ashura to Arbaeen.

In the next two episodes, you will hear speeches from the presenters on Husayn and the yearly pilgrimage to his shrine. The presenters include, Dr. John Morrow, Sister Nicole Correri, Sheikh Fadhel Al-Salani, Sheik Ahmed Bahriny, Mohammad Baig, and me, John Shuck. 

The West is largely ignorant about Islam and, in particular, Shia Islam and the person of Hussain. Twenty million people visit his shrine each other. This the largest annual gathering of human beings on planet Earth. Yet, Western media ignores it. According to an article in the Huffington Post by Sayed Mahdi al-Modarresi, “World's Biggest Pilgrimage Now Underway, And Why You've Never Heard of it!” 

Why you have never heard of it probably has to do with the fact that the press is concerned more with negative, gory, and sensationalized tabloids, than with positive, inspiring narratives, particularly when it comes to Islam.

You will hear about it on Progressive Spirit.

In this first episode you will hear from Dr. John Morrow, full professor, author, senior research scholar, public speaker and activist. He is author of a number of numerous articles and books including The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad with the Christians of the World. Dr. Morrow provided a stirring poetic spiritual biography of Husayn.

You will also hear from Sister Nicole Correri. She is the preeminent female Shia speaker in North America. She will begin a Ph. D. program at Boston University in the Fall.  Sr. Correri told the importance of Zainab, Husayn’s sister, and described her experience attending Arbaeen. 

Watch the video of the entire conference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVcjsmI8oy8&feature=youtu.be&a=