Battle against hunger unites diverse faiths

from the Toledo Blade

By DAVID YONKE

On the seventh anniversary of a terrorist attack by religious extremists, a multifaith group assembled in a Toledo church last night to express unity in alleviating hunger and poverty.

Representatives of Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and Hindu faiths participated in the third annual Interfaith Hunger Awareness Service, attended by about 100 people at Epiphany Lutheran Church in South Toledo.

Scriptures from four holy books - the Jewish Torah, the Christian New Testament, the Islamic Qur'an, and the Hindu Bhagavad Gita - were read, commanding followers to aid the poor and feed the hungry.

The program included music, prayer, and two children's skits as well as short sermons by Muslim and Christian clerics.

In one skit, seven children representing the continents read statistics on hunger and poverty. North America has 6 percent of the world's population, for example, but consumes 22 percent of the food. Asia, on the other hand, has 58 percent of the world's population and consumes 23 percent of the food.

Dawud Walid, who is an imam, or Islamic spiritual leader, in Detroit and is the executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, told the audience that "I am a hungry person right now."

But he was hungry, he said, because he was observing the Muslim practice of fasting from dawn until dark during Ramadan, the ninth lunar month.

Millions of people in the world are hungry, not by choice, he said, but because they lack the resources to feed themselves.

Mr. Walid said the Prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam, said a person is not a believer if he goes to bed with a full stomach while his neighbor is hungry.

And the Prophet defined a neighbor as someone who lives within 40 homes to the left, right, front, or back of one's home - meaning the whole community, Mr. Walid said.

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