The three wise men who spread a message of hope over hatred
▶ An imam, a pastor and a rabbi preach love, tolerance and understanding through faith
Known as the three amigos, an imam, a pastor and a rabbi travel from city to city, living examples of tolerance and understanding.
The American Caravan for Peace programme, launched in Abu Dhabi under the umbrella of the Promoting Peace for Muslim Societies forum, has a mission to banish stereotypes from the minds of the masses and build bridges between communities of different faiths.
Imam Mohamed Magid, rabbi Bruce Lustig – who both live in Washington DC – and pastor Bob Roberts, from Dallas, have organised 20 multi-faith retreats so far around America.
Besides holding events and visiting homes to preach faith over fear, they also work together on issues of social injustice, such as human trafficking.
The fruits of this collaboration can be seen when their congregations rush to aid each other in the event of a crisis.
In 2015, a group of far-right evangelical Christians descended on a mosque in Phoenix, Arizona, preventing worshippers from entering to pray. In response, local pastor Tyler Johnson organised hundreds of his congregants to form a protective cordon around the mosque, allowing worshippers to enter.
Mr Magid said Mr Johnson addressed the far-right group and persuaded them to leave. This was illustrative of the positive effect the initiative has had, he said.
During the recent hurricane that hit Houston, Texas, all three pitched in with the relief effort, helping to organise the collection and storage of food and clothes for those affected by the disaster.
“So we had everyone working with the pastor and we were all involved,” said Mr Lustig.
During the retreats, the three wise men bring in 10 clerics each, and once they have completed the workshop, the clerics have to go back to their communities and apply the same method. “The retreat lasts for three days, and everybody is really nervous when they first get there, but we make them sit and just tell their stories. On the first day they just get to know one another,” Mr Roberts said.
“The second day starts with how they perceive the other, and it gets tense,” he said.
But no one challenges the religious ideologies of another – instead they come out with a clearer vision of their own faiths.
“When you meet with intelligent people who are asking you intuitive questions about your identity, these pastors and rabbis and imams leave feeling really fortified and secure about their own faith,” Mr Lustig said. “There is a configuration of each one’s faith because we are all comfortable with our religious identity.
“Like I am not trying to turn Bob into a Jew, but he is always trying to turn me into a Christian. I got used to that,” Mr Lustig said with a chuckle.
On the third day, the participants start to build a relationship. “So there are five building blocks that we try to build around, each city can do what they want, but No 1 they have to put all of this on a calendar: First of all they have to go to one another’s home to eat a meal because we want them to humanise people.
“Then they have to hold a mixer event, it could be sports or a visit to one another’s place of worship, and we try to get people to sign up families, because the goal is not really the clerics, our goal is to get to the masses in our congregations,” Mr Roberts said.
The third step is to carry out a community project together.
“We all live in the same cities and we focus on something that goes on for months, if not a year or two. The fourth thing is stand up for one another,” he said. “The fifth is for them to spread it out to 10 churches, 10 imams and 10 synagogues by holding a retreat with the clerics in the city.”
Although only recently formalised as the American Caravan for Peace, the three clerics’ partnership has been going on for decades – so long in fact that they cannot figure out exactly when they first met one another.
“After 9/11 when my mosque was vandalised, it was the Christians and the Jews and Sikhs who came to our mosque with roses and donations and so forth,” said Mr Magid.
“So despite all the negative things that people hear about America, there is a lot of hope, because your own faith determines that you have faith over fear,” he said.
We try to get people to sign up families, because the goal is not really the clerics, our goal is to get to the masses in our congregations BOB ROBERTS Pastor