Ramadan, the special month of fasting and prayer for Muslims begins this Friday August 21.  Our friends at ReadtheSpirit.com published an article introducing Ramadan to non-Muslims and will be publishing various information and stories throughout the month at their Sharing Ramadan website.  The conclusion of writer Raad Alawan’s introduction highlights an important point about the value of prayer and fasting:

“This is a powerful theme that members of other faiths can appreciate. Jesus thought fasting was good for the soul. So do Jews, who fast on Yom Kipper; and Catholics who fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday. My point? We’re more unified than it may seem sometimes. And isn’t that what we all seek in life?”  Click here to read the article in full.

One of the endorsers for A Deadly Misunderstanding, Tawfik Hamid, published an opinion piece this week in the Wall Street Journal Online.  In Islam Should Prove It’s a Religion of Peace, he calls Islamic clerics to denounce the violence often characterized along with their religion rather than demanding that it be ignored.

We’re always glad to hear about small groups reading ADM together, so thanks to co-author John David Mann for passing on news of Hannah Ineson and the ecumenical group she is a part of in Florida.  Welcome and hello to any new visitors who found your way here from John’s recent posts talking about ADM and his emphatic belief that “This book is going to shake the world in a very big and very positive way. (That’s my story, anyhow, and I’m sticking to it!)”

Meanwhile, the Religion Blog at The Dallas Morning News posted a link to Mark’s ReadtheSpirit article and God Discussion.com, “The Place for Seekers Who Don’t Want to Go to Church,” featured ADM with a summary and reader reviews.

Mark’s has a few speaking engagments coming up, and more in the planning stages. Be sure to keep an eye on our itinerary page for new events!

Join ReadTheSpirit editor David Crumm for a conversation with Mark discussing his global activism and hope for reconciliation.  Crumm faces head-on the Google searches that equate Mark Siljander with “indictment” by bringing his transparent and balanced inquiry to bear:

Google Mark Siljander, the evangelical Christian writer and global activist — and you’ll feel a jolt. Right near the top of the online “hit list” are disturbing news items like this one from the Los Angeles Times: “Mark Siljander vehemently denies the allegations in the indictment …”
What indictment?!
This is a conservative, evangelical, Republican who formerly served in the U.S. Congress and now travels the world working on peaceful development projects. When he’s not working on commercial projects (like a green, bio-fuels project in Kenya at the moment), then he’s working on nonprofit projects in trying to build peaceful relations between Western (mostly Christian) and Eastern (mostly Muslim) governments.
Not only that, but HarperOne has just published his book, “A Deadly Misunderstanding: A Congressman’s Quest to Bridge the Muslim-Christian Divide” — a terrific book that Americans should be reading and discussing in small groups.
Plus, the book carries endorsements from Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, former Secretary of State James Baker — and the hottest writer in emergent-Christian circles, Brian McLaren.

So, what indictment?!

Read on for ReadtheSpirit’s take on the indictment and further discussion of Mark’s work…

Conversation With Mark Siljander on his “Deadly Misunderstanding”

DAVID: You’ve served several terms in Congress. You’ve served at the United Nations. You’ve traveled the world. And still — still you tell readers that there’s hope for peace and reconciliation. There are a lot of people who are sounding pretty hopeless right now about global conflict. You’re not only refreshing in your promotion of serious, peaceful dialogue between devout Christians and Muslims. You’re also refreshing in saying that we should be hopeful about world peace.
MARK: In the middle of the last century, who ever thought the world could defeat the massive empire of communism? Communist leaders even had nuclear weapons! Who thought that could be overcome? But it was.
I’m saying that the practical way to engender hope in the world is to support the vast majority of Muslims and work with them to undermine the small number of radicals out there. This isn’t a big Einstein theory. It’s just common sense.