Loving Across the Difference: Tri-Valley Ramadan Interfaith Iftar | Ustadha Uzma Fatima Husaini
Channel: Muslim Community Center - MCC East Bay
Date: 2019-05-15

Thank you to the nearly 100 guests who joined us for an Iftar dinner experience as Muslims around the world observed the holy month of Ramadan. By attending this interfaith Iftar, you helped create a peaceful society by building new relationships around the traditions of fasting and hospitality in the three major Abrahamic faiths. 

The theme for the evening was "Loving Across the Difference."

The speakers were:
 
Uzma Husani, Zaytuna College, Berkeley
Rabbi Larry Milder, Congregation Beth Emek, Pleasanton
Rev. Harriet Hawkins, Lighthouse/Center for Spiritual Living, Livermore
(Moderated by the Rev. Andy Lobban)

This event was held on May 12, 2019 at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in Livermore, California.

This is the third Interfaith Iftar for the Tri-Valley. 

Here was 2017: "What Ramadan Means:" https://youtu.be/tiJgEJT-DM8
Here was 2018 "Why Faith Matters:" https://youtu.be/5J8rL9Hepog
More MCC interfaith events: http://mcceastbay.org/interfaith
Sign up for periodic community supporter updates: http://mcceastbay.org/community-supporters

Speakers:
Uzma Fatima Husaini is a doctoral student in Islamic Studies at the Graduate Theological Union. She works as an editor and teaches Qur’anic Elocution at Zaytuna College in Berkeley. Since Fall 2005, she has been teaching a class on Islam at Las Positas College in Livermore. She has also been involved in interfaith work through the Islamic Networks Group since 1994 and appeared on Bill Moyers’ Journal in a segment, “Perspectives from Muslim Women.” She holds degrees in English from UC Davis and CSU Hayward, as well as teaching credentials from San Francisco State University. 

Rabbi Dr. Laurence Elis Milder is the rabbi of Congregation Beth Emek in Pleasanton. He received his B.A. and Ph.D. at Brandeis University, where he was the recipient of a fellowship from the Center for Modern Jewish Studies, a research institute devoted to the social scientific study of American Jewry. Rabbi Milder was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, the seminary for Reform Judaism.

Rabbi Milder’s hobby is composing and performing Jewish folk music. Rabbi Milder is married and has three children.

Rev. Harriet Hawkins is the founder and senior minister of The Lighthouse Center for Spiritual Living Livermore Valley. This is a community dedicated to celebrating the Oneness of all life and the infinitely unique ways It shows up in form. Harriet has been a minister with Centers for Spiritual Living since 2000, serving at the Celebration Center for Spiritual Living in Falls Church, VA, the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living, and at Unity of Tri-Valley. She received her ministerial training at the Agape International Center of Truth under the leadership of Rev. Michael Beckwith. Prior to her service in spiritual communities, Harriet worked as a mental health worker at Dominion and UCLA neuropsychiatric hospitals. She is delighted to serve every Sunday with her husband, Jack Quigley, the musical anchor for the Lighthouse. They have 15-year-old son, Julian Quigley, who is thriving at Livermore High School and is the joy of their hearts. 

The Rev. Andy Lobban was reared in Palo Alto. He received undergraduate degrees in physics and math from MIT and a masters in science and math education from UC Berkeley. For several years, he taught public high schools and colleges in Chicago and San Antonio, Texas. In San Antonio, he felt God calling him to become an ordained minister. He attended the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas. He then served for a year as a transitional Deacon and new Priest in San Antonio. That was followed by four years serving at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and serving in many facets of that ministry, especially outreach, social justice and interfaith work.

The Rev. Andy is now the priest-in-charge at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Livermore. He lives in the Oakland with his wife, Olga, and their two lively daughters, Lilly and Abby.

The start of the holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful abstain from eating from dawn to sunset, is determined by the sighting of the new moon.

Dr. Uzma Husaini is an instructor in Tajwid with a license to teach the subject from Shaykh Shukri al-Lahafy, which she acquired in 2004. At Zaytuna College, Dr. Husaini has taught Tajwid and served as a teacher’s assistant for Freshman Seminar, Ethics, Sacred Astronomy, Theology, Prophetic Biography, Logic, and Islamic Law.

Dr. Husaini received her PhD at the Graduate Theological Union; her thesis is titled “The Role of Tajwid in the Preservation of the Qur’an.”

Prior to her post at Zaytuna College, Dr. Husaini served as an instructor in Islamic Studies at Las Positas College and as an instructor in English at California State University.

Dr. Husaini joined Zaytuna College in 2010.