January 23, 2013

Over the weekend, MPAC staff had the honor of speaking at interfaith celebrations of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Southern California.

On Friday morning, MPAC President Salam Al-Marayati was a speaker at the 2^nd Annual Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, where he invoked Dr. King’s call to service as a lasting lesson for all Americans today. Edina Lekovic, MPAC's Director of Policy & Programming, served as the keynote speaker of the South Coast Interfaith Council’s (SCIC) 21^st Annual Community-Wide Interfaith Celebration of Dr. King, which was hosted by the Gospel Memorial Church of God in Christ in Long Beach.

During his remarks, Al-Marayati shared the parallel between Dr. King’s message of non-violent resistance with the Quranic verse which urges people to “repel evil with that which is better” (41:34). Emceed by KABC7 anchor Leslie Sykes, the Holeman United Methodist Church-sponsored breakfast featured leaders from half a dozen faiths and communities around Los Angeles.

“We stand on the shoulders of great civil rights heroes like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who taught us the most important lesson in our daily struggles -- respond to hate with love and don't allow hate to compromise our values,” Al-Marayati said. “We are all together in this mission for justice. We all believe in One God, we all believe in one humanity, and we all will be measure by the good work we can accomplish.”

At the SCIC Interfaith MLK Celebration on Sunday, Lekovic urged the
diverse audience to watch Dr. King’s speech and try to put themselves in the shoes of people who lived through that time. She also quoted what she described as her favorite passage from Dr. King’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech, as a message which continues to ring true today:

We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now.... Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

She stressed that these lines should serve as inspiration to all of us today, 50 years after this historic speech, when our nation finds itself once again deeply divided on questions of immigration, integration and identity.

"Our biggest challenge is to step outside our comfort zone, across faith lines," she said. "We must embrace the urgency of now."

The program included participation from nine faiths: Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Baha'i, Native American and Brahma Kumaris

Click here to read the Contra Costa Times’ story about the SCIC Celebration.