Why did more than a million people, including forty world leaders, march for freedom in France after the Charlie Hebdo massacre? Today (January 16, 2015) we celebrate religious freedom day in the United States. And one of the best ways to celebrate religious freedom today is to understand and practice free speech in a multi-religious world. Without free speech there is no true religious freedom.

Peaceworker Sami Awad describes how nonviolence empowers people to deal with injustice and oppression, and breaks down the barriers that prevent people from relating to each other. Sami is the founder and Executive Director of Holy Land Trust, a Palestininan non-profit organization established to promote nonviolent resistence and work toward peace in the Holy Land.

PCI's Martin Brooks created this video conversation with his friend Imam Wasif about what it looks like for Muslims and Christians to be friends, given that we have both similarities and differences in our faiths. This is an incredibly powerful picture of peacemaking and what we're all about at Peace Catalyst. Feel free to leave comments. We'd love to hear your thoughts and your experiences with friendship like this.

God is opening doors for us and giving us increasing influence for the sake of peace. Most of our work is local and at a grassroots level, but since our vision is to ignite a global peacemaking movement, we also work with high-level Muslim leaders, partner with international organizations, and have even begun to engage diplomats.

As we celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace this Christmas season, would you join us in celebrating what God has done through Peace Catalyst in 2014?

The U.S. is continuing its bombing campaign against ISIS. Secretary of State John Kerry has asked Congress for ground troops. It looks like we will soon see bombs in the air and boots on the ground once again. But below the radar screen, Obama has appointed and Congress has confirmed Rabbi David Saperstein as the new Ambassador-At-Large For International Religious Freedom.

The CIA used evil tactics in their attempt to defeat evil. So the war on terror became the war of terror. In doing so, the United States lost any high moral ground that we might have had. We also lost credibility with the Muslim community – a key resource to help us topple terrorism.

Last month, in partnership with our church, Fellowship of Christ, Carrie and I and our Peace Catalyst crew hosted a Muslim-Christian Thanksgiving Gathering. More than 30 of our Muslim friends, representing several different area mosques, blessed us with their presence, and we had almost as many Christians from a number of different churches.

After spending the day with a newly-arrived Muslim family from Darfur, Lynda Evenson looked at me and said, "Well, I'm hooked! I had a wonderful time with Mohammed and his family. His wife is beautiful, and his children are as cute as they can be!" Lynda and her husband are now members of our first Friendship Partner Team.