One of the dinner guests asked the eleven of us sitting around a table, “What do you think followers of Jesus should do about ISIS?” After a moment of silence one woman responded, “To be honest with you, I feel like we should respond to ISIS like we should destroy them. I am not saying this is what I should do as a follower of Jesus, but that’s how I feel.”

When most people think about the U.S. government, things like polarization, gridlock in Congress, and uncivil discourse come to mind. I confess I have tended to be critical about our government. But I just spent ten days in Washington, D.C. and witnessed first-hand some positive things the U.S. Government does that give me hope.

This is a sad morning here in the Raleigh area, as we are grieving the loss of lives. Most of you have heard the news already that young Muslim lives were taken last night in a shooting near UNC. This is a beautiful, kind, loving, and generous family. They have worked here for peace between Muslims, Christians, and Jews. 

PCI's Martin Brooks has been making a series of short video interviews with his friend Imam Wasif. They discuss a wide range of issues concerning Christian-Muslim relations, and today they talk about how Imam Wasif and his family respond to discrimination as Muslims in the U.S.

A peacemaker with a rich and conflict-riddled heritage, Sami Awad is a Palestinian Christian who founded and is currently Executive Director of Holy Land Trust, a Palestinian non-profit organization in Bethlehem established to build peace through nonviolence.

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.