Esteemed leaders from the glorious world of Islam. It is my humble pleasure to address you on this historical occasion, on behalf of the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace and its founder Dr. Sun Myung Moon. My heart is moved as I behold this gathering and contemplate the potential that exists here today to establish a model of peace for all the world to recognize and emulate.

Of course I am not normally identified as a Muslim even though my Muslim friends tell me that I qualify as a Muslim based on its meaning of peace, and surrender to Allah. Not only that. I am also a great lover of the blessed Prophet Mohammad, peace be upon him.

The most important thing though is that I have been a student of Father Moon’s teachings for more than 40 years, and I have learned from him to have a great love for Islam. Now he is deeply concerned about this crucial and timely meeting.

He inspired and worked hand in hand with your celebrated conference conveners, His Excellency Abdurrahman Wahid, and the honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Just like all of you, including the devoted leaders who convened this conference, Father Moon shares a burning desire that the Muslim world unite around a clarion message of peace reflecting the true beauty of Allah, His beneficence and mercy.

Probably you know that these initiatives from Father Moon, and the deep friendship among Unificationists and Muslims is no recent thing. Through the Council for the World’s Religions (CWR), the Interreligious Federation for World Peace (IRFWP), and most recently the IIFWP, we have had many occasions of working together to show the world Islam’s wisdom and beauty. This cooperation and investment has gone on for decades. While helping this work, I myself have enjoyed the love, friendship, and guiding light from friends such as Professor Zaki Badawi, Syria’s Sheikh Ahmad Kuftaro, the late Yemeni Grand Mufti Sheikh Zabarah, and many, many others. I am sure you all know how intimately involved and supportive Father Moon was for the wonderful Million Family March last year in Washington DC.

Did you know that from 1989 until 1991 we welcomed literally 1,000's of top Muslim leaders from 9 Muslim countries to International Leadership Seminars? These lasted 40 days each, and were done again and again.

I am sure that many of you know that since the September 11 tragedy, a great many Muslim students in America became worried and felt anxious. At the University of Bridgeport, however, just the opposite has been the case. Due to Father Moon’s emphasis on interreligious and international cooperation, the University of Bridgeport has the greatest diversity of any American university. Rather than feeling timid, the Muslim student population at UB has in many ways openly led the debate on issues spawned by the September 11 tragedy.

How can someone who is said to be "from another religion" keep giving and giving in this way? I will tell you the secret. To Father Moon there is no such thing as someone from "another religion." There is only one God and God loves all people. God desires One World Under God. A world there are no insiders and outsiders. So far, Father Moon has not been able to find anyone whom God does not love.

I am humbled by President Wahid, Minister Farrakhan, and each person in this room. You are exemplary in your response to the Will of God. In such a short time period, right after fasting, in the most crowded time of the year, the great leaders of Islam hastened from every corner of the world to devote themselves to the call for peace. Nothing could speak more highly of your great devotion and serious desire for peace. Let every eye see and every ear hear how the leaders of Islam love peace.

In the next days you will invest in serious dialogue and discussion of many different aspects of Islam’s role in building a world of peace. As men and women of spiritual maturity, you will be able to take up differences, and difficult matters with dignity and elegance, again a wonderful tribute to the power of the Prophet’s example and the teaching of the Holy Q’ran. Also I pray that your conclusions show charity and love for all people and all nations.

Since I may not have a chance to see all of you again easily, may I say a word or two about Father Moon’s basic teaching? I think they should be of interest, and perhaps they can participate in the exchange of ideas in the coming days.

According to Father Moon the deepest essence of all religious life is to Alive for the sake of others." This means that we imitate God. It is the way for each person can become Godly. At the time of creation, Allah God poured himself out completely, holding nothing back. Even after his most beloved of creation rebelled, God continues to give everything without a thought of self. Since we are created in the image of God, our behavior toward this world and toward others should be just the same.

This Godly way of life is first and most clearly seen in a God-centered family. The Husband gives unconditionally to the wife, and she to him. The parents give unconditionally to the children and so forth. A family which perfectly incarnates this pattern of living for the sake of others truly reflects God, and becomes the cornerstone of a peaceful community. The true family is first institution which can offer God an enduring place in the world.

The True Family is the place of life, love, and lineage. Through lineage Godliness can endure through generations, and not pass away in a single lifetime like a great life, or a burning love. This matter of lineage and how it ties naturally to the Godly pattern of living for the other, is the reason why Father Moon concentrates on True Parents as the dominant reality in his world view and way of life.

True Parents would never keep a ledger against their children to add up what they have given. True Parents cannot love one child more than another, even a smarter one, or a more handsome one. True Parents do not reject a child because they err, or because they struggle. They do not cast away a son or a daughter for wrong belief.

Not only is this love of True Parents all embracing, but it also creates blood lineage. The fountainhead of human equality comes from the harmonizing power of perfect parent’s love. True Parents love spawns the world of >no boundaries.’ This is the third and final point of my remarks today. No boundaries.

In a true Godly family difference is overcome by love.

This is how we can create an ideal world of peace. We imitate Allah by living for the sake of others. The first frontier of living for others is the true family where husband and wife love and serve the other, parents love the children, and the brothers and sisters love and serve one another. In such a family, God can dwell and through such families God can exert His Will throughout the society and the world. A world of no boundaries, no enemies, no one rejected, and no one unwelcome. Simultaneously lineage arises so that God’s presence need not disappear horizontally in one generation. It remains in lineage, and God’s eternal, unchanging traditions.

Life for the sake of others, True Family, and no boundaries. This is the simple way of life for Father and Mother Moon, and this is the natural reason why we have been with you for decades, why we are with you here today, and want to stay with you forever… in one world under God.

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