WASHINGTON — As political uproar rages over healthcare reform, American Muslims joined like-minded religious groups in urging politicians to come up with a universal health care system that brings social justice to the world’s richest country.
“We want to work together as faith partners to put a lot of pressure on Congress for a healthcare program that allows us to have an option,” Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation, told IslamOnline.net.
“In the world’s richest nation, healthcare should not be a luxury or privilege. It is a fundamental God given right.”
The American Muslim Taskforce (AMT), an umbrella of leading Muslim organizations working for civil and human rights, organized an interfaith hearing in Capitol Hill on Wednesday, October 14, with the aim of building a coalition to call for a just and universal healthcare system.
The hearing brought together like-minded Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Buddhist religious leaders and groups.
Co-sponsors included MAS Freedom, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Ekoji Buddhist Temple in Fairfax, Virginia.
“What I want to see is the lead,” Rev. Walter Fauntroy, former pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and a leading civil rights activist, told IOL on the sidelines of the hearing.
“I m looking forward to see spiritually mature people in this country of every race, faith and color working to see their Congress members support a public option to free us from the tyranny of insurance companies.”
After fierce political battles, the powerful Senate Finance Committee passed on Tuesday the healthcare reform bill, clearing the first major hurdle for President Barack Obama's goal of overhauling the healthcare system.
Obama has set the end of the year as his goal for passage of a healthcare legislation that would begin to slow increases in healthcare costs, regulate the insurance market and expand health coverage among all Americans.
* United
Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said this is not the first meeting to mobilize support for genuine healthcare reform.
“It is the second hearing. The first one was mainly conducted by American Muslims, when several members of Congress came and testified,” he told IOL.
“We decided to broaden the coalition and bring other faith communities because that what makes the US public constituencies.”
Awad believes the hearing, which included testimonies from Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, proved that religious groups stand united in the healthcare debate.
"To have all these faith groups which have the same views, the same concerns from faith groups that represent the majority of people in the US, is an important advocacy effort.”
Rev. Louisa Davis, coordinator of the Greater Washington Allies in Reconciliation, agrees.
“I think we heard a common language among the faith communities about mercy, inclusion and about public options for bringing down the costs and the barriers and the indignities of healthcare.”
Awad believes the interfaith alliance for healthcare should be extended to even other battles of social justices in the American society.
“We have great power in our hands and we have critical role to play,” he contended.
“We can work together may be starting from the healthcare towards other civil rights areas.
“This is just the beginning, it’s not the end.”
Source: IslamOnline.net
“We want to work together as faith partners to put a lot of pressure on Congress for a healthcare program that allows us to have an option,” Mahdi Bray, Executive Director of the Muslim American Society (MAS) Freedom Foundation, told IslamOnline.net.
“In the world’s richest nation, healthcare should not be a luxury or privilege. It is a fundamental God given right.”
The American Muslim Taskforce (AMT), an umbrella of leading Muslim organizations working for civil and human rights, organized an interfaith hearing in Capitol Hill on Wednesday, October 14, with the aim of building a coalition to call for a just and universal healthcare system.
The hearing brought together like-minded Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Buddhist religious leaders and groups.
Co-sponsors included MAS Freedom, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Ekoji Buddhist Temple in Fairfax, Virginia.
“What I want to see is the lead,” Rev. Walter Fauntroy, former pastor of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, DC, and a leading civil rights activist, told IOL on the sidelines of the hearing.
“I m looking forward to see spiritually mature people in this country of every race, faith and color working to see their Congress members support a public option to free us from the tyranny of insurance companies.”
After fierce political battles, the powerful Senate Finance Committee passed on Tuesday the healthcare reform bill, clearing the first major hurdle for President Barack Obama's goal of overhauling the healthcare system.
Obama has set the end of the year as his goal for passage of a healthcare legislation that would begin to slow increases in healthcare costs, regulate the insurance market and expand health coverage among all Americans.
* United
Nihad Awad, Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said this is not the first meeting to mobilize support for genuine healthcare reform.
“It is the second hearing. The first one was mainly conducted by American Muslims, when several members of Congress came and testified,” he told IOL.
“We decided to broaden the coalition and bring other faith communities because that what makes the US public constituencies.”
Awad believes the hearing, which included testimonies from Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, proved that religious groups stand united in the healthcare debate.
"To have all these faith groups which have the same views, the same concerns from faith groups that represent the majority of people in the US, is an important advocacy effort.”
Rev. Louisa Davis, coordinator of the Greater Washington Allies in Reconciliation, agrees.
“I think we heard a common language among the faith communities about mercy, inclusion and about public options for bringing down the costs and the barriers and the indignities of healthcare.”
Awad believes the interfaith alliance for healthcare should be extended to even other battles of social justices in the American society.
“We have great power in our hands and we have critical role to play,” he contended.
“We can work together may be starting from the healthcare towards other civil rights areas.
“This is just the beginning, it’s not the end.”
Source: IslamOnline.net
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