Busboys and Poets has always been a place for artists, activists, and writers of the community to gather and break bread. And while we may be physically distant right now, we can still stay connected and break bread together.
Join us online for Busboys and Friends: A Virtual Dinner Party held every Friday night at 6 pm. Hosted by CEO and Founder, Andy Shallal with a special dinner guest each week.
Order your favorite meal and beverage from Busboys and Poets, set your table, download one of our optional virtual backgrounds, and tune in for a special dinner with some of the most influential leaders of our time.
This week's special guests are Sabeeha Rehman & Walter Ruby, co-authors of ‘We Refuse To Be Enemies. How Muslims and Jews Can Make Peace, One Friendship at a Time’
We Refuse to Be Enemies is a manifesto by two American citizens, a Muslim woman and Jewish man, concerned with the rise of intolerance and bigotry in our country. Together Rehman and Ruby have spent decades doing interfaith work and nurturing cooperation among communities. They have learned that, through face-to-face encounters, people of all backgrounds can come to know the Other as a fellow human being and turn her or him into a trusted friend. In this book, they share their experience and guidance.
Growing up in Pakistan before she immigrated to the United States, Sabeeha never met a Jew, and her view was colored by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In his youth, Walter never met a Muslim, and his opinion was shaped by Leon Uris’s Exodus. Yet together they have formed a friendship and collaboration. Tapping their own life stories and entering into dialogue within the book, they explain how they have found commonalities between their respective faiths and discuss shared principles and lessons, how their perceptions of the Other have evolved, and the pushback they faced. They wrestle with the two elephants in the room: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and polarizing material in the histories and holy texts of Judaism and Islam. And they share their vision for reconciliation, offering concrete principles for building an alliance in support of religious freedom and human rights.
Sabeeha Rehman is the blogger, public speaker and author of the memoir, “Threading My Prayer Rug. One Woman’s Journey from Pakistani Muslim to American Muslim”.The book was Short-Listed for the 2018 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing, received Honorable Mention in Spirituality, by the San Francisco Book Festival Awards 2017, and was listed as Top 10 Religion and Spirituality Books 2016; Top 10 Diverse Nonfiction Books 2017, by Booklist.She was selected by Wiki Ezvid as 5 Non-Fiction Writers Telling Captivating Stories. Sheis an op-ed contributor to the Houses of Worship column of the Wall Street Journal. Her pieces have been published in the New York Daily News, Forward, Salon.com, Tiferet and Patheos.com.
Walter Ruby had a life-changing experience as a reporter covering the World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace in Seville, Spain in 2006, and decided to dedicate himself going forward to the mission of nurturing ties of communication, reconciliation and cooperation between Jews and Muslims. Walter presently serves as executive director of Jews, Muslims and Allies Acting Together (JAMAAT), an eclecticcommunity of Muslim, Jewish and Interfaith activists in Greater Washington, and as coordinator of the Washington Area Chapter of Project Rozana, which works to strengthen ties between Israelis and Palestinians through health care.
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While this dinner party is free to attend, we kindly ask that you support the program by purchasing a copy of one or more books via our partner, Bookshop.org
Your purchase through bookshop.org also helps support local independent bookstores like ours. The books will be shipped directly to your home.
