Local Interfaith Event Raises 20,000 For Pakistan Refugees
By Joyce Moed Special to the journal
June 17, 2009

Jupiter Internist Robert Riskin said he has been interested in interfaith dialogue and solidarity to confront intolerance and Islamic Fundamentalist for many years.

It is for that reason that when his colleagues, Dr. Raj Bansal, originally from India, and Dr. Baqir Syed, originally from Pakistan, contacted him in mid-May and asked him if he could help organize a local event to support the more than 2 million displaced refugees in the Swat Valley in Pakistan, overrun by the Taliban, he quickly agreed. As chair of the Jewish-Indian Friendship Alliance of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County, Riskin's role was to help gather the local Jewish community in support of the humanitarian crisis.

After two weeks of planning, the meeting took place on Sunday, May 31, and attracted more than 100 members of the community. It took place at Saffron, an Indian restaurant in Jupiter. Riskin said the time planning was "highly worthwhile," as the event was very successful in bringing out the Jupiter community for the cause.

"I believe that when the major religions unite for humanitarian reasons, we epitomize the ideals that the just and loving God we all worship wants us to uphold," Riskin said. "The terrorists will ultimately be defeated when true-believing and peace-loving Muslims join their counterparts in the Jewish, Hindu, Christian and other religious communities supporting peace, love and tolerance."
The attendees included: Luis Fleischman, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County; Jonathan Gilbert, chairman of the JCRC; and Palm Beach Town Council Member Bill Diamond.

"We were gratified that almost 100 people of all faiths attended," Riskin said, "and we raised about $20,000 for the Pakistani refugees.

Syed said they originally expected about 50 attendees, as the event was not advertised, and was solely spread by word-of-mouth.

"There were Hindus, Muslims, Christians and Jews," Syed said. "People were there to support a good cause. We disagree on a lot of things, but the bottom line is we are human, and we believe in human rights. As a community, we should all agree to disagree, and everyone does their own rituals, and we should respect that. I am a strong believer that if you respect people, they will respect you back."

The Taliban assault in the Swat Valley in Pakistan has displaced 2.4 million innocent civilians, Riskin said. He calls the assault "a grave injustice to all free people who believe in a peace-loving God."

"These terrorists have committed countless atrocities both in Pakistan and Afghanistan," he said. "They have burned down dozens of girls and women's schools throughout these countries, and they attempt to enforce their fundamentalist ideology with Shariah law everywhere by threat of death to all non-believers. Religious fundamentalist terrorism is personified by the bombing of a Jewish center Argentina; in the tragedy of the World Trade Center; by the cowardly attacks in Mumbai, India last fall; in London, Madrid, Israel; Iraq; Bali; and countless other assaults on our cumulative sense of humanity."

At the rally, Riskin addressed the members of the interfaith community who came out to support refugees in the Swat Valley, and said that by standing together, they stand with past supporters of interfaith causes, including Mohandas Gandhi, who led the resistance movement against British colonial rule in India; Martin Luther King Jr., who worked to support civil rights in the United States, and Hillel, a famous Jewish religious leader who is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud.