Last week, Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi, ISNA Director of Community Outreach joined other American Muslim and Arab American leaders for a briefing lead by Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Advisor Susan Rice and Special Envoy for Middle East peace Martin Indyk. The leaders had the opportunity to hear directly from Secretary Kerry about his latest successful efforts to bring Israeli and Palestinians to the negotiating table.
The group expressed their optimism in this process and hope that with further commitment from the Obama administration as the lead broker, as well as willingness from Palestinian and Israeli authorities, these talks will bear fruit.
Dr. Elsanousi expressed appreciation to Secretary Kerry’s for his hard work on this issue and encouraged the officials to seek a mechanism to involve faith-based groups and other under-represented constituencies in this process to ensure grassroots support.
ISNA is a member of the National Inter-Religious Initiative for Peace in the Middle East and continues to work with its interfaith partners to support peace in the Middle East. Just last month ISNA President Imam Mohamed Magid and ISNA National Director for Interfaith & Community Alliances, Dr. Sayyid M. Syeed,
sent a letter along with 28 religious leaders to Secretary Kerry voicing “strong support for his determined initiative for Israeli-Palestinian peace.”
ISNA leaders also called on key members of Congress “to support Secretary Kerry’s continuing urgent efforts for peace.” Religious leaders have stood with ISNA in their support for resuming peace talks, noting that “while these talks have yet to yield a blueprint for peace, they have identified ideas for addressing key issues that must be resolved in a manner acceptable to both sides.”
