In the past few years MTO Shahmaghsoudi\u00ae in Dusseldorf has been actively involved in working with the local community. It initially began in 2009 at our annual Norouz celebrations and eventually expanded to our annual interfaith programs, where we have invited our neighbors, local politicians, church representatives, police representatives, university professors and students, et cetera.\u00a0 As the years have passed the number of guests has also grown. \u00a0Recently, more and more politicians, including the mayor of Dusseldorf and his representatives, have also visited our Center in order to learn more about MTO\u00ae, its board, its members, and its teachings. We have taken the initiative and have been proactively communicating with all religious and public authorities around us and have introduced MTO\u00ae and Sufism to them \u2013 which has been accepted very well by all the community members.<\/p>\n
Today, our Christian friends actively take part in our interfaith programs where they present their points of view.\u00a0 Our Christian neighbors also visit us regularly so we can pray and discuss religion together. They also invite us to actively take part in their activities while also introducing us to their local church representatives, schools, institutes for family education, and charity.<\/p>\n
Today, our local police department to which we also have a very good relationship with, supports us in all questions related to local security and safety, and have introduced us to the head police agent in charge of Muslim-relations in Dusseldorf. \u00a0We are currently a member of the \u201cRound Table of Muslims in Dusseldorf and the Police President\u201d. \u00a0We are also frequently invited by the Dusseldorf police department to discuss various issues concerning Muslim life as well as actively taking part in events where we discuss our experiences as Muslims living in Dusseldorf.<\/p>\n
MTO\u00ae is currently a part of the board of the \u201cCircle of Dusseldorf Muslims\u201d (Kreis der D\u00fcsseldorfer Muslime – KdDM), which unifies several Muslim associations in Dusseldorf. This initiative has representatives of nearly all Muslims in Dusseldorf and helps to organize and discuss different topics such as: public houses of prayer, encouragement and education of Muslim youth, Muslim school lessons, and construction of Muslim cemeteries. The police and higher authorities also use the expertise of the KdDM, at which we actively take part in. The first public event of this association took place recently.\u00a0 This was the first time the members of the KdDm\u00a0introduced themselves to the community. All urban institutions were also represented at this inaugural event.<\/p>\n
Considering our active work in the interfaith dialogue forum, which initially started with the aim of introducing and discussing Islam with a few representatives of other religions, today, MTO\u00ae is listed in the directory of \u201cChristian-Islamic Society\u201d (Christlich-Islamische-Gesellschaft \u2013 CIG), a society dedicated to the unification of Christians and Muslims. The aim of this society is to bring Christians and Muslims together and to encourage ongoing communication between these two religions. This association has named three members of MTO\u00ae as qualified for the Muslim emergency pastoral care.\u00a0 In May 2014, an interfaith event with over 1000 visitors was hosted by this society – MTO\u00ae took part by sharing and presenting different aspects of Islamic Sufism.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, we are active members of our community.\u00a0 In association with our Catholic neighbors \u2013 we have initiated a dialogue \u201cWe build bridges.\u201d\u00a0 This initiative is officially registered at the \u201cCoordination Board of the Christian Islamic Dialogue\u201d (Koordinierungsrat des christlich-islamischen Dialogs-KCID), which is a central interfaith community in Germany. \u00a0We have also become members of the \u201cWith Heart and Hand for Dusseldorf-Wersten\u201d charity. This charity works to fight against poverty and unemployment as well as working to support the youth in our area. We are also working with the German Red Cross on some of their activities that are currently being developed.<\/p>\n
To summarize, there has been a tremendous amount of interest in Sufism since our participation in the aforementioned activities. \u00a0\u00a0We are now actively sought after to introduce Islam and Sufism to local schools and universities. Based on a request by a university professor, we recently helped 30 university students who were learning about basic theories of Islam, and Muslim life in Germany. Our center has also been visited by another professor who wants to introduce Sufism to teachers of Islam at German schools.\u00a0 Lastly, we are currently working closely with a school for children with special needs to help introduce Muslim remedial education.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the past few years MTO Shahmaghsoudi\u00ae in Dusseldorf has been actively involved in working with the local community. It initially began in 2009 at our annual Norouz celebrations and eventually expanded to our annual interfaith programs, where we have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","entry","no-media"],"yoast_head":"\n