PRESIDENT OBAMA, CHANGE & THE QUEST FOR PEACE IN SUDAN

OBAMA, CHANGE & THE QUEST FOR PEACE IN SUDAN,
Opening Remarks: By DR. HASHIM EL-TINAY,Founder/CEO, IPQI-SSF
National Press Club [NPC],
Washington, DC, May 26, 2009


We in SSF-IPQI believe that people everywhere yearn for justice and peace and want to feel that they can make a positive difference in the world. That is why enlightened people in Sudan and everywhere celebrated the commitment of the American people to democracy and their historic election of President Obama in November 2009. President Obama, whose message is informed by the quality of his listening, is the closest political expression of our vision and mission. In this context, I believe that SSF-IPQI stands at a moment of great opportunity because it provided me, my friends and a few in our community, and since 1985, the vital link between personal values and public discourse and action. We in SSF-IPQI believe that change in people and in relationships are vital to heal historical wounds, and thanks to thoughtful dialogues, can provide alternatives to build a hopeful future for all.

We in SSF-IPQI agree with those who believe that we continue to need to avoid rhetoric and engage in honest conversations in this country, in Sudan and globally, about how to connect our increasingly diverse communities across differences of race, class, religion, politics and culture. We also need to nurture healthy, inclusive communities that offer hope, reconciliation and transformation. This task demands the best of everyone. We in SSF-IPQI strive to practice that by listening more with the heart. That is possible if we practice Thoughtful Contemplative Dialogue which invite us to listen mindfully to ourselves, to one another, to text, and to whatever else calls us.

My SSF-IPQI journey is rooted in having been born to parents who followed two Sudanese Sufi paths [Ansar and Khatmiyya], in addition to research, prayer, reflection, intuition and meditation. Its genesis, though, started when I was 8 years old, by listening and paying attention to nature, while rearing baby cows with other kids, around Um-Rawaba, my hometown in Kordofan, Sudan. Later, I learnt from the late Sheikh Abdelrahim El-Buraai, a famous Sudanese Sufi poet, from the exile experience and from participating in amazing interfaith retreats at various spiritual spaces in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and America. The challenge is to move away from reactivity and disconnection toward honest, compassionate responses that connect us to ourselves and to one another.

I hope you'll support these two non-profit institutions SSF-IPQI that I'm deeply committed to and join our quest to make a difference for peace in Sudan, in Palestine and Israel, here in America and indeed the in world. And that starts by attaining inner peace in each and every one of us. Through our citizen and public diplomacy and people-to-people dialogues all is possible. Let us continue what we started through the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), and work respectfully and diligently to help the parties bring peace to Darfur and all of Sudan before the 2010 elections. Let the Sudanese show the World, as the Americans have done, their commitment to justice, peace, democracy, human rights and development.

Finally, we in SSF-IPQI believe that people everywhere yearn for justice and peace and that, as President Obama demonstrated, there is no greater power than the power of listening and articulating an enlightened vision. That power can be cultivated through practicing reflective listening, spiritual direction, meditation, and thoughtful, contemplative dialogue, that are applicable to relationships, to learning, to personal, and hopefully to public decision making, and to the daily experience of being present to whatever is, based on the central instruction of Sufism and spirituality: QUALITATIVE LISTENINIG!