Gopal Khanna, chief financial officer of the Peace Corps, will discuss peace in the 21st century
Bringing Muslims, Hindus together
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Friday, November 19, 2004
By YUNG KIM
STAFF WRITER
Conflicts flare between India and Pakistan, but local leaders want to stress cooperation between the two communities in North Jersey, and teach students peaceful ways to build bridges.
Emerson High School officials and the Asian American Political Coalition will host a festival tonight in Lyndhurst to celebrate the Muslim and Hindu holidays of Eid al-Fitr and Diwali.
Eid al-Fitr is a Muslim celebration that commemorates the end of Ramadan, a monthlong religious fast.
Diwali, also called Deepavali, is a Hindu festival of lights that marks the new year and is meant to symbolize the lifting of spiritual darkness.
The two religions also represent the great divide between Pakistan, a mostly Muslim nation, and India, which is overwhelmingly Hindu.
Students from Verona High School and Emerson High School, which offers a college-credit course in Asian studies for teachers and students, will attend the event, as will members of the Pakistani and Indian communities, said Hemant Wadhwani, president of the Asian American Political Coalition, which helped fund the Emerson program and organize the event.
"It is important for students to learn about diplomacy and different ways to approach diplomacy in a real-world setting," Wadhwani said. "I would like to see people think things through from a more humanitarian perspective versus a superficial, higher political level."
Clifford Brooks, director of arts and humanities at Emerson High School, organized the Asian programs at the school and was co-organizer of the celebration.
He said students get a theoretical understanding of Asian cultures, but the celebration is a chance to experience them.
"This will probably be the first time [the students] will have a real taste and interaction with the culture of the subcontinent in a meaningful way," he said.
As part of the evening of dinner and entertainment, a panel composed of Ahmad Kamal, the former Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations; Sreenath Sreenivasan, journalism professor at Columbia University and tech reporter for WABC-TV; and Gopal Khanna, chief financial officer of the Peace Corps, will discuss peace in the 21st century.
Khanna, the highest-ranking Indian-American in the Bush administration, said the Peace Corps represents the ideals that the celebration is trying to promote. He added that young people need to learn that ethnicity should not be a source for divisiveness.
"I am proud to be an Indian-American and [proud of] my Hindu upbringing," Khanna said. "But first and foremost, I am an American."
For more information on the event, Wadhwani can be e-mailed at info@aapcnj.org.
E-mail: kimy@northjersey.com
