Ameenah Gurib-Fakim Quotes

I just want to play for Hindus and Muslims that sit together. That's all I want to do.

Proselytism is solemn nonsense; it makes no sense. We need to get to know each other, listen to each other and improve our knowledge of the world around us.

I am the President of Arabs and Druse as well as Jews.

Jews and Arabs have been living together for years and years

All we're doing is going back to what we were: a moderate Islam that is open to all religions and to the world and to all traditions and people.

The ultimate vision is to instate in the Muslim world the notion of multiculturalism, which is part of our heritage and history, part of the fundamental, mainstream ideals of Islam.

Baalbek is so beautiful. It is the heart of beauty in the Middle East - I want to embrace these people with my music. I will try so hard for them. Their president is a Christian, their prime minister is a Muslim. Music is for everyone.

I love to work with performers that are very different to me.

The opportunity here in the U.S. is so unique because we are so diverse, with so many different cultures living together. Christians, Jews, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists, all with their own connections to the spiritual aspects of food and with lessons that we can learn from each other.

I believe that if we really want human brotherhood to spread and increase until it makes life safe and sane, we must also be certain that there is no one true faith or path by which it may spread.

One of the things my father taught me was you should not exclude those who are opposed to your ideas.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry Christmas' to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it.

No culture can live if it attempts to be exclusive.

There will be not only peace between us and the Arabs ... but close friendship and cooperation.

Arabs and Jews have lived together for many centuries. We are both children of Abraham.

This is a country where Jews and Arabs speak without fear. Where people come from different cultures the world over. Where everyone becomes Brazilian rapidly.

It is like a wide embrace, gathering together all those who have searched for words of hope. It accepts all great Prophets gone before, ’ it destroys no other creeds and leaves all doors open...

When commerce with Moslems flourished, zeal for their massacre declined [Among Christians].

It had always been one of my convictions that Jews and Arabs could live together. Even as a child it never occurred to me that Jews might someday be living in Israel without Arabs, or separated from Arabs. On the contrary, for me it had always seemed perfectly normal for the two people to live and work side by side. That is the nature of life here and it always will be.... though Israel is a Jewish nation, it is, of course, not only a Jewish nation...

Today we must secure not a clash between civilizations, but a reconciliation and bringing together of the values of Islam and Christianity.

I walk around haredi neighborhoods freely, and I actually receive a lot of positive responses from people.

We have a lot to learn from everyone.

We - what we need is a dialogue among civilizations. And we need multiculturalism, respect for diversity, tolerance, respect for diverse faiths.

I was raised in Hawaii in what I call a 'faith-inclusive' family. I never felt I had to choose loyalty to the New Testament over the Bhagavad Gita. It really wasn't until my late teens that I became aware of the ugly concept of sectarianism.

Once, there was a time in Jerusalem of brotherhood and peace: cultures and languages lived side by side and not one at the expense of the other.