For more than 14 years, Madera Coalition for Community Justice has been hosting dozens of local faiths, nationalities and cultures in celebrating the vibrant cultural diversity of our community. The mosque in Madera has been one of the participants along with Catholics, Protestants, Lutherans, Buddhists, Jews, Sikhs, Baptists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Bahai, and those whose families emigrated from countries all over this world.

Our city is richer and our children more aware of the world around them because we can come together to share our common values and the diverse ways we honor and express them.

We therefore deplore the recent attack on our community’s mosque and the hate and intolerance it represents.

Since this attack made world news, we want the world to know that the ignorant people who carried it out do not represent the citizens of Madera. If we allow Muslims to be attacked today, which of us will be next? That is not America, and that is not Madera.

We welcome our Muslim brothers and sisters as part of our community and want to make clear that this attack was not in our name.

Raquel Rodarte, Board president,
Madera Coalition for Community Justice

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 5th, 2010 at 1:06 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.