We Are Family: The Pastor and the Imam

The Just Peace Summit brings together teen global leaders who create and run powerful movements with important figures such as Mattie Stepanek's mother, Jeni, featured in this video, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, who shared a powerful story about being shot at in Haiti, and the Pastor and the Imam.

A few days ago, Nile Rodgers, one of the most influential producers in the history of popular music, tweeted that he had just spent the best two days of his life with the Pastor and the Imam. I instantly responded.

"Are the Pastor and the Imam in New York, or are you in Nigeria?"

He was surprised that I know Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammad Ashafa, founders and co-executive directors of the Interfaith Mediation Centre and the Muslim-Christian Dialogue Forum of Kaduna, Nigeria, a country afflicted with violence between its Muslim and Christian communities.

In the early 1990s, Pastor Wuye and Imam Ashafa led opposing militia groups in Kaduna. In 1992, Wuye lost an arm and Ashafa lost his teacher and two sons. After years of lethal combat, new awareness brought the men together and they turned to the pursuit of unity and peace with the same commitment that they once pursued eradication.



Nile responded instantly that the Imam and the Pastor were in town for the We Are Family Just Peace Summit, founded by Nile Rodgers in honor of Mattie Stepanek, a messenger of peace who died at 13, far too soon, but not too soon to plant his message (even Oprah became a messenger by proxy).

I first met the Pastor and the Imam in Doha, Qatar, at the US-Islamic World Forum hosted by the Brookings Institution. My collaborator Joshua S. Fouts and I were there to kick off our Understanding Islam through Virtual Worlds project, for which we interviewed scores of people in the physical world as well as people from 22 countries with avatars in the virtual world Second Life.

The Pastor and the Imam were among those interviewed, and the time we spent with them over breakfast in Doha will stay with me for the rest of my life. At the heart of the work that we do toward a new global culture and economy in the Imagination Age are several core ideas.

1) Technology is a prism held up the bright beam of the imagination.
2) Life is a game, which doesn't make it any less real or serious but rather more fun to organize and level up.
3) Peace is not the absence of conflict.

The Pastor and the Imam are the greatest living example I have ever encountered of this third idea. I am filled with gratitude that Nile Rodgers responded immediately and extended an invitation to join him, the Pastor and the Imam the very next day. Being with the young people at the summit was remarkable.

I will never forget walking through the busy streets of Manhattan on a sunny day with these two radiant men, discussing ways that their work can be woven into the digital culture so they can raise much needed funds to fill requests to work in other divided cities such as Kosovo.

As spiritual seekers, they have resisted the urge to participate in the digital culture, posting photographs of themselves with heads of state for example, out of a commitment to minimizing the role of ego in their lives and perspectives. We walked them from the summit venue to their hotel, and by the time we reached the front door and hugged them goodbye they were genuinely excited about the idea of becoming digital citizens. In coming months, we will be working with them on this effort.