Witnesses of Mercy for Peace and Reconciliation

57 WITNESSING MERCY FOR PEACE AND RECONCILIAT ION to the Adyan Foundation. My husband and I joined the Adyan Interfaith Families Network over two years ago, which we believe is a great blessing in our lives. And now I will leave the floor for my husband, Wissam Nahas, to expand more about our involvement with this network. Sara Saad I amWissamNahas and I currently work as an e-learning manager. I was born into a Muslim family and raised in a community that was all Muslim. All of my child- hood friends at school were Muslims, as were all of my university friends. So, I only had the chance to practice my mercifulness with my Muslim family, friends and community. But when I became engaged with the Adyan Foundation, I came to practice the full value of mercy. Adyan truly gave us the chance to practice mercy with friends from different religions and sects. The Adyan Interfaith Families Network meets on a monthly basis and in each meeting we discuss a different value, share our experiences and debate common challenges. We even practice mercy with each other by celebrating our religious holidays together. We have had several Christ- mas gatherings where we cook our own food and meet together with our children. Moreover, during the holy month of Ramadan we also prepare the food together and break our fasting in a church. We even pray together on several occasions. Our children love the meetings and are always thrilled to attend. The Interfaith Families Network provides an experience very different from my childhood. It is an opportunity to practice the mercy of Islam with non-Muslims. Sometimes out of fidelity to our own religion we are afraid to meet those of the other reli- gion, but this is exactly why we need Adyan; in order to build virtual bridges between each other. Some people believe that if you meet and befriend those of other reli- gions, their ideas might affect you or shake your own religion, but in fact Adyan’s aim is totally the opposite. It is mainly to get couples of various religions and con- fessions closer together. Nowadays in Lebanon and after the civil war, we are still living geographically apart although within the same borders. The Adyan Family Network continues to help couples living geographically apart and those of different religions to unite, meet, gather, celebrate, understand each other’s religions and respect our differences. Wissam Nahas Sara Saad and Wissam Nahas Wissam Nahas is a board member of Adyan Foundation and an Interfaith Families Network coordinator. Sara Saad is a member of the Interfaith Families Network. They have been together since 2003, having come from diverse intellectual backgrounds and worked in different fields. Their common interest and passion is their work with the Adyan Foundation. Sara has a masters degree in public health and works in the medical field, while Wissam has a computer science background and works as an e-learning manager. Wanting to overcome the sectarian divide in post-war Lebanese society, Sara and Wissam work diligently in helping the Adyan Interfaith Family Network to thrive. The network gathers couples and their children from different religious backgrounds to strengthen relations, build solidarity across communities and reflect on shared values for family life. Through sharing experience and debating common challenges, their ultimate goal is to communicate the values of Adyan through each family and into those families’ communities, contributing to building a more peaceful and cohesive society.