The Columbia University Multi-Faith Council aims to help create a more inclusive faith-based community within the University community. This community will include those who have faith in a God or Gods as well as those whose faith is based on science, society, or the capacity of our University community to reach its full potential without fragmentation.

We want all the members of the University community to know that the Multi-Faith Council is willing and able to provide venues for students to express their views or concerns about any incident that has or could possibly occur on campus. The council is a valuable resource to all people of faith.

In response to recent events, we sympathize with any students who have been adversely affected by the visit from Iranian President Ahmadinejad. We find many of his policies unacceptable, but our critiques of Ahmadinejad are political in nature and not religious since he is primarily a politician and not a theologian. We hold that faith, as an identity, should not be used to persecute civilians in Iran or foreign leaders at an American university. We believe that tyrants and minority communities that arise as a result of various environmental, political, and socioeconomic factors should not be deemed fanatical solely based on their faith.

We are, however, proud of the fact that the University community has used the Ahmadinejad visit as an opportunity to discuss why it is that many of us find certain ideas, like those advanced by Ahmadinejad, objectionable. It is important that this ongoing dialogue is not limited to the ideological, religious, or racial minority communities of the University. Most of the animosity amongst different people of faiths comes as a result of the absence of communication and dialogue and the Council is willing to further open these channels of communication in the interest of a more inclusive faith-based community.

The Council also holds that the existence of different communities, faith-based or otherwise, does not constitute a threat to any one particular community. This is one of the many reasons we find the racist, fascist, ignorant graffiti that was painted on the School for International and Public Affairs, the recent hate-crime at Teachers College, and the anti-Semitic drawing in a Lewisohn bathroom objectionable. The existence of people of different faiths should not be exclusionary but should, instead, be complementary in the interest of building a peaceful, just, humane, and cooperative community, made up of various cohesive communities.

We, as a council, urge the University community not to judge others solely based on their faith, but, instead, to use faith as a means to open channels of communication amongst people of various faiths.

The Multi-Faith Council looks forward to working with you in the future.