Marc Gopin and Hind Kabawat
Marc Gopin and Hind Kabawat are mavericks in the cause of peace. Each has taken stands that are politically controversial and even dangerous within their own societies. Their efforts have produced a groundbreaking trip to Syria by Gopin, and promise to lead to more radical breakthroughs in the future.

Marc Gopin is the James H. Laue Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, and the Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC), at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR).

Hind Kabawat is a practicing attorney who lives in Damascus and received a law degree from Arab University Beirut, and a master’s in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. She is an international adviser at Joseph Young and Associates, Toronto; foreign affairs director for the Syrian Public Relations Association; and a senior research associate in public diplomacy at the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University.

Elana Rozenman and Ibtisam Mahamid
Elana and Ibtisam ideally personify the essence of interfaith community building and peacemaking. Not only do they both bring the potentially conflicting perspectives of their faiths and communities to the project, but they also bring the deep emotions of women and mothers who have suffered great losses due to the conflict. Yet in the aftermath of these tragic loses Elana and Ibtisam have chosen the path of peacemaking and interfaith healing over that of revenge and hatred. They have both dedicated their lives toward peace so that “no other mother” should ever lose a child to this conflict.

Ibtisam Mahamid is currently building a new peace center, the Tent of Hagar and Sarah, in her town of Faradis in northern Israel. She initiated a project to train and empower Muslim Arab women. These women formed a women’s council and got their chosen candidate elected mayor of Faradis. Ibtisam is one of the first Muslim women in all of Israel to be appointed to a municipal office to deal with women’s affairs. She was chosen to receive the “Unsung Heroes of Compassion” award by the Dalai Lama in San Francisco in April 2009.

Elana Rozenman is the founder and executive director of “TRUST – Emun,” an Israeli nonprofit organization that works to build trust and mutual understanding in the Middle East. She has been involved in interfaith and intercultural work since the recovery of her son from a Palestinian suicide bombing in Jerusalem in 1997. She became convinced that women and religion are the answer to ending the violence in the region. She is on the Global Council of the United Religions Initiative and is the co-director of their Women’s Interfaith Network. She also co-directs the Women’s Interfaith Network of the Middle East and North Africa, which is involved in training women leaders.

Eliyahu McLean and Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari
The energy and passion of Eliyahu and Sheikh Bukhari very clearly illustrate the power of love and grass-roots community building to bring people together across the divide of the conflict.

Eliyahu Mclean is the director of Jerusalem Peacemakers, a network of religious leaders and grass-roots peace builders in the Holy Land. Eliyahu’s work with Palestinian Sufis is described in the book At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A Jew’s Search for God With the Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land by Yossi Klein Halevi. Eliyahu was inspired to work more deeply for peace by the death of a Jewish friend in a suicide bombing; the friend’s father said, “Eliyahu, I’m counting on you to continue your work for peace.” In May 2004, he participated in an “interfaith peace journey” from Amman to Baghdad, where he addressed a crowd of Iraqis while wearing the skullcap, long side locks, and fringed garment common among religious Jews—he was the only Jew present.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari, a Sheikh of the Naqshabandian Religious Method (Sufi) and head of the Uzbeke Community in Jerusalem, explained that Jerusalem was a holy city even before Mohammed walked on the earth. Sheikh Bukhari is among dozens of Orthodox rabbis and sheikhs holding interfaith meetings in recent years to help underscore common values and hopes. What sets these little-known peace efforts apart front the rest of Israel’s peace camp is a focus on religion, rather than politics, as the basis for dialogue and negotiation. Mainstream activists are largely secular. Sheikh Bukhari has a wide family and community network in Gaza. His wife is from Gaza; his sister and his daughter live in Gaza. They are part of the Sufi, Uzbek, and wider communities in Gaza that have seen their homes and lives shattered in the recent fighting. Sheikh Bukhari has been collecting donations and sending them directly to families in need in Gaza.