Muslims & Mormons: Quilting for Children of Trauma
The Relief Society, the largest women’s organization in the world, was created as a vehicle for Mormon women and interested friends of other faiths, to reach out in relieving the suffering and respond to urgent needs that present in the world.
In Riverside, California, over 100 women, Mormons and Muslims, engaged in conversation and made quilts for Project Linus–an initiative to provide blankets to children of trauma. The second joint service effort proved fruitful for both recipients and participants.
As Cindy Marinez, writer for Press Enterprise, records:
They sat shoulder to shoulder, Muslim women next to Mormon women, hunched over bright fabric as they learned to quilt.
As the conversations grew comfortable, the women discovered their religions, and their lives, had many common threads.
Their worship, community service, husbands and children, good schools, safe neighborhoods — and the list went on for the more than 100 who met Saturday morning at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Riverside.
Many of the Muslim women–unveiled in this setting of all women, originally came from Pakistan but have established residence in the United States.
Bina Majeed, speaking on behalf of the Muslim women, indicated there was common ground; their religion teaches them “humanity” towards all. Aisha, of the group, also remarked on the similarities of those who otherwise have some distintly different beliefs:
“We start asking how many kids they’ve got,” Mateen said. “We laugh and we all have the same problems.”
“You’d be surprised how universal getting a teenager to clean his room is,” many of the women said with a knowing smile.
This is not a unique experience among Latter-day Saints. Mormons join hands in worldwide service partnerships with Catholic Relief organizations, Islamic charities, and other religious and charitable foundations.
For official Mormon news and information about current Church humanitarian projects visit the newsroom for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Inadvertently called by friends of other faiths as the “Mormon Church”)
