The Forum of Concerned Religious Leaders is a growing group of clergy and lay leaders concerned about the expansion of the war against terrorism, the erosion of crucial civil liberties, and the worsening economy here in New York City, where the jobs lost and the other hardships experienced in the wake of the World Trade Center attack intensifies the economic woes the whole country is facing. We who stand here today are representative of hundreds of leaders in New York’s Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and other communities of faith.

Our hearts are still heavy with grief concerning the horror and loss of September 11th. But we do not want our grief to be used as a reason to continue or widen the increasingly target-less war on terrorism, nor do we want the attack on America to be compounded by and unwarranted and self-inflicted attacks on our civil liberties. What is more, our grief and our yearning for healing and renewed vitality impel us to insist that available public resources be applied to job creation, economic development, and the maintenance of needed services rather than warmaking without end.

The most basic insight shared by all our faith traditions is that violence and coercive measures perpetuate a cycle of violence, that there is no lasting “victory” based on a humiliating defeat of one’s adversary, and that there is no lasting peace without a turn toward justice. We likewise share the conviction that the kind of prayer and the kind of piety honored by God always consists of righteous action: steps that mend community, heal the world’s brokenness, share the world’s wealth, and build the structures of justice. There are many theological, historical, and political differences among us, but today we join together to issue this call and affirmation:

• We require our nation’s leaders to act with restraint and proportionality and to put more confidence in cooperative approaches to peacemaking. We oppose an expansion of the current war on terrorism into other nations.

• We reject the false religion of nationalism that too often engenders dangerous public emotions and that sows the seeds of repression and the loss of precious liberties. We affirm our belief in the freedom to dissent and our conviction that America is stronger on account of that freedom and on account of its diversity. We are deeply troubled by ethnic and religious profiling and the baseless detention of Arab and Muslim neighbors.

• We call upon government leaders at every level to focus their attention and resources on the challenge of economic recovery and the inadequacies and inequities of our nation’s health care, child care, and education systems. We urge that governmental efforts include the creation of jobs as well as access to re-training, education and increased access to income supports such as Medicaid, Food Stamps, and cash assistance.

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