Our Story
Abrahamic House A 501(c)(3) organization is the brainchild of Mohammed Al Samawi, author of The Fox Hunt, his autobiography. Mohammed’s personal journey, from war-torn Yemen to the United States, led him from harboring a deep suspicion of other faiths to becoming a world-renowned peace advocate. A critical powerful encounter with a teacher challenged him to learn about the Bible and Judaism, rerouting him from a path of likely violence toward global interfaith activism. Mohammed’s journey ultimately saved his life, when, in 2015, four American strangers–Jewish, Christian, and Muslim–helped rescue him from militant groups in Yemen.
The work that Mohammed began in Yemen is far from finished. Mohammed remains committed to the exchange and education of core values that define our religious traditions and hopes to advance this work through Abrahamic House. The board of Abrahamic House is comprised of diverse leaders in the faith, peace, justice, and entrepreneurship fields. Abrahamic House fellows hail from Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Baha’i faiths, with a diversity of cultural and religious practices.
What is Abrahamic House?
Abrahamic House is a multi-faith co-living and co-creating space to learn, share, pray, celebrate, connect, and serve. Our Abrahamic Houses host emerging interfaith leaders, each from a different faith background, for a 1-2 year fellowship program in cities across the United States. Through our fellowship program, we challenge assumptions, prejudices and inequities, then we inspire and mobilize others to do the same.
Up to four Abrahamic House fellows will share a living and working space for 1-2 years, during which they will be responsible for developing and executing innovative community engagement programs, including group learning, faith-based and social events, and public service. These activities are opportunities to deepen their understanding of each other’s faith, culture, and values. Abrahamic House programs will aim to prevent hate, violence, and marginalization by building community. Since we aim to be of service to the communities in which Abrahamic House resides, programs will simultaneously seek to engage our neighbors and to support the needs of underserved and vulnerable communities.
Our goal is profound: to change both self and community by creating a pluralistic present built on shared experiences. Our vision includes maintaining the positive elements of religious traditions while simultaneously integrating those traditions into an intersectional model of community across faiths, backgrounds, and beliefs.
Mission
Abrahamic House creates vibrant interfaith communities led by young professional lay leaders from different religious and cultural backgrounds. Through celebratory gatherings, meaningful dialogue, and thought-provoking educational experiences that take place in welcoming home settings, we inspire individuals to build friendships and understanding across faith traditions, engage deeply with their own and others’ religions, and cultivate interfaith communities that work together towards the common good.
Vision
We envision a world in which different religious and cultural traditions inspire
individuals and communities to enrich one another, fostering a society rooted in
mutual respect, ethical responsibility and a shared commitment to human
flourishing. Nothing can replace a human-to-human connection.
