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 and Vision
The foundation of all Abrahamic religions rests on the values of peace, justice, and compassion.
- Our vision is to create a community where people have the opportunity to challenge each other to break ingrained stereotypes, to learn from one another, and to make an impact together.
- We believe that action based on our shared values and ethics can build the world we dream of.
- Breaking down walls and living collectively is the most effective way to accomplish our vision of community, to prevent and rectify hate and injustice.
Our mission is to build sustainable interfaith learning and action across Muslim, Jewish, Baha’i and Christian communities in order to foster an environment of respect, justice, and social change.
- Nothing can replace a human-to-human connection.
- We believe that it is possible to change an individual’s harmful prejudices, which leads to a restorative and empowering shift in their community.
- By crafting new intentional spiritual communities, Abrahamic House will lead to transformative relationships, from ignorance and stereotypes to solidarity and service.
