On Christmas morning of 2017, FOR National Council Co-Chair Sahar Alsahlani spoke on NBC’s Today Show with host Megyn Kelly about the meaning of faith in a time of rapid political, social, and religious conflict and uncertainty.

She was joined by and three other multi-faith leaders: Rev. Jacqui Lewis of Middle Collegiate Church in New York City, Rabbi Melissa Buyer-Witman of Temple Israel in NYC, and Fr. Edward Beck, a Roman Catholic priest and author.

In response to a question by Megyn Kelly about the meaning of the Christmas story to non-Christians, Sahar said, “Actually it is a very, very interfaith story … [it is a story that] resonates so much with Islamic society. The fact that he was born a person of color to a mother that was not wed, into an oppressed society in an oppressed time.”

Sahar’s Jewish and Christian conversation partners nodded and laughed as she added, “We always say that Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) was a Jew, who became a Muslim prophet, and who started a movement that we call Christianity!”

Sahar Alsahlani is an interfaith peace and justice activist who became Co-Chairperson of FOR-USA’s National Council in June 2017. She works with numerous interreligious groups dedicated to progressive social change, including GreenFaith, Religions for Peace USA, the Council of American Islamic Relations – New York chapter, and the New York branch of the new Poor People’s Campaign. Born in Iraq and having spent most of her life in Florida and southern California, Sahar is a resident of the Community of Living Traditions, a multi-faith intentional living community at the Stony Point Center in New York’s Hudson Valley