Plainfield group hopes to build stronger bonds across faiths, communities

A new organization recently formed in Plainfield with a goal of fostering unity, collaboration and community empowerment to address local challenges, celebrate diversity and promote a sense of belonging for everyone.

“We want to make a difference,” Plainfield resident and founder of the Plainfield Community Alliance Mohammed Faheem said. “There is so much out there. Everybody is trying to divide us. It is time that we took charge.

“It is not about making America great again. It is about making America human again. We have lost the human touch.”

After the brutal murder of Wadea Al-Fayoume, a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy, in October 2023, Faheem helped organize a vigil that was attended by thousands.

After the vigil, a small group gathered afterward and thought, “We need to keep this spirit going,” Faheem said.

Faheem, who is now retired from his position at the Illinois Department of Employment Security and moved to Plainfield to be near his grown children and their families, said, “Why can’t we come together and break those barriers and build those bridges?”

And so they did.

The first event was held at Plainfield’s LifeSpring Community Church, with another one following at Plainfield Central High School at the end of January.

The group hopes to continue the community gatherings every other month.

The Plainfield Community Alliance is an outgrowth of a friendship that began between Faheem and Pastor Fran Leeman of Plainfield’s LifeSpring Community Church.

“It is not about making America great again, it is about making America human again. We have lost the human touch.”

—  Mohammed Faheem, founder of the Plainfield Community Alliance

About three years ago, after a mass shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue, Faheem organized a vigil at a Plainfield mosque and reached out to village officials and faith-based leaders to ask them to attend.

Unable to attend the event, Leeman reached out and said he wanted to learn more about Faheem and Islam.

“We decided to meet and get to know each other and learn from each other,” Faheem said.

Today, the two “sit and talk about every subject under the sun,” he said.

“We aren’t trying to convert one another” or “prove one right and the other wrong” regarding their respective religions, Faheem said.

They are just trying to learn, he said.

There is a verse in the Koran that states when God made Adam and Eve, he sent humanity down to earth in different tribes to get to know each other, and that is what Faheem said he is determined to do through the organization.

Joan Caton, who moved to Plainfield in 1972, when the population was 600, said, “We are looking to draw people in to talk about shared concerns.”

“From area high schools, local nonprofits and faith-based groups, there is a strong interest in getting together and being able to better understand each other and see how kindness is so important,” she said.

As people come from different backgrounds and religions, the group’s hope is to find common ground on issues concerning children, life and values, Caton said.

Caton said the group decided to focus on what can be done and how to be problem-solvers together to bring peace and safety and reduce division.

“It is getting on the inside and not staying on the outside judging others based on falsities and partial truths,” she said.

In addition to conducting discussion groups, the organization is seeking to obtain nonprofit status with the goal of looking at how to support one another and community members in need – something that is very important to Caton.

Since 2016, Caton has organized the Kindness Movement at Plainfield Congregational Church UCC, which includes Community Hope Days.

These events provided meals, toiletries and household items to individuals in need.

The next Plainfield Community Alliance discussion group will address “Bullying: Home, School, Internet” and will take place from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. April 20 at the Plainfield Congregational Church UCC, 24020 W. Fraser Road, Plainfield.