Community leaders including Caterpillar CEO Doug Oberhelman, UnityPoint-Methodist president Debbie Simon, OSF Saint Francis Medical Center president Michael Cruz and Bradley University president Gary Roberts will make opening remarks at a Peace for Peoria town hall event 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday May 16 at Peoria Civic Center Theater.

The public is invited. A question and answer session will follow remarks by community leaders.

Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis will make closing remarks.

The event is sponsored by Peace for Peoria, an interfaith alliance that promotes peace and understanding of Islam through education.

Spiritual leaders from throughout Peoria participated in a Peace for Peoria March 7 kickoff “Know Islam. Know Peace” at the Islamic Foundation of Peoria.

Islamic principal beliefs are being distorted, misstated and conflated with acts of violence throughout the world and in America. This event on May 16 is the second public forum hosted by Peace for Peoria to promote understanding of Islam and provide opportunities for fellowship among people of all faiths.

Speaking at a mosque in Baltimore in February, President Barack Obama said, “We’re one American family, and when any one of our family starts to feel separate, it tears the very fabric of our nation. If we’re serious about freedom of religion — and I’m speaking now to my fellow Christians who remain the majority in this country — we have to understand an attack on one faith is an attack on all our faiths.”