Archive for the ‘Interreligious Movement’ tag
Immigrants Remaking Canada’s Religious Face in Surprising Ways
Image from Lalani & Associates
by Douglas Todd
from the Vancouver Sun
Canada is welcoming more than the global average of immigrants who are Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and non-religious.
The country, however, is taking in less than the global average of immigrants who are Muslim, Hindu and Jewish.
Those are some of the surprising findings of a sweeping global survey on immigration and religion conducted by the independent Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The report, titled Faith on the Move, provides an enormous amount of data on the religious loyalties of the world’s 214-million immigrants, a group larger than the population of Brazil.
Canada, which has 7.2 million permanent residents who were not born in the country, is the fifth most popular destination for the world’s immigrants. This country of 34 million accepts twice as many immigrants per capita as the U.S.
The Pew Forum report, which describes migration patterns in every country of the world, makes clear that immigration is changing the religious face of Canada in unexpected ways.
A Scorecard Of Singapore’s Multicultural and Multi-Religious Bonds
by Yolanda Chin and Norman Vasu
from the Eurasia Review
In light of several incidents touching on race and religion in recent years, it may be tempting to wonder if Singapore’s multicultural harmony has possibly been strained. Such events included but are not limited to a senior pastor of the Lighthouse Evangelism church making disparaging remarks about Buddhists and Taoists in 2010 and former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew calling into question the desire of Muslims to integrate in Singapore in the book Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going.
In an attempt to more systematically discern if there has been such unease, the Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) conducted a study of two questions pertaining to the social fabric of Singapore: (1) Have Singapore’s multicultural ties been resilient between 2007 and 2011? (2) Were Malays, Christians and the Chinese consistently less inclusive than non-Malays, non-Christians and non-Chinese respectively between 2007 and 2011?
Click here to read the full article
Catholic Couple Embark on Interfaith “Pilgrimage,” Circle World on Religious Tolerance Quest
by Gillian Flaccus
from the Huffington Post
CLAREMONT, Calif. — Frederic and Anne-Laure Pascal are devout Roman Catholics who built their lives around their religion. When she lost her job last year, the young couple decided on an unlikely expression of their religious commitment: a worldwide “interfaith pilgrimage” to places where peace has won out over dueling dogmas.
Since October, the French couple has visited 11 nations from Iraq to Malaysia in an odyssey to find people of all creeds who have dedicated their lives to overcoming religious intolerance in some of the world’s most divided and war-torn corners.
The husband-and-wife team blogs about their adventures – and their own soul-searching – and takes short video clips for the project they’ve dubbed the Faithbook Tour.
Food, Faith, Peace Focus of Interfaith Seder in Pomona, California
Ding Elnar-Wicker, of Claremont, breaks apart matzah, a bread used in the Jewish passover seder, Sunday, April 1, 2012 at the Islamic Center of Claremont. Elnar-Wicker and others participated in an interfaith seder held by the Claremont Interfaith Working Group for Middle East Peace. Khai Le/Correspondent.
by Jannise Johnson
from the Daily Bulletin
POMONA – For the second straight year, an interfaith Seder has been hosted in what some would consider an unusual venue.
The Islamic Center of Claremont, which is actually 3642 N. Garey Ave. in Pomona, held the event called “From Slavery to Freedom, An Interfaith Seder Experience” on their quad.
The mosque provided tents, tables and chairs for visitors from both the Islamic center, various churches and Jewish temples.
Traditional Seder foods such as Matza and eggs were placed at each of the tables. In addition traditional foods, olives, oranges and humus also made an appearance.
All foods eaten during the Seder meal are symbolic. Olives symbolize peace in the Middle East and the orange symbolized fruitfulness “that occurs when even the most estranged among us are welcomed as contributing and active members of our communal life,” according to information placed at each table.
Christians and Buddhists: Increasing Dialogue Through Education
from The Catholic Spirit
Made public today was the annual Message to Buddhists for the Feast of Vesakh, issued by the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue. The message is signed by Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran and Archbishop Pier Luigi Celata, respectively president and secretary of the council.
Vesakh is the main Buddhist feast and commemorates the three fundamental moments in the life of Gautama Buddha. According to tradition, the historical Buddha was born, achieved enlightenment and passed away during the full moon of the month of May. Thus Vesakh is a mobile feast which this year falls on 5 and 6 May, while in China it is celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month of the Chinese calendar, which this year corresponds to 28 April. On those days, Buddhists decorate their houses with flowers and perfume them with incense, visit local temples and listen to the teaching of the monks.
This year’s message is entitled: “Christians and Buddhists: Sharing Responsibility for Educating the Young Generation on Justice and Peace through Inter-religious Dialogue:” Extracts from the English-language version of the text are given below.
London 2012: How Do the Olympics Handle Religion?
by Michael Hirst
from BBC News
How do you cater for athletes of nine different religions at the Olympic Games?
The man charged with answering that question for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games, Locog, is Reverend Canon Duncan Green, an Anglican priest who has been seconded to Locog as its head of faith services.
His starting point was to form a faith reference group comprising representatives of the UK’s nine largest religions – Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Sikh, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Jain and Bahai – to advise on issues around faith in order to cater to the observations of practicing athletes, spectators and officials.
Rise in UK Multifaith Prayer Rooms, a Liverpool Study Reveals
The multifaith space at the Museum of Liverpool
from BBC News
The number of shared spaces for prayer, reflection and meditation has risen over the last 10 years, a study has found.
Researchers from The University of Liverpool said there were more than 1,500 multifaith spaces in the UK.
Dr Andrew Crompton from the University of Liverpool said the increase came in spite of “a decline in the popularity of established religion”.
Interfaith Effort Boosts Latin Ties: Jews and Muslims Meet to Work Out Differences
by Nathan Guttman
from The Jewish Daily Forward
WASHINGTON — While international attention is focused on relations between Jews and Muslims in Europe, following the Toulouse shooting, attempts are under way to strengthen ties between the two religious communities in another region: Latin America.
A group of Muslim and Jewish leaders from Latin American and Caribbean nations came to Washington on March 26 as a first step in an effort to forge partnerships between the communities.
The program is an initiative of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which has been organizing Muslim–Jewish dialogue events in the United States and in Europe in which synagogues twin with mosques, and leaders of the two faith communities work together on issues relating to anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and Middle East peace.
Women Wear Hijabs in Support of Slain Iraqi Woman
by Omar Sacirbey
from the Washington Post
Jean Younis won’t be wearing an Easter bonnet at church this Sunday. Instead, the office manager at Bonita Valley Adventist Church in National City, Calif., will don an Islamic headscarf to support the family and friends of Shaima Alawadi, the Iraqi immigrant and mother of five who died March 24, three days after being beaten in her home in El Cajon, Calif.
“I do expect a reaction, but that’s the point. It needs to be discussed,” said Younis, 59, who predicted that most church members would be supportive or respectfully inquisitive.
She is one of many non-Muslim women to post photos of themselves wearing a headscarf on “One Million Hijabs for Shaima Alawadi,” a recently created Facebook Page that had nearly 10,000 likes on Monday (April 2) and hundreds of photos. Others posting on the page have identified themselves as Catholics, Quakers, Mennonites, Jews, Pagans, and atheists.
‘I Heart Turbans’: Sikh Student’s Apparel Designs Spark Interfaith Dialogue
by Arezou Rezvani
from the Times of India
If the spheres of fashion and religion seem disparate and distant, it is 22-year-old Jagmeet Sethi’s Connecticut-based apparel company TurbanInc that has brought the two seemingly distinct worlds together.
“The power of fashion is universal and when we dress ourselves, we often think, ‘What am I saying to the world when they look at me today?’” said Sethi. “With that in mind, we wanted to combine one of our most routine methods of expression with confidence, self-love and pride in being Sikh.”
Born and raised in Queens, New York, Sethi, who was among the 500,000 Sikhs then living in the United States, was consistently the mistaken target of discrimination stemming from the lack of knowledge and ensuing confusion of Sikhs with Muslims or Arabs. That confusion is what ultimately led to the death of Balbir Singh Sodhi, a Sikh who was the first person believed to have been murdered in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks. More than a decade later, in December, another bloody assault on a 56-year-old Sikh preacher in Fresno confirmed that the group remains a mistaken target of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States.
“Kids who were once best friends of mine all of a sudden stopped talking to me right after the attacks took place,” said Sethi. “There was a period of time where I was getting into physical fights with classmates of mine almost every week.”
Although much of the prejudice settled when Sethi’s family moved to Connecticut in 2004, his outward display of faith, first through the topknot in middle school and then the full size turban later in high school drew judgment well through college, where during his senior year Sethi wore an “I Heart Turbans” T-shirt that his then budding company had designed. Created to invite classmates to engage with his appearance, Sethi spent much of that day explaining his religious background, practices and rituals to friends, professors and hallway strangers.
