{"id":2067,"date":"2009-12-10T09:45:03","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T22:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=2067"},"modified":"2009-12-14T13:06:16","modified_gmt":"2009-12-14T02:06:16","slug":"parliament-world-religions-day-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2009\/12\/10\/parliament-world-religions-day-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament World Religions Day 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

An environmental protester, a\u00a0performance artist,\u00a0greets us as we enter the PWR – photograph and brief ABC article\u00a0at environmental protest<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I attended an early morning observance led by a Sufi Imam on, “So that you may know one another”: the call for social cohesion in the Quran”<\/span>. Sufism, mystical Islam, emphasizes\u00a0experience of God. An illustration: it is only possible to describe eating an apple by saying,\u00a0for example,\u00a0that it is sweet. But to know what an apple tastes like you must eat an apple – experiential knowledge. The whirling dirvishes dance from last night’s program is a form of entering into a trance to deepen spiritual experience.<\/p>\n

The verse, “So that you may know one another”<\/span>\u00a0comes from Sura (Quran chapter) 49:13 which our presenter said was the most famous verse in the Quran. It speaks of Enjoining goodness; Personal transformations; and Inter-personal principles. Social cohesion is\u00a0the result of human joining with the attributes of God. Thus\u00a0a sufi practises: Dedication to God; Acts of mercy;\u00a0Remembrance of God and his attributes; Take our worship into privacy; and strip ourselves of all desires.<\/p>\n

In conversation the Sufi Imam said there is no Islamic country in the world: Saudi Arabia is Muslim majority populated but not Islamic. On the role of women he stated that in the West women have been reduced to an economic dollar value. He supported this from Anne Summers, ‘The End of Equality’ which he stated demonstrates the decline of the status of women in Australia. By way of contrast the high value\u00a0of women in Islam is shown by the fact that a\u00a0woman’s prayer at home is the value of a man’s prayer at the mosque. This is also why women do not have to go to the mosque.<\/p>\n

Participants speak on\u00a0Social Cohesion, a\u00a0PWR theme,\u00a0at\u00a0ABC video re Social Cohesion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have struggled through a number of the theological tomes of German theologian Hans Kung and it was good to see and hear him in the flesh. He presented\u00a0‘A New Ethical Manifesto for\u00a0the Global Economy’<\/span> at the first session and then a further round table conversation. Felicitously, I was joined here by\u00a0Ian Harper\u00a0and we were able to chat a bit over lunch. Roland Ashby from The Melbourne Anglican seized the opportunity and we are each to write for the February edition! Ian on the Kung manifesto and myself on the collectivity of sin. The Ethics’ manifesto is a well researched appeal to the moral basis of our life together.\u00a0The\u00a0Manifesto is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

”Laws are not enough,” Dr Kung told the Parliament of the World’s Religions. ”You need the political will to fight corruption, greed and aggrandisement. But the political will is often weak because it is not accompanied by ethical will.” See Barney Zwartz Creed v greed: an ethical charter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The role of the followers of Jesus to live and engage in the moral basis of our personal and collective life is as imperative as when Jesus asked us to be salt and light in society. (Matthew 5:13-16<\/a>)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Also by Barney Zwartz re different religions in Australia\u00a0catholic church bolstered by immigrants to Australia<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Further posts can be found at: Parliament of Religions \u2013 It\u2019s coming<\/a>!, and\u00a0at\u00a0Multi-faith society \u2013 an oxymoron? <\/a>and also at\u00a0Parliament World Religions Day-1<\/a>\u00a0and at Parliament\u00a0World Religions Day 1<\/a> and Parliament World Religions Day 2<\/a>\u00a0and Parliament World Religions Day 3<\/a> and Parliament World Religions Day 4<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Further videos, photos and news available at 2009 Parliament Coverage<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An environmental protester, a\u00a0performance artist,\u00a0greets us as we enter the PWR – photograph and brief ABC article\u00a0at environmental protest.\u00a0 I attended an early morning observance led by a Sufi Imam on, “So that you may know one another”: the call … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2067"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2078,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2067\/revisions\/2078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}