{"id":2079,"date":"2009-12-12T01:21:31","date_gmt":"2009-12-11T14:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/?p=2079"},"modified":"2009-12-14T13:08:55","modified_gmt":"2009-12-14T02:08:55","slug":"parliament-world-religions-day-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/2009\/12\/12\/parliament-world-religions-day-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament World Religions Day 6"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0‘Praying together in Times of Happiness, in Times of Sorrow? The Ongoing Dilemma for the Interfaith Movement’<\/span> was a wonderfully honest session.\u00a0It was just so good to hear adherents of\u00a0faiths\u00a0struggling to know how to\u00a0demonstrate solidarity with people from other faith communities or of no faith, while maintaining their\u00a0personal integrity.<\/p>\n

For the Christian ‘Jesus’ is not optional. For the Muslim and Jew ‘God’ is not optional. Buddhism does not name ‘God’ as in these traditions. We must not ask people to leave their identity at the door of interfaith gatherings. Some questions for further conversation: Can I listen to a non-Christian pray? Can a non-Christian listen to me pray? If we pray with non-Christians, am I agreeing with the existence and nature of the god or reality being addressed by the prayer and\/or with the content of the prayer?\u00a0I have written elsewhere of the struggles:\u00a0Where do we find consolation?<\/a> and\u00a0Muslim Ramadan and Christian\u00a0prayer<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ideas for interfaith gathering: 1. Words. But be careful – Are words exclusive and excluding\u00a0of one another? What words are inclusive yet retain each participant’s faith integrity? An interfaith event could include words of introduction and linking of themes: the sorrow, personal testimony, people and services\u00a0who assisted victims, thanks of family and friends, the recovery task, our human solidarity. 2. Silence 3. Outdoor or neutral religious\u00a0location 4. Images 5. Actions of Prayer – lighting candles, sorrow, placing stones, laying of flowers, wall of letters, etc.<\/p>\n

\u00a0‘Islam and the West: Creating an Accord of Civilisations’<\/span> This is a in contra-distinction to Samuel Huntington’s ‘Clash of Civilizations’. A range of views but all the panel members were Muslims and this limited the session. However, the greatest limitation was the poor moderating: he talked too much and failed to gain interaction between the diverse views of the Muslim panelists. Some views expressed: Problem is power but as the West is in decline this dominance will soon end; We flourish together or we perish together; Fear of the West in Muslim countries and fear of Muslims in Western countries;\u00a0Secular states seek to minimise all expressions of religion;\u00a0Some media \u00a0and party interests demonise; Mainstream Islam accepts democracy; A minaret is not a requirement for Muslim worship; A mosque without a minaret is an invisible and unacceptable Islam; Fear of gradual Islamisation of the West; The Declaration of Independance is Sharia compliant; Differences between Islamic and Western perceptions, eg. the Danish cartoons depicting Mohammad were disrespectful of\u00a0the venerated Prophet\u00a0(Muslim narrative) or the exercise of freedom of speech and freedom of religion (Western narrative); Societies that have a true\u00a0‘God-consciousness’ would not allow the family to lose its place and value and would be a healthy society; Pattern of power is held by the Western elite. See West’s decline article here<\/a>\u00a0and a later composite article with the Muslim participants who are more optimistic about the West and Islam here<\/a><\/p>\n

I felt some issues were not adequately dealt with and some not even mentioned: Islamic extremism, Sharia states in Malaysia and Nigeria, Treatment of Non-Muslim minorities in Islamic nations, Is the secularisation of the West threatened by Islam? Are China and India the West? – and if not, What drives Muslim relations there?<\/p>\n

\u00a0‘Interfaith Australia, Social Cohesion and the Muslim Communities’<\/span>\u00a0 The results of a 2007 and 2009 study of social cohesion in Australia by Andrew Markus was very interesting – Summary Report\u00a0is here<\/a>. Other panelists shared stories of Muslims working to understand and to be understood in Australia. Also the challenges of Muslim parents and children to understand each other. Are young people’s dress styles, parties and\u00a0alcohol a rejection of the traditional culture? Or does a Muslim young person’s sense of marginalisation\u00a0 from\u00a0mainstream Australian culture lead to crime or radicalisation? I learnt more of ‘Bridging the Gap’ between diverse Australians: see the Australian Multicultural Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For myself: I see social cohesion as a process which starts in the short term and will find its fruits in the long term: an investment not an expense.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was a\u00a0market place where\u00a0I enjoyed\u00a0conversation with a Sikh man, Marcia from the Bible Society and others. See\u00a0A market replete in articles of faiths\u00a0<\/a>by Farah Farouque.<\/p>\n

Also ABC Video on Day 6 and\u00a0Youth and their absence at the PWR<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Further 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>\u00a0and Parliament World Religions Day 5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See video, Day 6 at the PWR: Youth at the Parliament<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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

\u00a0‘Praying together in Times of Happiness, in Times of Sorrow? The Ongoing Dilemma for the Interfaith Movement’ was a wonderfully honest session.\u00a0It was just so good to hear adherents of\u00a0faiths\u00a0struggling to know how to\u00a0demonstrate solidarity with people from other faith … 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\/2079"}],"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=2079"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2102,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079\/revisions\/2102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/imaginarydiocese.org\/bishopjohn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}