Conference builds bridges
Speakers team up at Prince of Wales Heritage Centre to teach what can be learned from other faiths
Joseph Tunney
Northern News Services
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
For Basheer Islam, faith in Islam teaches not only to respect other religions but learn lessons from them.
Basheer Islam, one of the guest speakers from Sunday's World Religions Conference at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, speaks about not only respecting but learning from other faiths. - Joseph Tunney/NNSL photo |
"I believe in the earlier prophets, I believe in Adam, I believe in Moses, I believe in Jesus," he said.
"I also believe in the prophets not mentioned in these books of God. We believe Krishna was a prophet of God."
Islam was just one of several speakers at the ninth annual World Religions Conference that took place at Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre on Sunday. The conference is put on by the Ahmadiyya sect of the Islamic community and features religious speakers from a variety of different faiths and spiritualities.
Each of the guests molded their speeches around the conference's topic, which was building bridges of understanding and mutual respect, and how their religion or spirituality relates to it.
Speakers representing Islam, Christianity, Dene spirituality and Buddhism all participated. Oscar Aguirre represented the Buddhist perspective, Roy Erasmus spoke about Dene spirituality, Bishop Mark Hagemoen talked Catholicism and Islam gave a speech on the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam.
Islam spoke of a quote in the Qur'an that discusses how Allah made people into different tribes so they can know themselves better.
Erasmus talked of Dene laws that support the idea of building bridges between faiths.
"When Europeans first came, they really put our values and principles to the test," he said.
He went on to talk about the destructive forces aboriginal people in Canada have faced, such as the residential school system and Canadian laws that stripped aboriginal people of their Indian status. However, he said he sees a resilience in his people and a re-emergence of aboriginal culture.
Hagemoen told the Bible's parable of the prodigal son, about a father and two sons. One son squanders his inheritance before his father dies, and the other toils for his father and never disobeys him.
After the first son comes back to his father destitute, his father holds a feast to celebrate his return.
His brother refuses to participate. Hagemoen told the group it's better to be like the father because the brother, builds walls, not bridges.
Approximately 20 people showed up to hear the discussions.
Islam capped the conference with a condemnation of those use religion to justify violence.
"Keep your promises and give peace a chance," he said.
