|
|
|
       |
March 25, 2010 Interfaith Grand River, bringing together Waterloo Region’s diverse faith communities and spiritual traditions, exists “to challenge expressions of intolerance, religious and other, in the community,” among other objectives. Last week’s attacks on the Erb Street Mosque in Waterloo and the Guelph Sikh Society Gurdwara were particularly ugly and offensive expressions of intolerance. Three religious traditions were direct targets of these attacks: Muslims and Sikhs, whose sacred space was violated, and Neopagans, whose sacred symbol, the pentagram, was used to portray evil in the graffiti that defaced the Waterloo mosque. These are minority religions in our community, unfamiliar to many people and therefore easily misunderstood and even demonized. People have always feared what they don’t know, and fear and ignorance are at the root of these acts of violence and vandalism. Educating the public is an ongoing task, and Interfaith Grand River takes these incidents as signals that it needs to rededicate itself to that task. We see these incidents as a great teaching moment for children in schools, who should be learning that just as bullying in classrooms and on playgrounds is unacceptable, bullying by adults on the basis of privilege is equally unacceptable. It is also a time for people to take advantage of the many excellent efforts to increase understanding already in place in our Region, including the twice-yearly Abrahamic Faiths Forum series at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary; the ongoing Muslim-Mennonite Dialogue Forum; and Interfaith Grand River’s new Building Bridges program, which invites people to visit different faith communities at their places of worship, observe a worship service and ask questions. In a broader sense, it is not specific religious groups alone that were attacked. This was an assault on the very idea of a community where people of different religions live together in harmony – an idea that is at the core of Interfaith Grand River – and on those of us who choose to believe in and act on that idea. We offer our profound regret that these incidents have occurred, our solidarity with those who are directly affected, and our prayers for the healing of our community so that respect and understanding may prevail.
|
|
|
|||
| About Us | Members | Activities | Links | History | News | Reports | Copyright© 2001 - 2011, Netscapades Inc. and Interfaith Grand River. All rights reserved |
|||