About a month ago my university hosted an interfaith event, calling on the many diverse faith societies to team up and tackle common misconceptions about faith. For once, members of the Islamic society and Jewish society were able to work together in an environment where one side weren’t censuring the other over issues of Middle East Politics.
The event, entitled Myth? {Busters}! included a panel of the Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Bah’ai and Hindu speakers who were presented with a variety of ‘myths’ to address. The myths ranged from questions on faith and morality, fundamentalism, common misconceptions and the need and purpose for interfaith. Whilst steering clear of subjects of apparent controversy, the audience were able to continue discussion amongst themselves and the panellists in a networking session after. Probably unsurprisingly, I saw the Muslim and Jewish speaker engaged in conversation for a long time.
Muslims and Jews were not the sole participants of the events, but were amongst the largest groups represented within the audience. For once, faith provided us with common ground, moving discussion away from ongoing politics which occupies most of the conversation at other events where both societies are present.
However, there’s no denying that the issue of Israel and Palestine was stirring beneath the surface of some discussion, and there were members of the audience eager to incorporate politics into future interfaith events. Whether this is a good idea depends on the nature and purpose of interfaith. Could interfaith provide a platform for constructive political debate though its goal of encouraging discussion of religious tolerance and co-existence? Or should it remain essentially neutral, the one place where faith and not politics takes precedence in future debates? Whilst faith and politics surrounding Palestine/Israel are interchangeable, sometimes it’s refreshing to have events with the Jewish and Islamic societies which aren’t always about the Middle East.
No comments:
Post a Comment