SYDNEY — It’s not every day a reverend, a rabbi and an imam get together in a church basement to discuss the extreme elements within their religions.

Source: capebretonpost.com

But that’s what happened Tuesday when more than 100 people gathered at the United Heritage Church Hall in Sydney for a conference called Scriptures and Extremism.

The two-hour conference was moderated by “CBC Mainstreet” host Wendy Bergfeldt and featured Rev. Rosemary Godin of the United Church of Canada, Rabbi David Ellis of the Atlantic Jewish Council, and Imam Umran Bhatti of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s Sydney chapter.

Each of the three local leaders spoke of historical misinterpretations within the scriptures of their religions — Christianity (Bible); Judaism (Torah); and Islam (Qur’an) — and how many words and messages have been twisted and manipulated to justify acts of violence.

“Islam means peace and extremist ideology is not compatible to peace — all the violent actions of ISIS are against the teachings of Islam,” said Bhatti, 28, who was born in Pakistan and educated in Toronto.

“There is not a hint of extremism promoted in our scriptures, rather it promotes extreme levels of love, kindness and mercy and love for all and hatred for none.”

Godin, who is a minister at the unique United Heritage Church, formerly the United Baptist Church that serves three United Church congregations in addition to its original Baptist parishioners, said that when reading the Bible, Christians must guard against interpreting what they read in a literal sense.

“Christian scripture is, and always has been, open to wide interpretation. Unfortunately, if you take the scripture literally you’ve missed the point and driven right off the road,” said Godin.

Ellis, who serves as the Atlantic Jewish Council’s regional chaplain, said Jewish people also struggle with parts of the Torah and have historically imposed conditions on certain messages in their laws and scriptures to make them more compatible.

“I’m glad we getting some education on this — I think it is time in Nova Scotia that the teachings of world religions are taught in our schools,” said Ellis.

Indeed, the message that… read more at capebretonpost.com