Source: Airdrieecho

By Dawn Smith

The room was packed for the seventh annual World Religions Conference at Airdrie’s Town and Country Centre, May 18.

Hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim community, the event brought four speakers from diverse religions. together.

The topic of the evening was Building Bridges of Mutual Respect and Goodwill and the first speaker was Lee Crowchild, of the Tsuu T’ina Nation, who represented Native Spirituality.

Crowchild spoke about the upcoming summer ceremonies, such as sun dances, which he said are sacrifices and pledges to the Creator.

“We are really people of the land,” he said. “We accept people for who they are and have no judgement.”

Crowchild spoke about the historical mistakes made by the Canadian government towards the First Nations people: the broken treaties and residential schools.

“We learned to forgive… because it’s still our land, and we reach out to those who suppressed us,” said Crowchild, noting compassion and forgiveness builds bridges.

Jenny Laing, the director of education at Temple B’nai Tikvah Shabbat School in Calgary, spoke from the Jewish perspective.

She discussed the importance of dialogue between people of different cultures, religions and beliefs as a means of building a bridge.

“We need to sit down face to face, and then we need to stop talking and start listening,” she said.

“We can actually change the world.”

Robert Anderson, a longtime Airdrian and lawyer, spoke from the perspective of Christianity.

A member of the local Latter Day Saints church, he spoke about the centrality of Jesus to his belief system.

“Nothing works in our religion without Jesus Christ,” said Anderson, noting the way to build a bridge between people of different faiths is by understanding one another’s beliefs through dialogue.

Taha Syed, the Imam at Calgary’s Baitun Nur Mosque, said the way to save the world is by sharing a message of love.

He said he is particularly appalled by the violence and terrorism being committed by other Muslims.

“These are not the teachings of Islam,” said Syed. “People are required to work togehter to do good works.”

Syed also spoke about the importance of tolerance, mutual respect and nonjudgement.

“We must accept all people as they are,” he said. “We are not to judge them; it’s up to God to judge.”

The evening concluded with a question-and-answer session and time for socializing.

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