Interfaith at UFT

Interfaith at UFT

If you haven’t met Fr. Terry Gallagher you have missed almost half of your life of warmth and true respect for Islam from a practicing Christian. This Ramadan he hosted the youth council at UFT Multi Faith Centre, Toronto. This was in collaboration with the Scarborro Missions. Earlier this summer one of their outstanding reverends, David Warren spoke at dinner with Dr Munir El Kassem on poverty and what Jesus would have done about it at NAMF.

While the Muslim presence was near absent the UFT conference, read Ramadan blues and not being on a school day, the discussions centered around how youths can make a difference through their spirituality and social activism. What is respect; love and spirituality were among the topics discussed.

Over and over again we are told about the importance of joining hands in combating social problems. We are invited repeatedly to lend support on interfaith initiatives. But how many times we ourselves are the organizers of such events? Before Ramadan a debate was organized at North America Muslim foundation convention hall where Jonathan Kay front the National Post and Dr David Liepert from Calgary challenged each other on freedom of speech versus freedom of religion. The audience was definitely a mixture of religious backgrounds. The session ended respectfully with lots of Q/A thanks to the Faith of Life network support. More of these sessions are definitely needed. As a matter of fact a session of elections and what it will do for Muslims in Canada is much needed.