I’m part of a team organising an inter-faith forum on peacemaking, being held as a follow-up to the Gold Coast Project Abraham forum held in September.
The Project Abraham Community Forum on Peacemaking will be held on Sunday, November 12, 2 to 5 pm at Nerang Bicentennial Community Centre, Nerang-Southport Rd, on the Gold Coast.
The Project Abraham concept comes from the tradition held in common by Jews, Christians and Muslims. Each of these faiths includes the Abraham narratives in their scriptures. Here on the Gold Coast a group of leaders from each of the three faiths gathered to host a travelling exhibition and a community forum on hospitality.
Now’s the time for making peace. There’s been a lot of media coverage of Muslim beliefs and practices over the last few weeks, particularly with reported comments from Ramadan sermons. Australians each read or hear about controversy regarding the rights of women. In overseas news we have been hearing about conflicts in areas that affect Jews, Muslims and Christians - Lebanon and Israel for example.
So what do the traditions and scriptures of each religion have to say about making peace? As the facilitator for the day I’ll be exploring the story of Abraham’s peacemaking in the wake of war.
First speaker is Uri Themal, Rabbi at Temple Shalom on the Gold Coast, and former director of Multicultural Affairs Queensland. Uri recently returned from a conference in Paris where he delivered a paper on Jewish perspectives on war and peace.
The second speaker will be Imraan Husain, Imam of the Gold Coast Mosque (Islamic Society of the Gold Coast). Imam Husain has been in the Gold Coast news constantly over the last few weeks, providing a moderate Muslim perspective on a so-called ‘honour killing’ and calling for people to reconciliation rather than hostility.
Third speaker will be Tony Kitchen, executive officer - education at Queensland Catholic Education Commission. Tony’s background in Catholic education has focused on peace education, peace building and capacity building.
Pictured below are speakers from the first forum in September: Chief Justice Paul De Jersey, Imam Imraan Husain, (Anglican) Bishop Ron Williams, Rabbi Uri Themal.
The Community Forum will have kosher and halaal food provided by the Jewish and Muslim communities. The Christians are organising the tea, coffee and cold drinks.
The afternoon will include 90 minutes of questions and discussion. My hope is that people will meet and get to know people from other faiths, putting into practice the call for peacemaking.
Earlier this week I had the privilege of chairing a lecture by visiting Muslim scholar and imam, Abduljalil Sajid. He was speaking at an Initiatives of Change gathering hosted by Elanora Uniting Church.
Imam Sajid’s topic for the evening was “Being a Muslim in the West”. The local audience, mostly Christian, were interested to explore ways in which the Gold Coast could grow as a multi-faith multi-cultural multi-ethnic community.
The Gold Coast community was reeling from coverage of an ‘honour killing’ in which a Muslim man killed his wife when he disccovered his daughter planned to convert to Christianity. Local media had suggested that this murder had been an expression of Muslim culture. Fortunately Imam Hussein, the local Muslim leader, had been featured in the Gold Coast Bulletin explaining that this case was more about personal fear and pride. Imam Sajid over dinner and during his lecture distinguished between local customs and culture and the mandate set out in the Qur’an.
Imam Sajid gave us a summary of the origins of Islam, helping us understand the phases of Muhammad’s life and teaching. We heard about Imam growing up in Pakistan, learning to study the Qur’an, learning English, Bengali, and moving to the United Kingdom for PhD studies.
The story that stays with me is the impact of hospitality on Imam Sajid’s life and work. Staying in a London hostel Imam was forming a poor impression of life in the UK. Coming from a large gregarious family he was used to lively conversation. But in his first year in London he only encountered people intent on maintaining privacy, whether that be in the hostel, on public transport or in lectures. It wasn’t until he responded to an invitation for a Christmas home stay that he discovered a family that lived out values of dialogue, service and hospitality. The family turned out to be that of a Christian minister.
It was in his interaction with this family that Imam discovered in himself a passion for living a life of passionate faith, more than the loyal submission he’d been living up to that point. From that point he set up Islamic societies and became involved in interfaith projects that helped form a warmer environment for migrants.
The story wouldn’t have sat well with those who’d like the story to end with conversion to Christianity. But it’s a lot more desirable than inter-faith interactions that end in hostility, misunderstanding and resentment.
I came away from the gathering encouraged to keep on taking initiative in building relationships with people in my own community, despite my own fears of rejection or feelings of discomfort.
Pictured here are Lesley Bryant (local organiser), Glennis Johnston (Uniting Church minister in Elanora), Daphne McDonald (Gold Coast City Councillor), Imam Abduljalil Sajid and myself.
I’m part of a group of Christians, Jews and Muslims on the Gold Coast preparing for ‘Project Abraham’, a forum and exhibition being launched on September 10. The project is connected with an initiative of Jewish and Muslim leaders in Adelaide last year.
On Sunday September 10 we’ll be holding a forum at the Gold Coast Arts Centre, focusing on “Eating and Drinking at Abraham’s Table”, food and drink in the three Abrahamic faiths. This will be a little different to the usual summaries of faith and practice given at inter-faith dialogues. We’re working together in the afternoon to explore ways in which the Gold Coast community can proactively engage with the rich traditions brought by overseas tourists. At this time of year, for example, we have a lot of tourists from United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. I’ve been told that even back in the 1970s Surfers Paradise was known in Victoria as “Surfers Palestine”.
The exhibition will include artifacts and photographs from the three Abrahamic faiths. I’m working as a Uniting Church in Australia participant with representatives of the Anglican and Catholic churches in the North Gold Coast region. The Uniting Church doesn’t have anywhere near the number of artifacts and worship aids found in the two more traditional denominations. The other two have collected most of the work and given me the job of putting them together.
The Gold Coast City Council has provided the venue and two staff to work with the coordinating team. Funding comes from the Australian government’s Living In Harmony programme. Local schools are being invited to send students to the exhibition and participate in an educational programme.
Earlier this week I had the privilege of chairing a lecture by visiting Muslim scholar and imam, 
