"The central idea is to remove misconceptions, remove distrust and provide a platform where people can come together and discuss topics that are relevant to people's day-to-day living and provide a platform where people can ask questions."
Source/Credit: Hay River Hub
By Paul Bickford | June 8, 2016
Presenters talked on Islam, Christianity, Dene spirituality and possibly Buddhism
A long-running conference on religions will be held at the Don Stewart Recreation Centre later this month.
"This is going to be the first year in Hay River," said Calgary's Basheer Islam, a conference organizer with Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada. Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at is a non-profit organization that emphasizes peace for all and hatred for none. The movement was founded in India in 1889 and now has chapters in 197 countries.
The gathering in Hay River on June 26 is called a World Religions Conference in which representatives of or experts on several religions discuss various belief systems.
The organizer said Mayor Brad Mapes has agreed to be the moderator for the conference, and two of the possibly four presenters will be Father Don Flumerfelt of Our Lady of Assumption Roman Catholic Church and K'atlodeeche First Nation Chief Roy Fabian, who will speak on Dene spirituality.
Islam said another speaker may present the Buddhist perspective.
"There will be an Ahmadiyya Muslim presenting the Islamic perspective, as well," he said, adding that this representative might be an imam from Calgary or Edmonton.
Fabian is looking forward to the opportunity to speak at the gathering.
"The conference is about spirituality, in general. What spirituality is practiced by the different religions," said the chief. "So they asked me if I would talk about Dene spirituality. For me, I thought it would be interesting to do that. I think I can offer some comments, anyway."
"They don't know very much about it," he said, adding that even Dene people don't know very much about their traditional spirituality.
Fabian said the residential schools system and cultural oppression have diminished Dene understanding of their own spirituality.
The World Religions Conference began more than 100 years ago in India, and since then has been held in many cities and towns around the world, including in Yellowknife.
"The purpose really is to bring communities and various faith groups together and start a dialogue," said Islam, who is a software engineer in Calgary. "The central idea is to remove misconceptions, remove distrust and provide a platform where people can come together and discuss topics that are relevant to people's day-to-day living and provide a platform where people can ask questions."
Islam also explained the conference is not a debate where participants argue over things.
Participants and people in the audience can write questions on cards, and they are posed by the moderator.
"The audience gets a chance to ask questions but they ask questions in written format because otherwise it just becomes a debate," said Islam. The organizer said the conference is not just about countering misconceptions about the religion of Islam.
"Of course, there are a lot of misconceptions about Islam," he said. "There are a lot of misconceptions about Buddhism or even native spirituality. There are misconceptions about any religious group."
The organizer said this will be the ninth year the conference will be held in Yellowknife, also on June 26.
The theme of this year's conference is Building Bridges of Understanding and Mutual Respect.
It will be a free event open to the public, and begins 1 p.m. on June 26.
This year, Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada will be holding conferences in several communities in northern Alberta and northern B.C. – Peace River, Grande Prairie, Dawson Creek and Whitecourt.
The organization has held conferences in Calgary for 20 years and in Toronto for about 35 years.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'at Canada has been in the country since 1966.
(TOA note: The story is posted post-event for archival pupooses and the most of the picture included above are from the actual event held.)
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Courtesy: Kalim Ahmad
Read original post here: Canada: Religion conference coming to Hay River for the first time
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