This Saturday, big questions on freedom of expression and respect for religious sanctities will be on the table for the first World Religions Conference in Drumheller.
Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama’at Alberta is hosting the discussion at the Badlands Community Facility this Saturday afternoon. Organizers have invited scholars from Christianity, Native Spirituality, Islam and Atheism to discuss the subject.
Sultan Mahmood, spokesperson for the organization said it is part of his religious tradition to have these kinds of discussions.
“We have been holding conferences all over the world, in Alberta and in Calgary. The purpose of these conferences is to provide a platform to various faith groups to come and speak on a selected topic.”
He says this event’s topic, freedom of expression and respect for religious sanctities is relevant.
“For the last couple years, especially after the attack in Paris this became a quite important topic to discuss,” he said. “What we want to achieve is faith groups to come together and talk about these various ongoing issues in society, bringing forward their perspectives from their holy book or scriptures.”
Each speaker will get an opportunity to speak, and then there is time for question and answer session focused on the topic.
If time allows he said there may be time to talk about different topics and gain more understanding.
He says often different faith groups finds common ground.
“In my experience, and I been involved for more than 20 years, I find at the end of the day there is more commonalties. There are differences, there is no doubt about it, and we don’t shy away from them… I find we can better understand each other through these dialogues.”
The World Religion Conference event is at the Badlands Community Facility on Saturday, August 15. Doors open at 1 p.m., and the program begins at 1:30 p.m.
Registration before the event is recommended. Call 1-888-628-5435, or go to www.islamevents.ca/Drumheller.
