OVER THE EDGE September 26 - Octeber 10, 2007 War on Religion JEREMY JOHNSON STAFF WRITER On the anniversary of September 11, a World Religion Con- ference was held in the Canfor Theatre called, “The Response to War on Religion.” It is probably best to describe what this conference wasn’t. It wasn’t a debate between different religious beliefs with regards to everything surrounding the tragic events that took place in New York six years ago. In- stead, it was an information conference where repre- sentatives of each religious perspective shared their thoughts on war in general. While the terrorist attacks and Iraq were hot topics, the speakers discussed how, in general, war affects people of different faiths: The conferece“was mod- erated by ‘Councillor Shirley Gratton. Gratton was voted to become a city councillor for the city of Prince George in 1996.. Colin Kinsley, Prince ‘Geotge city mayor since: 4996, was also present at the “debate:: The confer: ence. , started'with. a recitation froma The Hely Qur’an. Mr. Leonard~ Ward, who represented aboriginal faiths, was the first speaker to talk about. his perspec- tive on war. He commented on how war is not generally a part of aboriginal beliefs, since they are focussed on respect for the earth, the uni- verse and mankind. How- ever, the assimilation of Aboriginal Peoples by early settlers did have a negative effect on his people. Inter- estingly enough, he didn’t touch on any involvement in the world wars, even though Aboriginal Peoples were drafted by the government into participating in them. This likely indicated that the local impacts of residential schools and colonial oppression had a much deeper effect. Mr. John R DeGrace, representing Buddhism, had an inter- esting perspective. He commented on how skills and intention are important. He then referenced an anecdote about how one Buddhist developed a database system intended on helping people organize information much more easily. Then, someone bought the system for a large sum of money. He later found out that this person worked for the government and his database was being used for the “slaughter of people”. Obviously, this was never the intention of this database. Buddhists generally avoid conflict and harm, keeping towards constructive action. Bishop Gordon Light, an Anglican Bishop representing TYLER CLARKE, PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Judaism perspective representative Michael Barkusky speaks to one of the World Religion Conference vol- unteers shortly before the event began, September 11. Christianity, discussed how Christians were responsible for things like the Crusades and how he was ashamed such events taking place in the first place by people of similar beliefs. Mr. Naseem Mahdi, representing the Islamic faith, talked about how the events of 9/11 being claimed in the name of Islam were an exploitation of the Islamic belief. He assured everyone that a vast majority of the Islamic people have re- jected the events and that they also viewed the events as a desecration to Islam. He talked about how things such as sui- cide bombing and the killing of innocent people were sins that go completely against what the Qur’an says. He stressed that Islam is about peace and that it is only a very small group of extremists who took the Qur’An out of context and used such exploitation for political gain. Mr. Michael Barkusky, fepresenting the Jewish faith, also had an insightful view. He commented on how people in places like Iraq need stable zoning laws because many instan- ces of civil instability arose from poor zoning laws. He elaborated on the fact that it is extremely difficult to figure out who owns what land in places like Iraq. He referred to religious faith as a continuous struggle. Mr. Avtar Singh Grewal, representing Sikhism, com- mented on how, in his be- lief, there is no monopoly in who has access to God. He also touched on how no one should have the right to impose their beliefs on others — and his faith for- bids imposing his religion onto others. He also, like everyone else, condemned the attacks of September 11, 2001. While there are many different angles expressed by each perspective, the general caution is that their thoughts on the mat- ter won’t necessarily com- pletely reflect different sects in their respective religions. All the perspec- tives had the common theme that war was bad. Some felt self defence is OK, but that was the extent of any difference of opinion. The event was sponsored by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Com- munity. You can visit www.ahmadiyya.ca/be for more infor- mation such as future conferences.