MONTREAL – Did you hear the one about the priest, the rabbi and the imam? Father John Walsh didn’t have to say where the trio was headed because everyone could see them on stage together.
The Catholic priest, Rabbi Michael Whitman and Imam Zijad Delic were guest speakers at an interfaith iftar, the celebratory breaking of the fast after sundown during the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan.
The June 16 fundraising event was held by McGill University’s International Community Action Network (ICAN), which for more than 20 years has been bringing Jewish and Arab Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and, for the first time last year, a Syrian, together to study and work towards a special master’s social work degree in civil society building.
READ: MONTREAL COMMUNITY A BEACON OF INTERFAITH HARMONY
More than 50 men and women have completed the two-year fellowship program (formerly the McGill Middle East Peace Program), during which they return to their homelands to work in what are now 11 community centres in disadvantaged neighourhoods, putting to work the skills they acquired here in advocacy for basic social rights.
The chair of ICAN’s advisory board is Stephen Hecht, founder of Million Peacemakers, which offers conflict resolution training around the world. Its executive director is Amal Elsana Alh’jooj, a Bedouin from Israel, who was in the first fellowship group.
The spirit of the evening was one of peace and common humanity, with each of the clerics calling for members of their respective religions to reach out to others.
Rabbi Whitman, spiritual leader of the modern Orthodox Adath Israel Congregation, said, “God wants, above all else, for his children to live together in peace…Tonight is a power example of this lesson.”
Referring to the mass murder in Orlando, Fla., Rabbi Whitman said that, besides the 49 dead, “there is another victim that has been falsely and wrongly connected with what happened…Islam.”
Delic, who serves the South Nepean Muslim Community of Ottawa, condemned extremists who claim to act in the name of Islam.
“I have been a target for them because I openly oppose everything they do and say,” he said. He was disturbed to hear young people in the mosque saying they “could never be a citizen of this Catholic – meaning non-believing – society. To me this is an insult; my religion demands that we be faithful citizens. We have a social contract with Canada.”
Delic called for interfaith action, not just dialogue.
“Canadian Muslims cannot think other people need to do our job; we need to stop complaining and present ourselves in a better light.”
The Muslim population has grown rapidly in the last 30 years to about 1.3 million, the Bosnian native added, but many “have not settled properly and most of our leaders are imported.”
Walsh said the Catholic Church has evolved since he was ordained 50 years ago when it was a “cultic” religion concerned only with what occurred within the church.
He urged those of differing faiths to learn from, not about, each other. “I’ve been in interfaith for 40 years, and I still learn every day that I have to change. Someday the world will change, if we change.”
Walsh feels youths are turning to radical groups because they “make them feel they belong, that they are strong. We are not offering our young people that anymore.”
Rabbi Whitman added that those of faith have to be prepared to “go into the world and address questions of the world,” no matter how difficult or uncomfortable. “It’s not enough to just speak in the synagogue, mosque or church,” he said.
READ: ON THIS TINY MONTREAL ISLAND, CHRISTIANS, MUSLIMS AND JEWS PRAY UNDER THE SAME ROOF
Walsh concurred that Catholics have to “step out, do the unconventional; don’t be afraid of making mistakes.”
Delic responded: “What I preach in the mosque is what I preach outside. Double talk is not acceptable in the Muslim tradition.”
Delic then recited the call to prayer that ended the day’s fast.
Proceeds from the evening will go toward bringing a Syrian to the ICAN program next year, who will work with Syrian refugees in East Amman, Jordan.
ICAN is organizing a trip to Israel, Jordan and the West Bank next May open to anyone interested in seeing its activities, which will be led by Soryl Rosenberg and Brian Bronfman.
