Study Series in Winnipeg Series Targets Misconceptions about Muslims
"We thought because we are in the middle of a one-year sponsorship of Syrian refugees, this was the perfect opportunity to learn about Islam," says Rev. Loraine MacKenzie Shepherd about a five-week study series on Islam and Christianity.
Last fall, the River Heights church, along with members of Muslim and Jewish communities, sponsored six adults and 18 children from Syria. The multi-faith sponsorship group, called REFUGE, has raised about $100,000 of the $120,000 needed to sponsor these three families for their first 12 months in Canada.
Running during the Christian season of Lent, the 40 days before Easter, the free series covers topics such as violence, reading difficult passages in the Quran and the Bible, and issues of hate, violence and racism in both faiths, says MacKenzie Shepherd.
"We’re trying to have a dialogue. We’re trying not to learn just about Islam, but learn about Islam in dialogue with Christianity."
That dialogue includes setting up a room in the church for Muslims attending the series to pray during evening prayer times.
What Canadian Muslims want their neighbours to understand is Islam has a long history of calling its adherents to promote good, help those in need and work for justice, says Winnipeg lawyer Omar Siddiqui, a volunteer with the Islamic Social Services Association.
"The core values of Islam — social, political economic and environmental justice, peace, equality, human rights — are values shared by all Canadians," says Siddiqui, who opens the series Monday with a presentation on fundamentals of Islam.
He says Muslims often have to face misconceptions about their faith and endure being "talked about, talked at and talked over with a prevailing narrative that uses Islamophobic rhetoric."
Another misconception surrounds the dress of Muslim women and that covering their hair or face is a sign of oppression, says Siddiqui’s mother, Shahina Siddiqui, executive director the Islamic Social Services Association, who speaks on women’s status and dress March 14.
She says wearing a headscarf or the hijab represents a personal expression of religious beliefs and is not a matter for political debate, as in last October’s federal election.
In Islam, men and women are required to dress modestly, she says, calling modesty a frame of mind.
"Extravagance would be discouraged, waste would be discouraged," she says.
Source: Winnipeg Free Press
