A Jew and a Muslim talk about Gaza

In early January at the height of the fighting in Gaza, bFM’s Joe Nunweek rang up Anjum Rahman and myself to pick up the conversation from where we left off from our 2006 Aotearoa Ethnic Network Journal articles on Jewish and Muslim perspectives on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Here are the bFM podcasts:

Dave Moskovitz:

Anjum Rahman:

The bottom line: While Anjum and I have different perspectives on history and the core issues, we continue to be good friends and seek to support those who work for peace.

Thanks to Joe and bFM for running excellent, balanced, and yet probing interviews.

Dave

Wellington Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Peace in the Middle East – audio

A group of about 100 people from many faiths gathered last night at St Andrew’s on the Terrace in Wellington New Zealand for an Interfaith Prayer Vigil and Candle Lighting for Peace in the Middle East.

It was a very moving ceremony and demonstrated the ability for many people from different faiths, ethnicities and political viewpoints to come together and pray for a common purpose.

Speakers included:

• Tiopira Rauna (LDS, Secretary of the Wellington Regional Interfaith Network)
• Dr Margaret Mayman (Reverand of St Andrew’s on the Terrace)
• Rev Godfrey Nicholson (Vicar of St Peter’s on Willis)
• Sultan Eusuf (Chief Officer, Federation of Islamic Associations)
• Rabbi Johanna Hershenson (Wellington Progressive Jewish Congregation)
• Ratilal Champaneri (President, NZ Indian Central Association)
• Carrie Coddington (Past Secretary, Baha’i Kapiti Network)
• Melanie Gregg and Lime (Soka Gakkai NZ)

You can download or listen to an audio recording (35 minutes, 16 MB):

NZ National Interfaith Forum 2009 Announcement

Plans are well underway for the 2009 National Interfaith Forum, hosted by the Auckland Interfaith Council. Mark your calendar now – the Forum will run from the evening of Friday, 27th February 2009, through Sunday, March 1st (midday).

There will be an exciting range of beautiful venues and interesting speakers, as well as entertainment and great food. The annual annual Women’s Interfaith Forum will precede the conference, on Friday 27th Feb, 9:30 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.

Programme details and registration forms will follow soon.

If you would like to receive regular updates about the forum, including programme and registration information, please sign yourself up to the interfaith forum announcement email list.

Dave

Religious Diversity Forum – impressions

I’ve been in Auckland the last couple of days at the New Zealand Diversity Forum, of which the Religious Diversity Forum was part. It was really great to see such great commitment from the NZ Government, top down from the Prime Minister Helen Clark, who gave a moving speech to the plenary celebrating the strength of diversity in New Zealand’s changing demographic landscape. An Australian delegation, led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner and Race Discrimination Commissioner Tom Calma also attended the forum.

About 200 people attended the first half-day Diversity Forum in 2005, which was held after two Jewish cemeteries were desecrated in Wellington. It has since grown to attract more than 1,000 people in an event that spans several days.

At the Religious Diversity Forum, Prof Paul Morris gave a good talk on religious communities’ right to safety and security, and went into some depth into research he’d carried out into religious perspectives on the issue. In the last few years, “minor events” of harassment (ie, where nobody was seriously injured) tend not to have been followed up so as to starve the perpetrators of the “oxygen of publicity” that they often seek in committing such acts. Paul suggests that it’s time to change this policy, and adopt zero-tolerance for attacks on religious communities.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Rob Pope responded with a prepared speech, but I felt that he didn’t have a grasp of the issues. More specifically, Rob seemed to conflate the concepts of race, nationality, ethnicity, and religion into a single entity – which is understandable, but also unhelpful getting to the crux of religious discrimination. I suspect that one of the key reasons for this is that the Human Rights Act covers race, gender, ethnicity and so on, but not religion. Pope also made reference to the Police’s Community Liaison Officers whose roles are modeled on Iwi Liaison Officers, but I’m unaware of any officers specifically dedicated to religious communities (in contrast to ethnic communities). Furthermore, in the recent Police action against Tuhoe, Māori liaison officers were left out of the loop; that’s not a particularly good model! Bottom line: the Police still have a long way to go before they’re asking the right questions, let alone providing the right answers. That said, they appear to be genuinely concerned, and they should be given some points for effort.

Anjum Rahman gave an account of discrimination against Muslim women – but says that things seem to be improving. Verpal Singh also gave an overview of the Sikh community in New Zealand, and highlighted the problem of people misunderstanding the kirpan. A further session addressed New Zealand’s considerable contribution to the UN’s Alliance of Civilisations programme.

The Religious Diversity Forum is where religious communities and the interfaith movement have the chance to interact with Government. That’s great, but the question of representation is a sticky one. Real progress happens at the grassroots, and there is a yawning gap between grassroots religious adherents and the religious elite and diehard interfaith junkies like myself who attend these fora. The Diversity Forum is relatively well funded, resourced, and backed by government agencies, but activities on the ground are performed by volunteers, generally self-funded on a shoestring budget. Real progress will require broader engagement. This need not be expensive or extensive, but it will need to have more consideration applied than is being done at present.

Dave

NZ CCJ Massah 25 now online

The latest issue of Massah, the six-monthly publication of the New Zealand
Council of Christians and Jews, is now online at:

http://www.ccj.org.nz/massah/

In this issue:
* Paul – Founder of Christianity, or faithful Jew?
* Is it Possible to Teach the New Testament without being Anti-Semitic?
* Jewish – Christian Relations in Israel
* NZ Women’s Interfaith activities

Happy reading

Dave

Multifaith 2008 Conference at University of Auckland

The University of Auckland has announced a Multifaith Conference to be held 8-9 September 2008, themed on “Uni-Diversity: The challenges of Change”.

“…[R]eligious diversity confronts us with many challenges. The place of religion itself in the public arena, the accommodation of various religious practices in public institutions such as schools and universities, or the real fear of religious conflict are just some of the questions that have no ready answers and require serious consideration.”

Speakers include Paul Weller (Derby, UK), Toh Swee-Hin (Griffith University, Aus), Douglas Pratt (Waikato, NZ), Javed Khan (FIANZ, NZ), Sylvia Bell (Human Rights Commission, NZ), and Paul Morris (Victoria Uni, NZ).