Representatives from a pair of Peninsula churches are organizing an evening aimed at dispelling misinformation and fear regarding Muslims.
Meet Your Muslim Neighbours, 7 p.m. Jan. 21 at First United Church (15385 Semiahmoo Ave.), is to feature two speakers – Sireen El-Nasher and Mufti Aasim Rashid – who will share information on their faith and answer questions.
The idea grew from discussions among the three United Churches in the area around sponsoring a refugee family, explained First United Church Rev. Louise Cummings.
“We got concerned this fall around the plight of Syrian refugees particularly, and the promises of the government (to help) that are really not materializing,” Cummings said Tuesday.
The hope is an application to sponsor a four- or five-member Syrian family will be ready by the end of March.
In that context, Meet Your Muslim Neighbours was proposed.
Cummings and Crescent United Church council chair Peter Jones said the timing of the event – just two weeks after attackers stormed the offices of a satirical publication in Paris, killing 12 – is simply coincidence. The date was set in December.
But they believe there is no time like the present to build awareness and understanding.
“There’s a tendency for us to stick with what we know about other people and other faiths,” Cummings said. “For me, this is an opportunity to get outside of my own group.
“We’re cousins, Christians and Muslims, but we don’t know each other very well, and we’ve had some bad family history.”
Jones added that most people in the world are “connected in some way through religion.”
“What we’re trying to do is just open up a conversation.”
El-Nasher, a settlement worker with SUCCESS – a non-profit organization that assists newcomers to Canada – who came to North America in 1984 as a refugee, said she will likely share simple facts about Islam at Wednesday’s event, as well as answer questions.
She believes such dialogue helps bridge communities.
“We’re all living together, we need to understand each other, get to know one another.”
For more information on the event or the churches’ efforts to sponsor a Syrian family, call 604-531-4850 or email firstucminister@telus.net