In communion with the Philippines’ Catholic Church which is dedicated to the Year of Ecumenism, Interreligious Dialogue and Indigenous People, with the theme is “Dialogue towards Harmony”, the Xaverian Community of theology organized an interreligious activity on Saturday afternoon, February 01, which gathered around 100 young people and most of them were youth.The guests were members of the ‘RESKYU’ (Rescuers Educations Seeking to keep Youth United) who are scholars from the University of the Philippines (UP) engaged in promoting interreligious dialogue through training youth to become leaders and serve those who are in need due to the earthquake, lifesaver, first aid, and etc.
The meeting started at 2:30 pm by welcoming the participants and opening prayer, followed by animation, interaction to know each other (name, country, age, and etc) and game organized by our Muslims friends whose purpose was to work in the group. At the end of the game, some members of the group were invited to share their experiences and perceptions about this activity. They underlined the importance of the strategies, cooperation, and unity to achieve the aim of any project.
At 3:45 pm it was break time and moment to interlace friendship among the participants. After the break, there was a time for group sharing on these three questions: What comes first into your mind when you hear or see a Muslim/Christian? What is your personal experience with a Muslim/Christian? What can I/we do in order to promote fraternity with different religions?
The participants shared approximately for 40 minutes, and in the end, the representatives of each group shared their answers in a large group. They emphasized that the first image about others (Muslim/Christian) is in many times followed by fear, distortion, bias, which starts to change inasmuch as we come to know others. In the activities, people open their minds and overcome prejudices. Recognizing that despite the belief differences, there is always room to dialogue and to work together for a better world. According to them, there are positive experiences of encountering happening among different people because the starting point of the dialogue is to recognize that all of us is a human being. This awareness is bigger than any other difference and it gives reason to journey together.
Following the same line, Mr. Ahmed Saliddin (vice-president of RESKYU) gave talking about “Peace in Islam”, He was asking the participants if they knew the meaning of the words ‘Islam’ and ‘Muslim’. According to him, “Muslim” means the one who submits, obeys, and surrounds himself/herself to the will of the One God. In this sense, Christians and Muslims do the same, because both of them submit to the will God. He called attention to perceive what is the source of our knowledge about other religions/people. From his point of view, our understanding which come from the media we have accessed (and most of the times the information) is not true. Some religions are portrayed in a negative aspect and this image causes fear in the people. He finished his talking saying that in reality, Islam, since the beginning is promoting peace, and peace to all people. This is the real message of Islam.
At the end of his talk, there was an open forum of questions and aswers which helped us to know and understand more about Islam as a peaceful religion. It was concluded with dinner shared with all as a sign of thanks. May God continues to give us strength, wisdom, and creativity to build dialogue and to spread peace in our society.
