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The
2004 Parliament of World Religions was organized in partnership with the Universal
Forum of Cultures – Barcelona 2004 (which runs from May to September) and
in association with the UNESCO Centre of Catalonia. 8000 Religious and
spiritual practitioners from all over the world converged to Barcelona to
greet and meet each other in peace. 400 carefully selected
seminars,
workshops, performances and films were offered in the PWR program. They addressed
three core themes: Sustainable development, Cultural
diversity and Conditions for peace through spiritual practice, religious identity, and
intra- and inter-religious dialogue. The Forum was supported by the presence
of people like The Archbishop of Barcelona, Dr. Abdullah
Omar
Nasseef (President of the Muslim World Congress), Ela Gandhi
(granddaughter
of Mahatama Gandhi), Rabbi Henry J. Sobel (Chief Rabbi of Brazil) and many more.
What
was I doing there? I’ve been dabbling in interfaith dialogue since I
moved to Canada in 1989, but 9/11 threw me into the heart of this
discourse – something I call ‘damage control’. Last year, I saw a
call for papers for PWR and I immediately called my partners in interfaith
dialogue, Karen and Barbara and said, “I’m going – are you coming with me?” They were thrilled at
the
opportunity with the venue in Barcelona being a bonus. We worked
together on a proposal titled “Keeping the Path Clear - Women
engaging in Inter-faith, Inter-action and Inter-relationships”. By June 2004 we hadn’t heard back from PWR but we decided to go anyway.
At the end of June, I was looking through the online program and I found
our names – our proposal had been accepted!
For
me, this was a journey from the heart. Whenever I read or talked about
Muslim history, I used to imagine the rich Muslim, Jewish and Christian heritage of Spain when the three faiths lived in harmony and reached out
to each other spiritually and intellectually. Here was a chance to promote
that
same essence of pluralism and I felt specially blessed to be chosen for
this
opportunity. It was only later I discovered how fortunate we were to
be
chosen from among the thousands of proposals that were submitted.
On
our first day in Barcelona, as Barb, Karen and I were riding the Metro to
the Fourm site, we met a couple wearing PWR badges and started chatting.
As we exchanged names the lady said “so you are Raheel Raza?” I was
taken aback! She is the Vice President of PWR and she knew me through our
proposal, which she said she personally approved because there weren’t
too many women presenters for interfaith dialogue. We were thrilled
and humbled at the same time – to be invited to present along with
Priests, Imams and Rabbis, theologians like Hans Kung and Tariq Ramadan,
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Adolfor Perez Esquivel (the Portuguese writer),
activists like Susan George and authors like Deepak Chopra - it was a
gift.
The
Forum site is a 30-hectare space next to the Mediterranean Sea and an
extension of the waterfront that began with the 1992 Olympic Games. It was
a
sight for sore eyes and hearts. A sea of people in colors of the
world.Dresses, voices, faces of diversity. The orange robes of Buddhist
monks
mingling with white dresses of the Sufis – everyone stopped and wished
each
other in peace, smiled and sometimes spontaneously hugged each other. This
was beyond tolerance – it was embracing each other and this ambience
permeated the entire forum. You could see people communicating in halls,
corridors, pathways and waiting areas.
Throughout
the Forum site there were 4 major exhibitions, 22 smaller shows,
400 concerts, 170 music groups, 60 street performances and 4 circuses. No
matter where you went, there were interactive installations, markets,
games and fun. Two permanent exhibits were remarkable: Voices and Corners Make
Cities. The event was hi-tech and well organized with hundreds of
youth volunteers from all over the world.
Our
trio caused some surprise – a yogi nun from America who had heard Shirin Ebadi Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2003, speak at the plenary told
me she had never met such strong Muslim women before and she hoped we
would change the world! Shirin Ebadi, stated in the opening of the
Parliament of the World’s Religions, “human rights cannot be protected
with bombs” and denounced the despotic behaviour of those “who ignore
human rights and democracy with the argument of belonging to a different
culture and shadow dictatorial regimes with religious and nationalistic
arguments.”
In
her address speech Ebadi defended that Islam is compatible with respect for human rights and democracy. She went on to state, “God has made
human beings different but the ultimate goal of all religions is the
pursuit of happiness and thus all religions can share the things they have
in common.”
We
attended as many dialogue sessions as we could, sometimes together and
other times separately. It was difficult to choose from almost 100
sessions a day on topics ranging from Atheism to Zoroastrianism.
Barb attended a session where she heard the stories of Christian,
Muslim, Jewish and Druze women about why they meet together regularly in
Palestine and Jerusalem to get to know each other and understand each
other despite suicide bombings, assassinations and wars. “It was truly
an inspiration” says Barb, “If these women, who have suffered and
seen so much, are able to work together to stop wars and to help create
peace, then surely, this can be done anywhere!”
Karen
attended a variety of sessions including one on the religious content of
the current "Lord of the Rings" film series. Her reaction was
“As the people of the world's faiths we came a long way to this
Parliament and we came a long way together in this Parliament. We noted
that there is still a long way to go as the faiths of the world learn to
be with one another and with people of no faith. It was also a part of the
reality of this awesome event that some faiths present felt discriminated
against even while there. It was also a part of the reality of this event
that the role and acceptance of women in inter-faith dialogue is still an
open question and that some of the really difficult and painful questions
about the role of faith in our current world situation were not being
asked.”
Three
of us always met for lunch at the same place – The Parliament by the
Sea. This was a tent city set up on the seashore of the sea by the Sikh
community of Birmingham, U.K. Here volunteers from the Sikh community ages
16 to 60 first welcomed people, then poured water on their hands, gave
people headscarves and served lunch, drinks and water to almost 6000
people a day. They also invited participants to pray in their scared
spaces tent. My longing for ‘desi’ food was well satisfied with pooris
(fried bread), daal (lentils), chawal (rice)and achaar (Pickle).
Our
presentation was slotted for Saturday July 10 at 11:30 and we
arrived
there early – nervous because we had no way of knowing how many people
would attend. To our delight a trustee from PWR came to introduce
our session and told us how important it was to acknowledge the work we
are doing – wow we felt honoured. Our room filled up soon with diverse
people including some
Barcelona Muslims. At every level I felt we were blessed – our
translator was a Canadian volunteer who lived in Valencia, and she made
sure that nothing was lost in translation. Karen, Barb and I spoke about
the work we do and why we do it. Many in the audience were amazed at Karen
being a Minister. At the end of our session, we distributed little boxes
with a Canadian maple syrup candy, a Canada pin and a message saying
“Pray for Peace – Act for Peace” while we
played Dawud Wharnsby Ali’s song called “People of the Boxes” from
the CD “The Prophet’s Hands”. Later people came up to meet us.
A man wearing an Arab dress and a kufi, came to me, blessed me for the
work we do and to my surprise, had tears running down his face as he said,
“you make me proud to be Muslim”. It wasn’t the only time in
Barcelona that I felt touched to tears.
The
same evening, the City of Barcelona has arranged for “A Communities
Night” so that people of faith could meet their own communities in
different
parts of the city. Barbara and I went to Ramlas Raval and met the
Barcelona
Muslim community. There is a large Arab and Pakistani community active in
Barcelona and
the Imams of two mosques gave talks condemning violence and
terrorism which was heartening to hear and even more heartening to hear
that
after the Madrid train bombing, people of all faiths had joined together
in
Barcelona and
done candlelight vigils for peace. We then went and feasted
on Pakistani food at the Taj Mahal Restaurant and had real ‘chai’ for
the
first time since our visit.
Next
night, there was a Sacred Music concert at the Sagrada Familia (The
Sacred Family) Cathedral, which is one of the most outstanding landmarks
of Barcelona built by renowned architect Antoni Gaudi and still unfinished. It’s an awe-inspiring structure and this was the venue to the concert
where
ten religious traditions presented music, movement,
meditation and chants.
Karen says “It was humbling, it was challenging, it was inspiring. All
of the words of the songs, in whichever of God's languages they were
heard, all of the rhythms - the beat of the Japanese drums, the whirl of
the Sufi dancers, the clapping of the Gospel choir, the call for peace in
Hebrew and Arabic by Sheva, a Jewish-Muslim band, the chant of the
Buddhist monks - proclaimed the truth - Hallelujah, God is Great! The call
to all of us is to continue, with every breath we take, every word we
speak, every hand we touch to proclaim the depth of that truth.”
The moment was sublime – the message eternal and beyond barriers of
faith, culture or nationality. We were people of faith bound by our belief
in God. The concert ended with 10 children of 10 traditions holding up
peace lights.
And
of course there is Barcelona – the City of ‘veiled’ buildings,
stunning architecture and intricate fountains. We spent a day touring the
city on a typical on/off bus tour so we could wander. From the Place
de Catalunya, we visited The Old Quarter, Guell Park, Montjuic, Palau
Reial and went crazy shopping at the Poble Espanyol which is a Spanish
village built in 1929 with full scale
replicas of
traditional Spanish architecture. Here I was able to stroll the streets and squares of
Al-Andalus and Cordoba.
As
the Parliament of the World's Religions came to a close after a week of
debates centered around commitments on the issues of religious violence, access to safe water, the fate of refugees worldwide, and the elimination
of
developing countries' debts, religious leaders who convened the gathering deemed the event a success.
The
Council for a Parliament of the World's Religion's Executive Director Dirk Ficca said that one fundamental difference between this gathering and
others discussing the same subjects was that, "when people of faith
commit
to address religious violence and other pressing issues facing the global
community they follow through. We make a commitment not only to the world,
but out of a
deeply rooted religious or spiritual conviction. That is what
makes the
Barcelona Parliament commitments so special, and why this year's Parliament in Barcelona is going to make an impact.”
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