REGINA — St. Anne’s Catholic Church will open its doors for people to talk about religion in a different way.
Instead of the usual prayers and service, the Archdiocese of Regina together with the Islamic Association of Saskatchewan (Regina), the Regina Multifaith Forum, Luther College and Campion College are holding the third part of their four-evening Muslim-Christian Dialogue.
One of the two speakers is Zarqa Nawaz from Regina. The Muslim comedy writer is famous for creating the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie.
“I love speaking in Saskatchewan; it’s home for me,” said Nawaz.
“I think we still need to talk to each other and communicate with each other. There is a lot of false information that’s floating around.”
Nicholas Jesson is the ecumenical officer of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina. He knows how important it is for society and religious groups to have a conversation.
“We have a responsibility to be attentive to the different communities within our society and making sure there are healthy relationships between them,” said Jesson.
“The Muslim population of Regina has grown … that means that there are more and more occasions where we see those examples of intolerance and we don’t want those to be part of our society … There is no reason why Christians and Muslims need to be in conflict.”
Between 80 and 110 participants came to the previous two panel presentations to learn more about each other and to address stereotypes about Islam.
Erin Reid was slated to be the second speaker of Monday’s presentation. She is the co-founder and regional director for Alberta for the Centre for Civic Religious Literacy. Reid is not a Christian but wants to inform people that religion doesn’t only exist as a private part of someone’s life.
“I think that developing that Christian Muslim dialogue is an incredibly important step for really increasing that religious literacy,” explained Reid.
“When I say literacy, I am not actually talking about understanding the religious texts. I am talking about understanding religious differences and knowing something about the other.”
Reid is particularly excited about meeting her co-speaker.
“I mean to be honest I am looking forward to hearing Zarqa,” said Reid.
“She is going to bring fun to the evening and I am just really interested to hear her stories. But I am also just interested to meet the people who are going to come out to an event like this. I think that this will be really rewarding.”
The theme of the third dialogue was “Muslims & Christians: Living Together.” The event was scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday. Admission to the series is free.
