Youth Interfaith Symposium organized by MKA NoJ - 05/23/2011

Alhamdolillah, MKA NoJ held its first youth interfaith event yesterday at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque (Bait-ul Wahid) Mosque in Clifton, NJ.  The topic was ‘Humanity in my Faith’. Speakers from six different faiths talked about (15 min each) the significance of humanitarian work in their faith and how they were working towards alleviating human suffering and pain in the world today. The six religions represented were:

1.  Christianity - Megan Fitzsimmons
2.  Judaism - Rabbi Maury Kelman
3.  Islam - Kashif Chaudhry
4.  Buddhism - Ken Baxer
5.  Hinduism - Abhishek Senjalia
6.  Sikhism - Satjeet Kaur Ji

In all, approximately 60 people attended, most were youth. There was a question and answer session with youth leaders of all faiths. The President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community North Jersey Chapter, Mr Hafiz Sami Chaudhary Sahib delivered the concluding address at the occasion and the event ended with an Interfaith Dinner.

The event was organized by MKA NoJ.  The sole purpose was to promote interfaith understanding and since we the youth of today will define our tomorrow, we chose to demonstrate that we are one and that we will fight human suffering together with love and continued humanitarian work.

The statistics presented during the presentations on the extent of poverty, disease, illiteracy, hunger and conflict affecting humankind were alarming at best. Every 3.6 sec for instance, someone dies of hunger. During our 2.5 hour program, 3000 people had died of hunger. We were very moved by these stats and vowed to increase humanitarian work and instead of doing it separately, to join hands to get better results. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community took the opportunity to announce an upcoming blood drive and welcomed all faiths to its ongoing activities in North Jersey which include soup kitchens and Adopt-A-Family initiatives. The community’s International charity, Humanity FIRST (www.humanityfirst.org), was also introduced during the presentations. 

The consensus was that the predominant teaching in all faiths was one of love and respect and sacrifice for sake of ailing humanity. And that there was far more in common than there was that separated people of different faiths. And that the problem was not religion, but the wrong interpretation thereof that led to interfaith disputes in the world and the youth must overcome this and bond together. We must be proud of and maintain our religious affiliations and yet work together to make this world a better place and to counteract human suffering worldwide.