'Stand Together' event supports interfaith talks, support for Muslims
About 300 people of various faith traditions continued in a centuries-long journey to understand one another and fight against prejudice Sunday at a forum in Richmond.
The “Standing Together” gathering at Congregation Beth Ahabah included U.S. Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., and was sponsored by the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities with the support of the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy and the Virginia Muslim Coalition for Public Affairs.
The five panelists were Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Sikh and Unitarian Universalist and advocated personal relationships and knowledge across religions to avoid stereotypes and hatred.
Attendees then broke into discussion groups to talk about how people from various religions can support one another, especially religious groups that are marginalized.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national advocacy organization for Muslims in the U.S., said in late November that it had received more reports of discrimination and threats against American Muslims after the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris than at any other time since 9/11.
The group attributed the uptick in part to remarks made by GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and other candidates.
“It’s easy to make gross generalizations until you know someone personally,” said the Very Rev. Phoebe A. Roaf of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in North Richmond. “Seeing people as people and not as categories is a step in the right direction.”
Dr. Baljit S. Sidhu of Sikh Gurdwara Sacvi in Chesterfield County said Sikhs across the U.S. have felt the brunt of discrimination against Muslims because people confuse them — many Sikh men wear a headdress and do not shave their beards — with followers of Islam.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s all ignorance. ... Our greatest strength of our country is religious diversity,” he said. “What religion is God? If God has any religion, it is humanity.”
Anita Elcock, who chairs the board of trustees for Tawheed Prep School, an Islamic school in Richmond’s North Side, recounted a story from a Muslim woman who was followed in a local grocery store. When she finally turned around to confront the person, they asked “Are you ISIS?” She responded, “Are you KKK?” Elcock said.
“Our problem here is more than discrimination of religion,” she said. “It doesn’t just happen.
“It is bred.”
The event also highlighted upcoming interfaith events such as Religious Freedom Day from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Valentine First Freedom Center, 14 S. 14th St., and the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy’s “Day for All People” from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Claude G. Perkins Living and Learning Center, 1500 N. Lombardy St.
“We are the silent majority,” Sidhu said. “We need to speak up and try and find the good in each other.”
