RELIGIONS AND CULTURES COME TOGETHER AT THE HINDU TEMPLE WEST ASHLEY TO RECOGNIZE THEIR SIMILARITIES.
Inspired by Hindu educator Shaila Shroff to demonstrate unity of mind to
stand together against injustice, misunderstanding, and hatred, Hindu,
Native American, Muslim, Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist leaders met
to discuss death. The program was moderated by College of Charleston Religious Studies Professor Dr. June McDaniels. The event was attended by close to 60
people.
What was born, however was a strong interfaith movement to, in the wordsof Dr. Geshe Dakpa Topgyal of the Charleston Tibetan Society “help people
to know the similarities and differences among the world religions. We can
certainly create religious harmony through educating the people who are
naive or no access to learn about the others religion.” He want on to say
“Creation of religious harmony can surely help to tackle many of the problems
of the world including the injustice and corruption. We must make sure to
continue meeting more often. We also need to find out wider way to
inform the people about the meeting such as through local news papers,
Radio, and even local TV channel.”
Participants were: Dr. Pai President of the Hindu Temple of Charleston,
Dr. Ghazala Javed,MD representing Islam, Howie Comen representing Judaism,
Rev. Peter Lanzillotta representing Independent Christianity, Dr. Avatar
K Singh representing the Sikhism, Helen Wells representing Izunome, Cathy
Nelson representing Native Americans, and Shaila Shroff representing
Hinduism. The Baha’i faith was also represented.
Images courtesy of Shalia Shroff