By Tereza Verenca for Burnaby Now
October 15, 2015 11:09 AM
The Burnaby Inter-Faith Network is inviting the public to tour the local Ismaili Centre next week in an effort to “build bridges of understanding and communication.”
“We do this to kind of break down those barriers and the stereotypes people build of each other,” network co-chair Don Dyck told the NOW.
The ad-hoc group, which includes members from a variety of faiths and backgrounds, advocacy groups and settlement services, was established in 2010 by the Burnaby Intercultural Planning Table. Part of its mandate has been to collaborate with faith-based centres and organize tours.
Dyck, a pastor at the Brentwood Park Alliance Church on Delta Avenue, toured the Ismaili Centre shortly after 9/11.
“I felt compelled to learn more about Islam and what it meant to be a Muslim in this time, and to learn from somebody who was a Muslim, as opposed to from somebody who might have an axe to grind with them,” he said.
The experience, Dyck noted, was eye-opening.
“It gave me a deeper understanding of their reverence for God. I thought we could learn a lot about that from them; the realization that a lot of our roots are similar. It gave me a deeper understanding that there is some radicalized groups of course that don’t really represent the whole, just like in my own faith; that the ones that make the news are the radicalized people who are actually an embarrassment to us and don’t represent who we are.”
Ismaili Centres celebrate the faith of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims. The gathering place is one of many around the world, with other centres located in London, Dubai and Toronto.
“Rooted in the rich tapestry of Islamic heritage and traditions, the architecture of the Ismaili Centres identify a community that is at once confident of its past and modern in its outlook,” states a write-up on the official website.
Source: Burnaby Now | Group builds bridges with Ismaili Centre tour
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