Watch the video above: Panel discusses hot topic of religion in the public sphere
SASKATOON – In this day and age, in the multicultural City of Saskatoon, what role does religion play in public, if any at all?
It’s a topic that generates heated debate as religious leaders and secular representatives take part in a panel discussion Monday evening at Frances Morrison Library.
It was a packed house, leaving standing room only and a crowd outside the door to the library’s theatre.
Imam Ilyas, with the Islamic Association of Saskatchewan, was the panel’s second speaker, opening with a strong message.
“Different colour, different language, different religion is only to recognize each other. It’s not to degrade someone or to point fingers toward somebody,” he said.
Ilyas was born and raised in a small village in India and moved here 16 years ago.
“I have never felt any kind of disrespect from anybody walking on street, or at the shopping mall, or any other public place that I go with my traditional dress,” said Ilyas.
A year ago, the city was fielding complaints over prayer at civic events and the ‘Merry Christmas’ phrase appearing on civic buses. Both created a fire-storm in Saskatoon, that is still burning one year later and prompted the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saskatoon to initiate this event.
“I thought, we need to bring people from different perspectives and different traditions together to discuss that bigger question,” said Bishop Donald Bolen.
George Williamson is an advocacy officer at Saskatchewan’s Centre for Inquiry, a group that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state.
“If you look down the street you can see any churches out there with all the religious symbols, if someone sat down and started praying in public there wouldn’t be any issue whatsoever,” said Williamson.
“There’s no issue of religion in public at all. For me the issue is actually whether or not religion influences government.”
Williamson was the only non-religious panel member.
The discussion did work some up in the crowd, one lady standing and speaking her thoughts into the public microphone.
Ultimately the panel concluded that religion can still be part of our public practice.
Of the two complaints filed against the city of Saskatoon to the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC), the one regarding the “Merry Christmas” phrase on buses, has been dropped. The SHRC found there was insufficient grounds to proceed with the complaint.
The other complaint regarding recitation of prayers at civic events is proceeding ahead.
Ilyas called it “very important” that we all respect each other and live with mutual understanding.
What the panel concluded regarding religion and politics though, was left undecided and is an ongoing question sure to be debated into the future, as it has been for generations in the past.
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