Fear and Fascination:
the Other in Religion Conference
16th
– 18th July 2004
UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN SYDNEY
July
16th - 18th, 2004 Affinity
Intercultural Foundation and Australian
Association for the Study of Religion sponsored the "Fear and Fascination: the Other
in Religion Conference" at the University
of Western Sydney in Bankstown. This took up the subject of bringing
cultures and people of other religious traditions together and
The opening night was
great with speakers and topics such as Prof. Terry Lovat, University of Newcastle, "Islam:
Old and New Interpretations of the Relationships with Judaism and
Christianity" and Prof. Gary Bouma, Monash University, "Religion,
Cultural Diversity and Social Cohesion" and President of Affinity
Intercultural Foundation Mehmet Ozalp, "Impact of Muslim Presence in the
Western World to the Relationship of Islam and the Judeo-Christian
Tradition." Cyrus Brooks, Tara Fitzpatrick and Vicki Hanna were there
representing Scientology. And there
was a national and international audience.
There was
interest when Prof. Bouma mentioned that government should not encroach on
religious freedom—he mentioned the case about the Church of Scientology’s Purification
Rundown in ACT and he spoke of the wisdom of the court in throwing the case
out as it was a religious/spiritual practice, not one for the government to
attempt to regulate under the Department of Health.
Afterwards, the crowd stayed briefly
and chatted, getting to know each other a bit before the conference went into
high gear over the next two days. In the question and answer session, many things
were brought up including the conflict in the Middle East and the best way to
interact with and understand minority religion. Prof. Bouma suggested exchanges and visits with
people of various churches as he is doing down in Melbourne.
Saturday we continued the "Fear
and Fascination: the Other in Religion Conference".
Khurram Iqbal of Pakistan Afroz Ali of Al-Ghazzali Centre
It was a 9-5 conference for Saturday
and Sunday and today we had issues such as Aboriginal Religion, Researching
Spiritualities, Astrology, Sufism, etc. In the morning Cyrus met and spoke to
Toni Tidswell of the University of New England Religion Dept as well as their
Chair Majella Franzmann. Also present was Heather Kavan of Massey University in
New Zealand gave a presentation on the Falun Gong. Khurram Iqbal, from
the University of Agriculture in Pakistan also did a presentation on
Pakistan’s pluralism. Sydney University’s Carole Cusack and Chris Hartney
were there too. The conference head was Adam Possamai of University of Western
Sydney. Afroz Ali from the Al-Ghazali Centre for Islamic Sciences and Human
Development gave an interesting talk on Muslims and non-Muslim friendships.
Adam Possamai, President of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion
Sunday was the final day. And by the
way, the food was amazing. Beautiful Turkish cuisine and baklava, etc.
Magnifique!
Chris Hartney and Tara Fitzpatrick Turkish food! Delightful!
Cyrus reports that he attended the
afternoon workshops. Very interesting subjects: "Religion and Popular
Culture" and "Cartoons and Christianity: Can We Make Fun of the Sacred
and Get Away With It?" by Graham English, Australian Catholic University.
Cyrus also met up with Michael O'Donoghue at University of South Australia.
People were encouraged to put in papers
for the next conference in Sydney University in the new year.
If anyone wants to add more to this brief description, please write in!
