Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 162

PROGRA
Friday, December 4, 2009
Iyekiyapiwin (Darlene St Clair) is an assistant professor of American Indian Studies at St Cloud State University and the director of the Multicultural Resource Center. Her career has focused on the education of Native peoples from early childhood to college, the integration of Native cultures' histories and languages into curricula, and the arts and cultural expressions of Native peoples. She is Bdewakantunwan Dakota and an enrolled member of the Lower Sioux Indian Community in Minnesota.
Lucy Mulenkei is a Maasai from Kenya. She is the Executive Director of the Indigenous Information Network [IIN) in Kenya, and works with the African Indigenous Women's Organisation in the East African Region. She has coordinated training and capacity building for Indigenous, rural nomadic pastoralists and hunter-gatherers on the topics of the environment and sustainable development, with a main focus on biodiversity conservation and traditional knowledge.
Ryoko Foose was born in 1962, in Hokkaido, Japan, in the Pacific Ocean coastal town of Niikappu. Her mother Emiko was of Ainu descent. In 1988, Ryoko became a member of the spiritual organisation Shinji Shumeikai. In 2007, Ryoko became a member of the Hokkaido University Centre for Ainu & Indigenous Studies. Her focus of study is 'Ainu Child Raising Traditions and Their Effect on Future Generations'.
Building Peace in the Pursuit of Justice: A Buddhist-Muslim Dialogue
Maria Reis Habito, Moderator
Dharma Master Hsin Tao
Ven Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Ruben Habito
Amir Al-Islam
Dr Chandra Muzaffar
Room 219
Panel Discussion
This dialogue is part of an ongoing series initiated by the Global Family of Love and Peace (www.gflp.org) in 2002 to foster better understanding and closer cooperation between the Muslim and Buddhist communities of the world. So far, ten dialogues have been held internationally, including at UNESCO in Paris (2003) and the UN headquarters in New York (2008). The world of the 21st century is marked by injustice and discrimination on many fronts. We are called upon to address racial and ethnic injustice, economic injustice, injustice to women and children, and other forms of injustice and discrimination. This panel will consider the following questions: What are Buddhist and Muslim views on situations of poverty, injustice, and discrimination? What are the roots, and is there a cure? What is the relationship between justice and peace? Where and how do we start to make a difference, empowered by our own respective religious traditions? The panellists will be invited to reflect on commonalities and differences in their respective approaches to the topic and on what they can learn from each other.
Maria Reis Habito is the International Program Director of the Museum of World Religions and the Director of the Global Family for Love and Peace. After studying Chinese and Japanese languages and religions in Taiwan, Munich and Kyoto, she completed her PhD at LudwigMaximilians-Universität in 1990. She has organised many international, Interfaith conferences, notably a series of Buddhist-Muslim dialogues published under the title of 'Listening: Buddhist-Muslim Dialoques 2002-2004 (Taipei, 20051.
Dharma Master Hsin Tao was born in Burma in 1948 and came to Taiwan at age thirteen. He became a monk at age 25 and established the Wu-sheng Monastery on Ling-jiou mountain in 1983. He founded the
158 PWR-Parliament of the World's Religions Jain Education International
Museum of World Religions and is president of the Global Family of Love and Peace. The series of Buddhist-Muslim dialogues he initiated in 2001 have been conducted in ten countries, including the UNESCO Paris and UN in New York.
11:30am-1:00pm
INTERRELIGIOUS SESSION
Karma Lekshe Tsomo is Associate Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Diego, where she teaches Buddhism, World Religions, and Comparative Religious Ethics. She studied Buddhism in Dharamsala, India for fifteen years and received a doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She is president of Sakyadhita: The International Association of Buddhist Women and director of Jamyang Foundation, an initiative providing educational opportunities for women in developing countries.
Ruben L F Habito, Professor of World Religions and Spirituality at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, is founding Teacher of the Maria Kannon Zen Center, Dallas, Texas. He has been President of the Society for Buddhist Christian Studies and President of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. His publications include 'Healing Breath: Zen for Buddhists and Christians in a Wounded World (2006). Experiencing Buddhism: Ways of Wisdom and Compassion [2005], and Living Zen, Loving God' (2004).
Amir Al-Islam is a Distinguished Lecturer of African American History. Islam and World Civilization at Medgar Evers College (CUNY) in Brooklyn.. He is the former Secretary General of the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations, USA. He is chairman of the Board of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network in Chicago, and Vice-Chair of the Malcolm X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial Education Center, and the Muslim Women's Institute for Research and Development.
Dr Chandra Muzaffar is a political scientist and founding president of the Malaysian-based NGO International Movement for a Just World (www.just-international.org], which seeks to raise public consciousness on the moral and intellectual basis of global justice. He also served as the first director of the Centre for Civilisational Dialogue at the University of Malaya. In addition to writings on civilisational dialogue, he has published extensively on religion, human rights, Malaysian politics and international relations.
Strangers in a Strange Land: Integration of Religious Minorities, their Families and their Identities into Australia
Deborah Stone
Dr Purushottama Bilimoria
Rachel Woodlock
Michele Bernshaw Padmasiri de Silva
Piara Singh
Room 220
Panel Discussion
This panel discussion brings together Muslim, Jewish, Sikh and Buddhist representatives from Melbourne's thriving minority communities to discuss the challenges of settlement and community development, education of their children, and the challenges and benefits of integration into a multicultural society. This panel will explore the significance of preserving and promoting identities of ethnic and religious minority communities by observing their rituals and traditions. The program will emphasise the values of people of different faiths and their contribution to the broader society and humanity. The program aims to find elements of commonality, problem solving, and opportunities for celebration among the anxieties that can accompany the experience of being a minority. By focusing on the positive, this will be a healing experience for both panel and participants, who will come to