Together for Humanity is a multi-faith not-for-profit organisation that is helping schools, organisations and communities to respond effectively to differences of culture and belief. We do this by bringing students, teachers and those in the community into contact with people from diverse backgrounds in an open, supportive and enjoyable setting – this inspires interest, empathy and understanding as well as questioning existing prejudices and encouraging greater appreciation of others as people.
2014 has been a particularly challenging year for interfaith relations, particularly for Muslims, Jews and Christians. Violence perpetrated overseas between members of these three faiths has had repercussions in Australia. We saw an increase in tensions, hatred and tragically the Sydney siege. In this context we had two main objectives: to counter various prejudices in schools and to secure our ability to do so in the future. This update describes our progress toward these goals with the generous and much appreciated support of our donors and dedication of our staff and volunteers.
Schools face to face programs
3750 teachers and students were given the opportunity to interact meaningfully with people from backgrounds different to their own in schools during 2014. Of these, 3583 were students, 200 in inter-school programs of two to four days together and 100 students of Arabic Muslim, Aboriginal and Pacific Islander backgrounds participated in more intensive on-going programs such as our fortnightly programs at Granville Boys High School and our four full day seminars on the central coast. We also reached 167 Teachers.
Feedback from students about what they learned:
- That there is no need for a barrier between us regardless of what is happening overseas, we are all Australian citizens and should embrace learning about people that are different to us
- That we shouldn’t be scared of each other
- That we are human no matter what the background
- That Muslims are good people and we have a lot in common
- The best is thing to come of this program was learning about our similarities and differences – we found out how similar our religions are.
Parents’ Touching Email:
One parent whose child participated in an interfaith interschool program wrote the following. “Hi, just have to share. I took Sean (names changed) to botany pool today with Marc. They bumped into a kid Mohammad that they met at interfaith (inter-school program that was done in partnership with Together for Humanity). They spent the whole day together playing cricket and swimming. I couldn’t get them away when we had to leave. It was so endearing. What a wonderful initiative interfaith is.”
Responding to concerns about radicalisation and alienation:
Our teams, which include Muslim Sheiks alongside other Jewish and Christian role models, have worked with Muslim teenagers to help them develop a sense of belonging in Australia and a complex identity that includes identification with Australia and a recognition that there is no need to choose between their religion and a positive attitude to participating in Australia and getting along with people of different faiths.
Reflection by Punchbowl Boys High School student aged 14:
“I am a Muslim, Lebanese, and an Australian. I participated in a Together For Humanity Interfaith program at my school. This program was led by a Jewish Sheikh, Rabbi Zalman Kastel, a Muslim Sheikh, Sheikh Ahmad Abdo and Taha Allam an ex student of my school and Christian Pastor Greg Lake.
After hearing a lot of stories… I started thinking and thanking God that I was born in this country and that my family and I didn’t need to risk our lives to enter this beautiful country. I respect Australia a lot, I am proud to say that this is my country. As I have been taking a lot from Australia, I wish that someday I could repay it.”
Sheikh Ahmed told a story about when he was in year 8 he got bullied and one day when he was walking home a group of bullies started following him and saying that he would not reach home. They were threatening him. Sheikh Ahmed’s parents said that they should report it to their local police station as it was getting out of hand. That day they reported it. After many years, he told us that on Thursday last week he was going to become a Police Commissioned officer. He is very proud of himself because he is repaying his country and the police for what they did for him when he was much younger.
… Before I participated in the program I thought that all religions hated Islam. I hated it when I used to go to the city with my family, and my mother is scarved, people would give us dirties, that is dirty looks. From their body language I inferred that they were telling us “why are you here, this is not where you belong”. Now I know that not all religions or people who are not Muslim think about Muslims in a bad way, it is only some people… I hope that one day we will have another course with these people as I learned many things from them. Over these two days we learned about respect, communication, we had inspiration, I benefited in this course by knowing what I want to do in my life and how to treat other people.
Rabbi Zalman Kastel | zalman@togetherforhumanity.org.au | Together For Humanity Foundation | Department of Education3a Smalls Rd., | Ryde, NSW 2112, Australia
