World Interfaith Harmony Week, Toronto, 2016 – an evening of music and poetry at the Noor Cultural Centre, in photos and short videos…
World Interfaith Harmony Week – an official United Nations initiative celebrated the first week of every February – “seeks to bring together all people of good will, regardless of faith or no faith, to learn about each other and find ways to work together on common agendas”.
(From the World Interfaith Harmony Week website) – On September 23rd 2010, HM King Abdullah II of Jordan introduced a World Interfaith Harmony Week at the Plenary Session of the 65th UN General Assembly in New York.
In his speech he said:
It is [also] essential to resist forces of division that spread misunderstanding and mistrust especially among peoples of different religions. The fact is, humanity everywhere is bound together, not only by mutual interests, but by shared commandments to love God and neighbour; to love the good and neighbour. This week, my delegation, with the support of our friends on every continent, will introduce a draft resolution for an annual World Interfaith Harmony Week. What we are proposing is a special week, during which the world’s people, in their own places of worship, could express the teachings of their own faith about tolerance, respect for the other and peace. I hope this resolution will have your support.
This resolution was adopted by the UN on October 20, 2010, and the first week of February, every year, has been declared a UN World Interfaith Harmony Week.
The Ismaili Youth Choir, a talented, creative and passionate bunch…
My girls could not believe their luck, were these guys really real? They were so beautiful, so colourful, a true cultural enlightenment it was for all of us.
A decent attendance with people of all ages, backgrounds and religions under one roof cerebrating diversity and harmony. There is something very special about events like this, if the world we live in was reflective of gatherings like this, the world would really be a better place.
One of the highlights of the evening, so serene, calming and skillful, an absolute joy to watch, at the end, they received a huge round of applause.
This group sang in memory of David Bowie by singing ‘Heroes’.
The finale of the evening was the famous song by John Lennon’s “give peace a chance”. A very befitting song to end the evening. A really nice touch after the main part was sung by both groups on stage, was an invitation to people who spoke other than English to say ‘give peace a chance’ in a different language, I thought it worked very well.
Unfortunately, my recording storage reached capacity as my eldest daughter read ‘give peace a chance’ in Arabic, a proud and brave moment in front of so many people, it then ended with my younger daughter saying it in English and getting a roaring round of applause with even some people standing up for her… a very nice evening.
Lovely!! Congratulations for your daughters contributions! You must be a proud papa!
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Yes, thank you, children always amaze me with their confidence and willingness to try.
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