Sam Reynolds

McGill hosted the Second Global Conference On World’s Religions After September 11 in the week leading up to the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11. His Holiness the Dalai Lama spoke in the morning and was followed by yoga and spirituality guru Deepak Chopra. The afternoon’s panel discussion featured Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss-born Muslim scholar who has written on the place of Muslims in Western society and frequently advises the Swiss government on issues related to Muslims. Ramadan presented his views on global perceptions of Islam and other religions following 9/11.

“Religions have nothing against women but religious people can … Islam has nothing against women but Muslims should show some concern about the way the scriptural sources sometimes are used,” said Ramadan, responding to the subject of women in Islam which had been brought up by a journalist earlier in the day. When frequent clapping interrupted the momentum of his talk, Ramadan suggested that when audience members agreed with something he said, they meditate briefly in lieu of applause.

Other panelists who participated in the discussion included Robert Thurman, an American who studied under the present Dalai Lama and is now ordained as a Buddhist Monk; Gregory Baum, a Roman Catholic convert who served as Professor of Theological Ethics at McGill’s Faculty of Religious Studies; and Professor Steven T. Katz, director of the Elie Wiesel Centre for Judaic Studies at Boston University. The questions that the audience asked were as diverse as the audience of nearly five hundred itself. One attendee even recited a poem he had written before asking his question.