Interfaith Dialogue in America with Parveen Chopra | Podmasana Preview

[00:00:00] Speaker A: In a time of increasing polarization and division. Parveen, what role do you see interfaith dialogue and cooperation playing? What makes interfaith work urgent right now in America? [00:00:14] Speaker B: More so in the current atmosphere. I speak to listen to people in interfaith groups and they say it is very hard, it is getting very hard even to say that we need multiculturalism and we need respect for other faiths that can be taken as anti Christian or anti national. I will give the example of my son. I see positive things happening, particularly I'm very confident of the young people. Some years ago, my son was in high school and he held a birthday party. Ice cream is served to people, four or five friends. And I took a picture and I asked to write a caption for that picture for social media. I asked him the names of those people. One was a Christian, one was a Buddhist, one was a Muslim, one was of course a Sikh, which I can make out wearing a turban and so on. And my son is a Hindu. I said, fantastic. But he was not conscious, his group of friends were not conscious that they have a Hindu, Muslim, say a Christian and then who. All this in their group. So the young people are, they are more for justice and equality and respect for other religions. Even three years ago, when the Israel Gaza war started and whatever, we know what was happening there, my son said, no, this is not good. What Jews say that Hitler did to them, they are doing the same thing in Gaza. And, and that was the Biden years. And that may have been one of the factors that young people voted in protest against Democrats, against Kamala Harris, who is of Indian American origin. And recently in New York City for the mayor's race. Mamdani, a Muslim, Indian American Muslim, he won the mayor's race. And one reason was the young people in droves. The. They. They voted for him, they volunteered for him. And that is the, that is the next generation. And, and I'm hope, hopeful in, in that generation. And in that connection, why some people, Christians maybe feel that their religion is more superior than the other. The controversy broke out a couple of weeks ago. America's vice president, J.D. wentz, he said publicly that, that he expects, he looks forward to his wife. Her name is Usha. She is Hindu, of Indian origin. He wished that she would convert to Christianity. He is a Catholic, so Hindus and Indians pounced on him. So you think that Christianity is the best religion. You think we can only have salvation if we believe in Christ and, and the Gospel. So yes, there is a need and I think there are ups and downs in society. Certain things happen and it is cyclic. But on the other hand I also feel civilizations are also psychic. They rise and fall. I'm not saying America is declining or falling but you never know. Western civilization had its date, great contributions. We led to industrial revolution and then computers and Internet and AI and so on. But yes India is also rising and Muslims population is growing in the world so maybe they'll have their day. So we should be accepting of that. Some people will try to hold on to whatever is there in India. Also we have a problem. It's a Hindu majority nation but the population of Muslims is increasing. Hindus want, some Hindus want India to be a Hindu state but India is a secular state. America is also secular too. But yes people who are in power who are in majority they want that power, that majority to remain. But this is how life is.