MPIC hosts 3FF Interfaith Meeting at Minhaj-ul-Quran International London

The 20th of July 2011 saw an interfaith event arranged by the Minhaj Peace and Integration Council (MPIC) which hosted The East London Three Faiths Forum at Minhaj-ul-Quran International London. MPIC regularly holds such gatherings to promote peace, integration and understanding between the different faith groups that make up the diverse culture of the UK.

The Three Faiths Forum (3FF) is one of the UK’s leading interfaith organization and has been running for 14 years to encourage harmony and confront prejudice. Its work mainly involves discussing various community-related topics at places of worship belonging to the three major Abraham traditions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism with their representatives delivering short speeches. The subject of discussion for this particular meeting was “MONEY” and was attended by a large gathering made up of different faith backgrounds. The East London branch of the Three Faiths Forum covers the London boroughs of Barking, Newham, Redbridge and Waltham Forest. Stage secretary Rafiq Ahmad invited Ahmad Raza, a young student at the centre, to open the event with the recitation of the selected verses from the Holy Quran related to the topic of wealth.

This was followed by an address by a member of the Catholic faith, Father Dennis Hall of St Antony’s (RC) Church in Forest Gate. He began his talk with the words, “This is a spiritual place “Minhaj-ul-Quran” showing that he personally felt solaced when visiting the centre. Father Dennis mentioned that according to Christianity, “Greed causes so much money” and that “Greedy people love money”. This was found to be common between the different faiths. He stated that according to Christianity, “Too much greed is equal to all justice gone” and that “Jealousy comes from greed and greed comes from money.” He concluded his talk with recourse to the Ten-Commandments by saying “One shouldn’t desire their neighbours