An example of religious harmony
I would like to share an Australian example of religious harmony when religious minorities are being attacked in different other countries. Hopefully,we could learn something on how to be more tolerant, broadminded and respectful.
I have lived in the northern Australian city of Darwin for 18 months between 2011 and 2012, before moving to Millennium Olympic city of Sydney. In Darwin I used to drive to the mosque every Friday. Being a late mosque-goer (due to official commitments) I always had difficulty in finding a car park either in the mosque or in the nearby streets. After the first couple of weeks, I discovered that there was a church close by where we could park our cars during Friday prayer time. This gave peace-of-mind to pilgrims like me as I didn't have to think about the rangers (people who impose penalty for inappropriate parking) while praying. I learnt later that there's an understanding between the Church and the Mosque that Mosque-goers can use Church's parking on Fridays while Church-goers can use Mosque parking on Sundays. This is a showing of great religious harmony, tolerance, cooperation on co-existence and mutual respect.
If I am a believer then I need to believe in serving everyone God has created! Everyone has the right to live a peaceful life the way I myself deserve it. Being a believer I hold a strong view that even the non-believers deserve all the rights I am entitled to. Let's not forget God has created all of us and we need to take care of everyone. Let's not throw a spanner in other peoples' lives because they have a different belief or view. While we condemn the violence against minorities in Burma, Sri Lanka, we must not condone the same in Bangladesh. Let us all work together for building a stronger and a more coherent society. Only through peace, unity and mutual respect can we achieve that!
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