The third Sunday of January every year is celebrated globally as World Religion Day. Established in 1950 in the United States of America by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is, it is an endeavour to encourage interfaith tolerance and dialogue. Baha’i faith emerged in 19th century Persia relying upon three significant principles: unity of God, religion and humankind.
The Baha’is believe in the spiritual existence of a single God from whom all religions in the world originate. They also believe in the fundamental equality of all human beings. World Religion Day, which calls for members of all religions in the world to recognize how all faiths are united by their common and shared spiritual aims, is moved by the Baha’i philosophy. Baha’is strongly believe that “The gift of God to this enlightened age is the knowledge of the oneness of mankind and of the fundamental oneness of religion.”
The world has more often than not has been unsettled by the spewing of communal venom. States have been made through excruciating processes of unmaking; people have lost their lives, home and homelands, the sense of belongingness and above all a spiritual refuge that has not been tarnished by violence.
As a predictable consequence, faith has begun to seem more alienating, obtrusive and unsavory. Private spheres of worship or spirituality is threatened with the increasing and overt politicization of the organizational means to reach the divine. Among a million paths that have been established through human imagination to reach God, all claim theirs to be the most original, honest, sacred and meaningful. Various competing dissident claims have tried to assert their own unique reasonableness by ridiculing the practices, values and beliefs of the ‘others’.
The ‘otherization’ has been institutionalized with orchestrated violence fueling fear, hatred and disgust, thus, precluding the possibility of tolerance and harmony on most occasions. History is witness that there has been more conflict among religions than there has been co-operation. To ensure that the history of 21st century holds a slightly glorious tale in its wake, World Religion Day is an important initiative towards that direction.
World Religion Day strives to shed light on the inherent oneness of all religions in their endeavor to establish a connection with the divine. There are a millions of belief systems across the world, which may apparently be different in form and nature, but are all curiously united by their more or less similar spiritual aspirations of reaching God or attaining salvation. Hence, instead of pondering upon the glaring differences of values between religions, this Day is observed to help religions across the globe celebrate the diversities which help make each one unique. Interfaith dialogue is the need of the hour given the incessant strife that religions are often found engaged in. A theological exchange to foster tolerance and understanding will help them locate possible areas of cooperation and end oppositional thought. If religions can engage with each other harmoniously and respectfully, half of the world’s problems will be solved.
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