Article Added On: January 22, 2005 - over 3 years ago
Title: RCMP take 180 students on civic tour for 'respect'
Author: Douglas Todd
Publication: Vancouver Sun
Publication Date: January 01, 2005 - over 3 years ago
Faith Groups: Other
Themes: religious tolerance/intolerance

Abstract: Two dozen RCMP officers from different religious backgrounds, including a Sikh, volunteered their own time to a unique anti-violence program, leading about 180 Grade 8 students on a tour of Richmond's diverse places of worship. The aim of the program, Common Ground Days, is to address some of the negative impressions of religions, such as Muslims are violent and Sikhs are a bunch of thugs. Local school teachers hope the program will become a model for other communities in Greater Vancouver.

January 21, 2005

RICHMOND - Times have changed since a Sikh named Bindy Johal, a notorious criminal who was killed in a gangland shooting in 1998, attended McNair secondary school in Richmond.

Richmond RCMP Cpl. Jet Sunner says media stories about such criminals caused the B.C. public to pick up the false impression that young people with roots in south Asia, particularly Sikhs, are a bunch of thugs.

It's one of the reasons Sunner, also a Sikh, and about two dozen other Richmond officers from different religious backgrounds volunteered their own time to a unique anti-violence program that began this week in Richmond.

Calling themselves Team Izzat (the Punjabi word for "respect"), the officers helped lead about 180 Grade 8 students from McNair secondary on a tour of Richmond's diverse places of worship.

The RCMP officers focused the tour on the No. 5 Road strip that's come to be known as the Highway to Heaven, because it's home to about a dozen large edifices representing all the world's major religions.

The multiracial students from McNair spent much of Wednesday meeting Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Jewish leaders, lay people, and children.

Sunner, the catalyst behind the two-day anti-bigotry program called Common Ground Days, hopes the Grade 8s learn that all the religions primarily preach peace and love.

"They're seeing that most religious people are humble and caring -- that everyone wants to celebrate life and promote good will," Sunner said during a class visit to a Muslim mosque on No. 5 Road.

Teachers and students at McNair secondary say neither Johal's criminal career, nor that of a few other former students who got involved in drug-dealing violence, represent their high school.

They maintain McNair is now a highly tolerant place where people of different religions and races get along well, without gang activity.

But the officers still want to do their bit to make sure impressionable Grade 8 students avoid stereotyping people from other religions, whether it's associating Sikhs with crime and murder or Muslims with terrorism.

Asked if inter-religious aggression and bigotry sometimes crops up among Richmond's youth, Sunner said: "I'd be lying if I said there wasn't any of that. But we wanted to be proactive before serious problems developed."

Inside the Az-Zahraa Islamic Centre this week, Sukaina Jaffer told a group of McNair students how unfortunate it is that coverage of global news events has led to many people linking Islam with terrorism.

After a couple of dozen young Muslim children this week performed prayers and a skit about Muslims' duty to give to charity, Jaffer showed a music video that taught that authentic Islam doesn't promote violence.

"Islam is all about peace

Terrorism it doesn't preach," went the lyrics to the bouncy soundtrack for the video, which was titled In Dedication to the Innocent Victims of Cowardice.

At the same time the video urged viewers to look beyond the lies often told about Islam, it showed a photo of U.S. television evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, who has frequently denounced Islam as nothing more than a terrorist religion.

"Islam seems like a really great religion. It would be excellent for others to see this. It really opens your eyes," said Pierre Lai, a Grade 8 student who was born in Taiwan and on occasion practices Buddhist prayers with his grandmother.

After visiting the mosque, student Siya Mishra, who is a Hindu, said the days of Bindy Johal "are all history now" at McNair.

Her high school, she said, is highly multicultural and everyone gets along well.

Tour co-organizer Don McCormick, head of the social-studies department at McNair, said every classroom at the secondary school contains students from at least five different religious backgrounds and eight different ethnicities.

McCormick praised the Richmond police officers, especially Sunner, for organizing Common Ground Days, which they hope will become a model for other communities in Greater Vancouver.

"It took about 12 years for violent, drug-related gang stereotypes to develop about south Asians," said Sunner.

"So we think programs like Common Ground Days will have to be around for another 12 years to change those negative perceptions."