The work to create peace and harmony between different faith groups is not an easy task, but a handful of organizations put their best efforts forward over the weekend to make progress towards that effort.

The Calgary Interfaith Council, Alliance for the Common Good, the Intercultural Dialogue Institute, Calgary Unitarians, and Temple B’nai Tikvah held the first ever interfaith picnic on Aug. 23, as part of the continued efforts in 2025 to gather people of different faiths to have discussions over meals.

The Islands of Peace picnic had more than 300 people registered to attend, and followed up on a successful Shabbat and Iftar dinner that was held earlier in the year.

The picnic featured various faith leaders answering questions from the public, numerous meal time prayers from different faith groups, and a visit by Imam Allama Muhammad Ahsan Siddiqui, Ambassador at Large for Global Peace, Human Rights, and Interfaith Harmony with the Interfaith Commission for Peace and Harmony based in Pakistan.

“This is such a time of division and separation. It’s such a time of hostility between various ethnic and religious groups. Today, not only is important, but it is a refreshing array of hope for us. It is an opportunity for us to connect with people of different religious groups and to really build bridges during a time when people are putting up walls,” said Rabbi Mark Glickman, spiritual leader for Temple B’nai Tikvah.

He said gathering people together over a meal was an effort to combat dehumanization and to build friendships.

“One of the root causes of the conflicts of the world today is the dehumanization of the other. We look at other people, and we put them in a cubby hole of our own. We say they are X, Y or Z, or whatever it is, but we forget that they and we share this common humanity,” said Glickman.

Which is not to say that the work to promote interfaith harmony has been an easy one in the city.

“It’s important that we not romanticize it. There are certainly conflicts, interfaith and inter-ethnic conflicts that are happening here in Calgary,” he said.

“And yet, when I compare what’s going on here to what’s going on in other parts of the country and other parts of the world, I think that what we’ve got here is something really, really good. So, we really do create islands of peace simply by coming to get together in this.”

Fatih Sezgin, lead organizer for the Intercultural Dialogue Institute, said that his organization’s mission is to open doors so that the conversations between cultural groups can be had in the open.

“Our approach is that closing doors and then behind the closed doors, cursing each other is not the solution. We should be able to sit around the table. We should be able to listen to each other, to understand each other, because in some parts of the world, people are killing each other,” he said.

“It’s not easy to bring, let’s say, Jewish people, Christian people, Muslim people, together, but someone has to do it. That is the bottom line.”

Breaking bread to break down misconceptions

Reverend Ryan Andersen said gathering over food was something that all faith communities do.

“Food brings people together, and it actually builds intimacy and crosses differences. In my job, I get to meet with different faith communities, and what I always laugh about is every faith community says, ‘no, we’re the ones that really love to eat.’ That is the power of food,” he said.

“One of the organizers for this talks about how, or people joke about how he actually builds piece one meal at a time, and that’s a part of what tonight’s about as well.”

Islands of Peace featured a meal of different Turkish cuisines, along with cultural performances.

Sezgin said that there was an interest by the interfaith community to hold more dinners featuring various cultural cuisines alongside cultural presentations.

“We started a Shabbat–Iftar dinner in a synagogue. It was a milestone for interfaith events in this city. Then, the Jewish [community], they approached us and they said, ‘OK, why don’t we continue? Why didn’t we have more?'” he said.

Breaking bread means that people can come to the table as themselves instead of their labels, said Sezgin.

“That is the richness of diversity in Calgary—it doesn’t mean that I will introduce myself as a Muslim, you’re going to introduce yourself as a Christian or Jewish—at the same time, we are going to learn lots of themes regarding the cultural parts or the cultural elements of our daily lives,” he said.