Most people remember where they were and what they were doing when they first heard the news of the aerial assault on the Twin Towers in New York City on September 11, 2001.

The ground may not have shifted under our feet at the moment but the very concept of religion underwent a paradigm shift for many of us. Instead of standing for virtue and piety, and peace and harmony, the word religion was launched on a semantic trajectory which would make it a byword for evil, aggression and terror.

But is there not more to religion than this? We invite you to explore the more positive possibilities of the religious dimension of life by attending the third Global Conference on World’s Religions after September 11: From Faith to Interfaith, which will meet in Montreal on September 15, 2016. Its aim is to bring together the various religions of the world in an ecumenical spirit to address the many issues facing the world today and adopt a Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in the hope that this will help all of us become better human beings.

In friendship,

Arvind Sharma
Birks Professor of Comparative Religion
Faculty of Religious Studies
McGill University