AMSA Ryerson University (Toronto) Event, (March 31/2009)
World Religions Conferences (2009)
"Does GOD Really Exist?"
Tuesday March 31st 2009, Ryerson University
Ahmadiyya Muslims Students Association (AMSA) at Ryerson University, Toronto under Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Canada department of Umure Talaba organized a World Religion Conference (WRC) on the topic of "Does GOD Really Exist?" on Tuesday March 31st, 2009 within the downtown campus. This three-perspective symposium was participated by Christian, Atheist and Muslim religion.
MPP Yasir Naqvi from Ottawa representing the Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty commended the AMSA on their efforts to synergize world religions and communities by holding placid dialogues on such a scale.
The speakers' panel was richly populated with three rhetoricians acclaimed within the communities. To present the Christian perspective, Pastor Peter-Karl Youngren tackled the topic from holistic approach more towards the existence of God and its purpose in life of a common man in today's society. Peter successfully grasped the audience with his captivating art of delivery supported by personal life examples.
Dr. Christopher DiCarlo from University of Ontario Institute of Technologies (UOIT) represented the Atheist perspective. Chris has been awarded as the Best Lecturer of Ontario province where he demonstrated his lectureship to audience explaining how he differs from the main stream ‘Atheism' claiming to be a more neutral stance towards theism. As a result of his speech and Q/A session, Chris captured the audience even after the event.
Finally the Islamic perspective was authoritatively delivered by Canada's Missionary Incharge, respected Maulana Naseem Mahdi sahib. He had to vest his only single argument to prove the existence of God by directing towards the Holy Qur'an and its revelations on an unlettered Holy Prophet (saw). He proved how those revelations are now being unveiled by current day sciences, which were totally anonymous to the humanity at the time of those revelations. Respected Mahdi sahib's speech undoubtedly commandeered the whole audience hall instigating chains of questions. The Q/A session was interesting enough to adhere each audience to their seats. Three quarter of unanswered questions are to be addressed on Radio Ahmadiyya. The campus media Television Ryerson TV as well as a campus newspaper ‘Ryersonian' also covered this event.
The hall of over 200 people was coming to near full with an attendance of 167 where more than 140 were non-Ahmadi guests. Seven AMSA students relentlessly advertised the event around the campus by posting, distributing flyers, presenting in classes, personally inviting professors, using message boards also in churches, atheist forums, and with social networking tools. Majlis Khuddamul Ahmadiyya Canada, Central East region (Scarborough and Toronto Centre Majalis) assisted with some 15 volunteer Khuddam in the overall event organization.