Students cross religious boundaries to learn, teach

"Hindus aren't just people who love cows," College senior Beevash Ray joked Wednesday night at a dialogue between Penn's religious communities. Sponsored by PennForum, the Hindu Students Council and Young Jains of America, as part of Jain Awareness Month, the dialogue was expected to "educate the community about Hinduism [and Jainism] as a religion," University Chaplain William Gipson said. A panel of nine representatives of seven religions sat before a small audience. The moderator, College senior Samir Shah, began by asking the representatives to talk about the misconceptions people have about their religions. "A common misconception is that Sikhs are terrorists," College sophomore Nisha Singh said. Homosexuality sparked debate among the representatives and audience alike. "They have a lot of gay or bi- rabbis," Engineering junior and co-Chair of the Orthodox [Jewish] Community at Penn Dan Rosner said of Reform and Reconstructionist Jews. "But for traditional Judaism, homosexuality is not a lifestyle that should be condoned," he said. Evangelical Christian representative and College sophomore Anita Yu stressed that "God created man in His image," and thus homosexuality is, "rebelling against God's creation and design." "All Semitic religions disapprove of homosexuality as a way of life," Muslim representative and College junior Aryeh Nakissa said. "If someone is doing inappropriate things... don't let injustice in the world as long as you can stop it." College and Wharton sophomore Akshay Mangla, representing Hinduism, asked, "What is the purpose of the separation between heterosexuals and homosexuals?" "You are not going to find a rule in Hinduism because reality is a dynamic thing," Mangla said of abortion. "You have to learn to think for yourself." "When you read from a book," first-year Engineering graduate student and Buddhist representative Benjamin Tang said, "you only [get] that far." Rosner, however, believed that, "Everything in modern life can be derived from the Bible.... In Talmud [a Jewish book of law], if a pregnant woman is very sick, she has to abort the baby." He then added, "But personally, I am pro-life." "Even bugs are sacred to us," College junior Saurabh Moonat explained. "Technically, Jainism is against abortion." As for Christianity, Yu said, "logically and theologically, life begins at conception. Women should "submit to men" because this "reflects his nature and harmony. The Trinity has mutual submission." Nakissa compared men and women to two sneakers of equal value that are not exactly identical. "If a woman comes in to class with a short skirt and showing her navel, it is harder to respect her as a human being," he said. The other Muslim representative, College sophomore Ahsen Janjua, stressed that, "A big part of Islam is humility." "I did it by my own free choice," College senior Naureen Memon said from the audience of her Hijab. "I feel better about myself, I can comfortably walk down Locust Walk knowing no one is checking me out in that way." "Do deeds and everything will take care of itself," College sophomore and Hindu representative Sanjay Kasturi concluded. "Through non-action, all actions are achieved." The audience was reluctant to leave without personally talking to the representatives. "This was fantastic," Wharton junior and PennForum Chair Ethan Laub said. "We never have enough time. We need to have a series [of dialogues]."