The panel discussion will be held at the Noah Webster Branch of the West Hartford Public Library.

Submitted

Panelists representing Islam, Sikhism, and the Baha’i Faith will present short talks and answer questions about their beliefs at the West Hartford Library on Monday, April 21, as part of an ongoing “Love Your Neighbor, Know Your Neighbor” project of the Connecticut Council for Interreligious Understanding (CCIU).

The evening event will be the nineteenth such discussion sponsored by the CCIU, which promotes public awareness, understanding about, and respect for religious pluralism in Connecticut.

“The ‘Love Thy Neighbor’ program has been going strong since 2019 and represents one of our main efforts to build bridges of religious understanding in the greater Hartford area,” said Richard Hathaway, executive director of the CCIU. “Past discussions have been lively, educational, and well-received, and we expect this one to be equally engaging and insightful.”

Scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., the one and a half-hour panel discussion at the Noah Webster Library at 20 South Main Street in West Hartford will give each speaker a few minutes to offer reflections on their religious beliefs. The floor will then be opened to questions.

“These kinds of events foster safe spaces where we can learn from neighbors whose faith traditions may differ from our own,” said Karen Anderson, CCIU board member and coordinator of this particular event. “In today’s world, ignorance of one another is costly. My hope is that these gatherings inspire greater understanding and appreciation for the rich diversity in our community.”

The panelists on April 21 are:

• Menaka Kannan, a Baha’i, is a middle school math teacher and a current participant in the University of Connecticut’s Administrator Preparation Program. She was raised in the Hindu tradition but became a Baha’i 18 years ago and has since served in a wide-range of Baha’i-inspired projects, including two years in the New York office of the Baha’i International Community.
• Yusuf Mansoor, a Muslim, is a PhD candidate in the History Department of the University of Connecticut and a committed member of the Muslim community. His research focuses on seventeenth-century Native New England from an Atlantic Perspective, and he has received research fellowships from the Massachusetts Historical Society, the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Folger Shakespeare Library, the John Carter Brown Library, and the Omohundro Institute for Early American History and Culture.
• Sujit Singh, a Sikh, is an engineer. Born and raised in West Hartford in a traditional Indian Sikh family, he has from an early age sought to balance Sikh spiritual teachings, Indian cultural values, and American social life in his day-to-day activities.

Each speaker has been asked to address how their faith approaches marriage and family life, service to humanity, and death and the journey of the soul. The event will be held in the Noah Webster Library’s main meeting room, on the lower level, near the children’s area.

The Connecticut Council for Interreligious Understanding is dedicated to leveraging the strengths and common ground of various faith traditions across the state, through mutual understanding, dialogue and effective community impact.

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