My story with interfaith started on a bus ride from my family’s home back to the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I got a text from a community leader whom I knew from working on a project together, and she asked if I had time for a quick call. I took the call on the bus, and that’s when I was first connected with Interfaith America and the Building Interfaith Leadership Initiative (BILI) fellowship.
Prior to becoming a BILI fellow, I had never given much thought to interfaith. That word only came up when someone was marrying someone outside of their faith, or when thinking about peaceful coexistence in South Asia. All my life my family has been around other Punjabi Sikhs, no matter what country or city they lived in. When I was seven I started going to a Sikh faith-focused camp to learn more about my faith. I went to school and grew up with kids of all different religious backgrounds but somehow our conversations never were much about religion, most likely because it’s a frowned-upon topic in public schools. Even when I was selected to be a fellow, I wasn’t sure if I was the appropriate person to take on the responsibility. The thought of being a representative of the Sikh community was intimidating to me because I thought of my own mistakes and short-comings.
Before BILI, I had been working primarily within the Sikh community. When I was a junior in high school, COVID had locked everyone in their houses, and in April 2020 a friend and I founded SikhTeens, a religious non-profit to help connect Sikh youth in the diaspora through virtual platforms. Our goal was to create a safe space for Sikhs globally through a blog, podcast, panel series, infographics, etc. It was work in my Sikh community that initially got me in contact with the same Sikh leader who later introduced me to Interfaith America and BILI.
My uncertainty about my calling to interfaith community changed on my first day of the Interfaith America Leadership Summit. The opening address was given by Eboo Patel, the founder of Interfaith America, followed by a video showing their mission. This one video changed my entire outlook on interfaith. Instead of interfaith just being a word, it was a solution in our separated world today. While there are many complaints that can be made about our society today, our separation from others as humans is the biggest for me. Everyone seems to be divided on any and every topic, but we often don’t try to talk about these differences, myself included. This video was so impactful to me because it showed how through opening ourselves up to being curious about other people, we could start talking to each other again and hopefully start listening.
I saw this happen in action again during the summit, when all the attendees were separated into different breakout rooms and the conversations started flowing. There were questions asked around the room that ranged from “what’s your favorite food?” to “what’s your first memory with your religion?” With everyone in that room being so open to conversation we were able to learn so much about each other, even though we were still basically strangers. Even later that evening, as I was in the city meeting up with a friend, we unexpectedly had a conversation about faith with our Uber driver. To me this was fate. It was a sign that, yes, faith was everywhere, and just by talking about faith, a concept we all had an opinion about, we could break the barriers we have all around us. After the summit and summer ended, I came back to the University of Wisconsin–Madison as a sophomore and had the courage to start being a part of conversations like these that were happening on campus, whether that was through going to speaker series or by starting informal conversations within my dance team.
Reflecting on my initial introduction to interfaith, I realize I had gone into the conversation mostly trying to teach others about who I am and my faith. I thought it was my role to be there as an educator and not a learner, but I quickly realized I was wrong. By taking the step to sit back and listen to the stories of those around me, my perspective of the world kept changing. I was able to see how strangers viewed the same world I viewed so differently.
As a member of the BILI fellowship, I wouldn’t say I have found a definition of interfaith that I believe is all-encompassing, but I have found concepts that are synonymous. To me, thinking about interfaith is thinking about community. It’s about creating spaces of conversation and openness by providing empathy and compassion to everyone around you. It’s about being a listener and being open to being curious. As I near the end of my second semester of being a BILI fellow, I am excited to see how I can continue conversations and invite others around me to the concept of interfaith.
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Image: Amanpreet Sehra (top row, third from left) pictured with her breakout group during the Interfaith America Interfaith Leadership Summit in August 2022.