His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, and Imam Tahir Kukaj Come Together to Raise Awareness of the Role Faith Leaders Have in Addressing and Preventing Child Abuse and Exploitation
Faith leaders tour the global exhibition, "Child Dignity in the Digital World," displayed in Vanderbilt Hall in Grand Central Terminal, and hosted by the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities
NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, His Eminence Timothy Cardinal Dolan of the Archdiocese of New York, Rabbi Joseph Potasnik of the New York Board of Rabbis, and Imam Tahir Kukaj, the NYPD Muslim Chaplain, met at Grand Central Terminal to tour the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities' global exhibition, "Child Dignity in the Digital World." With the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly as a backdrop, the exhibit highlights the worldwide epidemic of online child abuse and exploitation.
The New York City-based faith leaders discussed the need for leadership, communities, and people of all religions to engage in and address the difficult but critical issue of child abuse around the world.
Cardinal Dolan said, "It's important for the faith community to be involved in this effort, it's something we need to be in. I'm very moved, that these very sensitive people that put on this haunting yet enlightening exhibit, would see that the faith community - the international faith community - could be of benefit. This exhibit demonstrates what can only be called a distortion of the dignity of the human person. Of course, the dignity of the human person – that every person deserves respect, reverence, love, and dignity – that's at the core of the bible, faith, and religion; if there's going to be a change to bring about conversion from this hideous crime, you've got to appeal to the soul, the heart."
Rabbi Joseph Potasnik said, "Protecting child dignity in the digital world is the moral mandate of all of our faith traditions. We stand together because these are our children, the guarantors of tomorrow. We are grateful to the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities for making this exhibit available to all."
Imam Tahir Kukaj said, "I am very much worried what's going on with the children around the world and how much harm is out there to hurt our children… This brings a lot of awareness. I call upon parents and all people of good will – please, come and see it, look at it on the internet, spread awareness, spread education. You know, the internet, as good as it is for us all, there are hunters there that can unfortunately harm and hurt our kids. God Bless those that did this beautiful job and a meaningful one, but as I said, the message is that we should benefit from this material here and try to educate our kids that there is a lot of danger out there for our kids as well."
The Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities seeks to unite religious leaders from around the world through a series of bi-annual forums and global workshops in order to foster dialogue and take action to address important social challenges. Through its "Child Dignity in the Digital World" traveling exhibition, the organization aims to raise awareness of online child abuse and exploitation by informing faith leaders on what they can do to combat them. The exhibit will remain open to members of the public through September 26th.
For more information and the upcoming schedule of IAFSC event, please go to https://iafsc.org/.
About the Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities
The Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities was established to empower faith leaders to work for the safety and security of our communities, tackling issues such as child sexual abuse, extremism and radicalization, human trafficking, etc. We aim to facilitate the building of bridges between faiths, NGOs and experts in various domains. We are conscious to the importance of empowering faith leaders, both at the institutional and grass-root levels, with knowledge and to mobilize them to play an active role in community safety. Our current themes are 'Child Dignity in the Digital World' and 'Hate Crimes'. For more information, visit https://iafsc.org/.
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SOURCE Interfaith Alliance for Safer Communities
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