Pedalling for peace
December 02, 2009
Section: News
Six members of the Pedalling for Peace crew stopped in Wollongong last week during their 1050km cycle from Sydney to Melbourne.
Director Ben Holzman said the nine-day ride was devised to coincide with the Parliament of World Religion, to be held in Melbourne in early December.
“I wanted to organise something that was tangible and a cooperation between different religions that people could get excited about,” he said.
The four cyclists, Mohamad Assoum, Colin Lee, Emily Alexander and Evian Gutman, are of different faiths, representing Muslim, Catholic, Baha’i and Jewish religions respectively.
Mr Holzman said an important part of the journey was the chance to talk to community and school groups about interfaith dialogue.
“We are running workshops aimed at fostering interest in interfaith dialogue and enthusiasm for diversity,” he said.
“The workshops will give people a chance to ask us questions and we can offer our own experiences as well.”
The ride will be filmed for a documentary and the team has also created a daily blog update.
Although the team admitted they were not previously cyclists, Miss Alexander said they were now converted.
Mr Holzman said the main aim of the ride was to educate people and try to combat prejudice.
