Interfaith interest

Recently elected president of the Greater Huntington Beach Interfaith Council (GHBIC), Maneck Bhujwala "brings new skills and certainly an old religion to the table,” reported a write-up in the weekly HB News of Huntington Beach, California. The 15-year-old organization has representatives from Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Christian Science, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Zarathushti religions who meet on the last Tuesday of each month to promote education and harmony between different ethnic and religious communities.

"Currently we have 33 representatives from organizations (representing about 10,000 congregants) and individuals as paid members of GHBIC and I am the only Zarathushti as an individual member (not officially representing any organization since neither the California Zoroastrian Center nor the Zoroastrian Association of California is a member)... Some orthodox Parsis are actually against interfaith participation,” mentions Bhujwala in response to Parsiana’s queries. Membership (with voting rights) on GHBIC is open to any individual or organization who is interested in interfaith activity on annual payment of $ 25. Even without being a member, anyone can attend their monthly meetings.

At their program "Procession of Lights” on September 9, 2012, faith leaders stressed on the significance of light in their religion. Some of their other programs are Thanksgiving, National Day of Prayer breakfast, participation in the Independence Day parade on July 4 and visits to places of worship.

Maneck Bhujwala (top and alongside) at an interfaith meet

Bhujwala has been associated with GHBIC since 2005 when he moved to Southern California and nearly two decades prior to that he was active in interfaith activities in Northern California. "Most people do not know about our religion or think that we had all died out… In a world where ignorance about each other’s religions has led to fear, prejudice, hatred and violence between communities, interfaith organizations can…focus on many common values we share, encourage cooperation in projects to serve the needy and minimize communal riots and hate crimes. And we can ask other religious leaders (with whom we have developed relations) for assistance from their groups whenever there is potential danger to our community,” believes the president.

In his talks at interfaith events Bhujwala invariably points out that "Zarathushtra had foretold the future coming of other messengers (saoshyants), that a just God would not play favorites with some of his messengers and religions but love all His children equally, that claiming superiority of one’s own religion due to ego was wrong and caused strife between faith groups.” He also refers to the Zarathushti emperor Cyrus the Great freeing Jews from slavery in Babylon; the Magi present at infant Jesus’ birth being actually Zarathushti priests; Dastur Dinyar befriending Prophet Mohammed.

"If more Zarathushtis take interest and participate in interfaith groups and events, it would push them to read and learn more about the Zarathushti religion and make others aware about our religion. This in turn would positively impress our children and youth when other people speak knowingly and with admiration about our religion,” explains Bhujwala who is possibly the first mobedyar to have been trained by the North American Mobed Council in the early 1990s and has since been regularly participating in jashans and funeral prayers, more so now since he is a retired professional. Besides contributing articles to FEZANA Journal, Chehe­renameh and Hamazor magazines, he is transliterating and translating the Kutar Brothers’ version of Shahnameh into English.

Born in Bombay to Navroji and Meherbai Bhujwalla, even in his younger days he would regularly frequent fire temples. After earning his engineering degree from Baroda he completed his masters in science and MBA from USA. He worked at several high-tech companies, co-founded the Society for Rapid Advancement of India, Los Angeles, Zoroastrian Association of California and the Zarathushti Anjuman of Northern California, served on their boards and coordinated religion classes for adults. He currently serves as a realtor and lives with his wife Mahrukh in California, close to his attorney daughter Shehnaz in Los Angeles (see "An accountable attorney”).