by Marissa Greene, Fort Worth Report
December 25, 2025
When Jasmine Morris moved back to Fort Worth, she longed to build rich relationships with people from various cultures and religious backgrounds.
Morris converted to the Sikh faith in her senior year of high school before moving to Austin for college, where she started to adopt elements of her faith including a change in her clothing.
Moving back to her hometown from California had its challenges, she said. The 27-year-old recalled derogatory comments about her faith-inspired choice of garments and occasions of people petting her Dastar — also known as a turban — not understanding the headwrap carries sacred significance within her faith.
Morris went online seeking a community and came across a Fort Worth Report article about an interfaith dialogue program hosted by a Fort Worth nonprofit called the Multicultural Alliance. She signed up.
“I want to find that community where people are willing to listen,” she said, “but also not just willing to listen about these things, but actually work toward building those bridges between the different communities here in North Texas.”
Morris was among several participants who joined weekly two-hour virtual discussions with people of various faiths about holidays, prayer, life milestones and stereotypes. The six-week program aims for attendees to gain a deeper understanding of their own religions while learning about other traditions, experiences and practices, according to its website.
Each dialogue session is different depending on the participants, said Barry Klompus, one of the two moderators guiding the group of Sikh, Muslim, Jewish and various Christian participants through topics.
It’s critical for the program to include the perspectives of different faiths as a way for participants to build a better understanding of one another, he said.
“What you don’t know — that’s what scares people,” Klompus said. “If you don’t know, you can be kind of ignorant instead of knowledgeable. That’s one of the most valuable things for this group, is that it provides you with that knowledge and understanding that it probably wouldn’t have.”
Interfaith conversations are nothing new to Faten Sabri, a 52-year-old Muslim from Jordan living in Irving. Sabri has traveled to different countries with her husband, engaging with people of different backgrounds. Something she discovered: the similarities between her faith and others.
She shared that sentiment during the local interfaith dialogues. Early on, she made an effort to share similarities Islam had with Christianity and Judaism, such as how Muslims also believe in Jesus, Sabri recalled.
The sharing of knowledge and lived experiences between people of different faiths can “encourage us to have peace,” Sabri said.
“We have to understand that our similarities are more (important) than differences, but we don’t talk about them always,” Sabri said. “Differences are spread widely, just to keep us divided.”
Each week, the group discussed a different topic: spiritual journeys, religious holidays, life milestones, prayer objects, sacred texts and stereotypes.
Morris appreciated how each person got the chance to address religious stereotypes in their own way, she said.
When it was time to go over Sikhism, she shared a PowerPoint presentation on topics like Sikh surnames. Within the religion, observants have the same two surnames as an expression of unity. All men are named Sign, meaning “lion,” and all women are named Kaur, meaning “princess.”
Morris’ Sikh name is Asees Kaur, for example.
“That helps further bridge the communities, and that helps build further trust when you don’t have those hidden obstacles that you might not know exist between communities,” Morris said.
Bill Curtis, 77, is a member of St. Stephen Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth who also joined the interfaith dialogues after learning about them through the Report. He wanted a way to better understand how different faiths work and what observants believe, he said.
Having a space where people of different faiths can talk about commonalities is one way to dispel stereotypes, Curtis said. There needs to be more of them, he added.
“We need them bigger and more often, and they need to be more public,” Curtis said. “We need to quell the voices that keep trying to divide, and groups like this can do that.”
Marissa Greene is a Report for America corps member, covering faith for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at marissa.greene@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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Great Job Marissa Greene & the Team @ Fort Worth Report for sharing this story.
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