Indian scholar appreciates king’s vision

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s vision of a global interfaith initiative has inspired India’s southern region of Kerala, as the state has recently seen a rise in interfaith meetings from the local to the national level, said Maulvi Jamal Mankada, the mosque imam in Palayam and the chief patron of International Interfaith Dialogue in India (IIDI).
“King Abdullah’s initiative has played an important role worldwide in galvanizing citizens to unite for humanity in peace-deficient times,” said the scholar last week.
The southern part of the country is buzzing with several activities pertaining to interfaith dialogue owing mainly to its inherent nature of tranquility and a greater atmosphere of inter-religious harmony.
The scholar’s IIDI initiative, for instance, held two such seminars recently that drew several prominent people from different religious communities.
Mankada, who visited the Kingdom to perform Umrah, is remembered as the man who presented a replica of the Kaaba to Pope Benedict XVI when he was invited to visit the Vatican. The Vatican honored the replica by placing it in the Vatican museum.
Representing India’s diverse religious culture at the Vatican, Mankada, along with two other scholars belonging to the Christian and Hindu faiths, submitted a memo that stressed the importance of men of religion working together to foster peace.
Quoting the IIDI submission to Pope Benedict, he said, “The grave problems facing the earth, including poverty, discrimination against women, rising hatred and other social evils, can be managed only through the collaboration of the adherents of religions because billions of people follow religions in one form or the other.”
The scholar cited a number of Qur’anic verses that emphasize that Islam is a religion that preaches peace, tolerance and co-habitation with different faiths.
The scholar pinned hope on a better future and expressed his aspiration of holding an interfaith conference on the international level in India with the blessings of King Abdullah. India is the greatest hub of multiculturalism and coexistence, where no less than 200 million Muslims live side by side with over 800 million people of other faiths. Such an endeavor will therefore be of greater interest for the cause of interfaith dialogue, he said.
The IIDI patron plans to approach the Vienna conference for such a joint venture in India.