Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has emphasized the need to promote dialogue among the followers of different religious faiths and cultures to promote world peace, Faisal bin Muammar, the king’s adviser, said Friday.
Speaking to the Saudi Press Agency after attending a meeting of the Council of Religious Leaders in Astana, Kazakhstan, Muammar said dialogue is the best means to resolve conflicts and strengthen peaceful coexistence among the followers of different faiths.
Muammar, who is secretary-general of the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna, said dialogue would open the way for people of different faiths to understand one another and remove their misunderstandings.
He referred to the historic initiative taken by King Abdullah four years ago to promote interfaith dialogue. Under King Abdullah’s initiative, three major interfaith dialogue conferences were held in Makkah, Madrid and at the United Nations. Saudi Arabia, Austria and Spain jointly signed an agreement to establish the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna.
The center would work for promoting interfaith and cultural dialogue and encouraging mutual respect and understanding among the various faiths. It will also work for establishing peace and justice and prevent misuse of religion for oppression and violence.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who opened the Astana meeting, emphasized the importance of interfaith dialogue. “The main purpose of our council is to strengthen the dialogue of religions. At the heart of its activities is the commitment to kindness, love, justice, peace and harmony,” he said.
He said the council would establish cooperation with other international dialogue organizations in the field of global tolerance. “The council can actively work as a global and regional peacekeeping mechanism thanks to its authority and capacity. It will also be useful to hold a global monitoring of human rights and freedoms of believers,” he explained. The president proposed the creation of a website to strengthen global tolerance. "It is important to provide interactive sessions of the Council of Religious Leaders and the secretariat of our congress, hold continuous online forums for a wide range of Internet users. I hope you will support this proposal," he told the participants.
"Information technology is now often used for the separation of people, raising new barriers within societies and between countries. Web-based resources are often used to promote vice, lie, vile human instincts and hatred, and this leads to undermining moral and ethical values of society," he added.
Website to promote tolerance suggested
