Abrahamic
Faiths Initiative Had Held Its First Meeting in Rome Last Year Participated By
Religious Leaders of Islam, Christian and Judaism
Main
Points:
1. 25 religious
leaders from Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities had participated in the
meeting.
2. They
discussed practical ways to bring peace in the world
3. They agreed
that religion should not be used to commit violence, war or discrimination
against people.
4. They
stressed on bringing peace in Nigeria and the Middle East.
-----
New
Age Islam Staff Writer
23
September 2021
During the
last decade, the world has witnessed a heightened violence and religious
extremism in the world, particularly with the rise of the ISIS. Like the Al Qaida,
the ISIS also emerged from the Middle East, the place of birth of Islam and
soon become an umbrella organization of extremist and terrorist organization
around the world. Even outfits dealing in drugs, extortion, smuggling and human
trafficking active in the Middle East, Philippines, Nigeria and other Muslim
majority countries paid allegiance to the ISIS to win the support of the
Muslims and create a friendly image among the Muslims. These outfits perpetrated violence in many
countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and in
European countries. All these terrorist outfits and extremist organizations
used religion to justify their terrorist and extremist activities. The peace
loving Muslims and the moderate religious leaders of the world, particularly of
the Islamic countries condemned the violence but a considerable section of
religious leaders either remained silent or lent overt or covert support to
them making the problem worse.
However,
during the last two years, some prominent religious leaders from across the
Abrahamic Faith have taken the matter seriously and have sit together to find a
way out of the problem of violence in the name of religion.
In 2019,
Pope Francis and Grand Imam of Al Azhar University, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyeb had
come together and signed the Document on Human Fraternity to end terrorism and
bring peace in the world. Inspired by the initiative, a non-government
organization of the US, the Multi-Faith Neighbours Network (MFNN),had convened
a meeting of 25 religious leaders among Muslims, Christians and Jews in Rome on
July 14, 2020 to discuss practical ways to end terrorism, wars and violence
inspired or driven by religious interests. The initiative was called the
Abrahamic Faith Initiative.
The
participants in the meeting had open mindedly discussed the causes of the
spread of terrorism and the use of religion in the fulfilment of political
interests of political leaders and small and powerful nations.
The religious
leaders and theologians of all the three faiths had said that their faith does
not allow to use violence to expand religion. They had unitedly released the
statement:
“As members
of the family of Abraham, we stand in solidarity Jews, Christians, and Muslims
to honour the father of our shared faith in recognition of our common heritage
to pray that God helps us to serve and treat each other with love, mutual
respect, and kindness; and to promote the common good. Central to our shared
heritage is the ethic of reciprocity, of doing unto others as we would have
them do unto us. This golden rule, common to almost all ethical traditions
including beyond the Abrahamic faiths, precludes us from committing violence
against others.”
The
declaration further said:
“We endorse
our commitment to "resolutely declare that religions must never incite
war, hateful attitudes, hostility, and extremism, nor must they incite violence
or the shedding of blood, “as stated in the Document on Human Fraternity for
World Peace and Living Together in 2019.”
The
participants also discussed steps to end terrorism in Nigeria where the
Christian-Muslim conflict is sharp. They had proposed that religious leaders of
all the faiths, particularly from the Muslim and Christian communities should
be brought to Nigeria to influence both the communities into believing that
violence was not supported by either Christianity or Islam. They had expressed
concern over the fact that religion was being used to perpetrate violence
against minority communities from Muslims of Myanmar or Christians of Nigeria.
In short,
the Abrahamic Faith Initiative was a commendable initiative but this initiative
should not remain a onetime affair but should continue as a regular event held
annually and participated both by prominent moderate religious leaders and
political leaders to find a permanent solution to the culture of violence.
The need of
such an initiative is felt more today because during the last year, the
extremist organizations have perpetrated acts of violence in Afghanistan,
Nigeria and Middle East. Boko Haram and other militant outfits have committed
violence against moderate Muslims and Christians in Nigeria and elsewhere.
On August
30, the ISIS-affiliated militants attacked a village in Nigeria and killed at
least 11 people. This year, Boko Haram killed hundreds of civilians in Niger.
In April
this year, a Christian militia attacked a convoy of Muslims and killed at least
22 Muslims.
Therefore,
a strong initiative like Abrahamic Faith Initiative should be taken and
meetings of the religious and political leaders of the world should be
organized annually and in all the major cities of affected countries to make
people aware of the fact that religion does not support violence for expanding
religion and to spread the religion.
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/interfaith-dialogue/interfaith-peace-abrahamic-/d/125419
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