All set for interfaith dialogue

Leaders of Christians, Muslims and other major religions will gather in Manila on Friday to discuss issues affecting world peace.

Organizers of the event, dubbed the "Global Interfaith Dialogue," said the gathering hopes to foster multi-cultural and multi-religious understanding and tolerance.

The event was organized by the Centrist Democrat International (CDI), with the Philippines’ Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats as host to "help avert political and religious tensions in the world’s trouble spots."

Speaker and Lakas president Jose de Venecia said the dialogue would be "a way of laying the foundation for multi-religious and multi-cultural understanding that can be the true basis for enduring peace."

De Venecia said the dialogue will coincide with the launching of CDI Asia-Pacific, the region’s first political organization.

Among those expected to attend the event are former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid; Libya’s Dr. Mohamed Sherif, secretary general of the World Islamic Call Society; Saudi Arabia’s Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulmohsin Al-Turki, secretary general of the World Muslim League; and Sen. Mushahid Hussai Seyed, secretary general of the Pakistani Muslim League.

Joining them are other eminent religious figures such as Dr. Tong Chan Wah, a Taoist leader; An-Wu Lin, a Confucianist leader; Dr. Hamdi Mohammad Murad Murad, Islamic researcher and scholar; Chief Imam Cheilkh Assane Cisse, a Sufi leader, president of the African-American Islamic Institute; Taj Hamad, another Sufi leader and secretary general of the World Association of Non-Government Organizations; Dr. Namdra Jain; Dr. Mohinder Singh, of the Sikhs who is also director of Bhai Vir Singh Sahitva Sadan; Phra Dhamakosacarva, a Buddhist leader; Yogiratna Ranjeet, a Hindu leader; and rabbi Itzhak Bar-Dea from Israel.

The Universal Peace Federation is also sending a delegation headed by its chairman, Dr. Chung Hwan Kwak, and secretary general Dr. Thomas Walsh.

Vice Gov. Mahid Mutilan, president of the Muslim party Ompia; Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines; Bishop Efraim Tendero, national director of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches; and El Shaddai leader Bro. Mike Velarde will represent the Philippines’ religious sector.

The Philippines proposed to the United Nations that a global religious dialogue be held as a measure to help combat the threat of terrorism as well as promote peace in the world’s trouble spots.

Manila’s proposal was approved by the UN General Assembly in 2004.

The Global Interfaith Dialogue is one of several highlights of the CDI event, in which parliamentary leaders from Europe will join leaders of ten political parties from eight Asian countries in launching CDI Asia-Pacific.

The parties will come from the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, South Korea, India and Pakistan. — Edu Punay