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| ‘Religious Harmony - key to spread global peace’ | | | NEW DELHI | Feb 8
WCORL, an independent body, promoting harmony and world peace today concluded a Hindu-Jewish Leadership Summit that was held on 5-6 February 2007 at New Delhi. This present Buddhist-Jewish Leadership Summit is in continuation with WCORL and ICRL's (Indian Council of Religious Leaders) initiative to engage Religious Leaders from every major religion in an effort to build greater understanding and cooperation amongst major Religious Traditions in the world.
Bawa Jain, Secretary General of WCORL said, "Currently the world is facing innumerous conflicts and unresolved differences globally. As 82% of the world follows faith and looks up to the religious leaders to guide them spiritually, this conclave propagates and promotes the message of peace and harmony. Hinduism and Judaism are followed world over and our aim is to show that the road to prosperity is built on the strong foundation of Peace and Harmony"
B K Modi, President, Indian Council of Religious Leaders said, "The ICORL believes that it is the spiritual power of the world that can help resolve the problems faced by the world today and religion must, therefore, cross boundaries of nation, class, community or race and seek to influence the entire world. The religious leaders hold a great responsibility to work together towards preventive peace-building and remove all causes of mutual apprehension. They have the will and the courage to teach their followers the ways of peace and tolerance, and guide them towards a harmonious and mutually interactive world that accepts unity in diversity and love towards all".
The interfaith dialogue primarily acknowledges the shared values of all the major traditions, as well as the common challenges. It further condemns all forms of religious violence and works towards mutual respect, support and cooperation between the two traditions. Religious leaders like H.H Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger had thus congregated for this important occasion. This is a first in an on-going series of summits planned by the Council pertaining to advocating global peace.
According to Swami Dayanand Saraswati "Hindu - Jewish dialogue will act as benchmark for others to follow and emulate, resulting in better environment for one and all. I have always believed in peaceful co-existence in a multi-religion environment, which thrives on each other. This development is a step in this direction and I am happy Chief Rabbi has joined our hands in this movement."
Lauding the efforts of the council, Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger commented, "Though inter religious dialogue has increased recently, the Hindu - Jewish declaration is a significant move which highlights the necessity of expanding interfaith community to eastern traditions. The council is doing well to initiate programs to promote harmony among world religions"
The World Council of Religious Leaders is an international body and works in an advisory capacity with the UN. The council has several firsts to its credit like "World Peace Day - 21st September", "Commitment to Global Peace", implementing "The Commission for Preservation of Sacred Sites" to name a few. It is also directing its efforts towards creating multi - sectoral platforms for peace like "World Youth Peace Summit" beginning 2006. |
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