TORONTO: People, communities
and countries could only be brought closer and together to love and respect each
other and live and work together in the best possible ways through promotion of
the concept of interfaith relationship based on sensible dialogue, proper
awareness, understanding,tolerance and constructive approach and positive
attitude.
Only people of conscience, character and good nature, who respect commitment and
promises and remain committed and determined, are capable of taking this
important responsibility and performing this great job in the best possible
manner.
At the same time, people must remain fully alert against hypocrites or others
trying to fool, exploit, mislead, divide and harm people. This is what is
harming most the efforts to promote interfaith concept, dialogue and
relationship. Such elements must be exposed, avoided and isolated through proper
monitoring.
They are mostly planted ones and extremely dangerous for people, communities,
system and society. They are the ones who work on a specific agenda to create
confusion, differences, division and promote hatred, racism and discrimination
in order to achieve their vested interests and nefarious designs. So it is
important to keep the eyes and ears fully open to identify them.
United Nations too supports and promotes the interfaith concept. It says:
"Interfaith dialogue is absolutely essential, relevant, and necessary. The first
week of February, every year, has been declared a UN World Interfaith Harmony
Week. The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre released a document which
summarises the key events leading up to the UN resolution as well as documenting
some Letters of Support and Events held in honour of the week.”
The Pakistani community too is very active in this connection and many
Pakistanis worldwide are engaged in promotion of interfaith dialogue, events and
activities. The Canadian people and government greatly encourage and support
interfaith dialogue and the people promoting the concept.
AllamaInayat Ali Shakir, a distinguished personality and community leader and a
highly respected and prominent priest and religious scholar from Pakistan, who
moved to Toronto, Canada, in 2010 and has been very active since then, says: “I
am dedicated, committed and determined to promote interfaith concept, dialogue
and harmony in Canada and getting tremendous support from leaders, community and
people of all faith.”
On August 19, 2010, he organized Interfaith Eid Celebration Dinner at Shaheen
Restaurant. A large number of prominent leaders and distinguished personalities
of various communities and faith were present on the occasion.
AllamaInayat Ali Shakir, in his welcome address, said: “I would like to welcome
and thank all of you from different faith and school of thoughts for
participation on this occasion of Interfaith Eid Celebration Dinner. Everybody
knows that every religion has different kinds of festivals in which they enjoy
the beauty of love and happiness.
“Eid-ul-Fitr is also same kind of festival in which we celebrate at the end of
the holy month of Ramazan and on the first day of next Islamic month of Shawwal.
Eid is an Arabic word derived from Awd, which means something which returns and
recur at certain period of time.
“Eid day bonds and helps one another and spreads happiness all over the globe.
On this day we thank Allah. Eid teaches us to learn tolerance, peace, interfaith
harmony and respect of all humanity.
“Today I thank God (Allah The Almighty) for giving me the opportunity to be with
all of you, who are my most honorable friends from different respected faiths. I
hope that we all will make collective efforts to spread the message of peace,
respect of common ideas and provide guidance to the community regarding our
moral duties towards each other since we are all children of Adam and Eve and we
love Prophet Abraham.
“With this I thank all of you for sparing your precious time and honouring me by
attending this event and making it successful and meaningful. I also offer my
sincere thanks to Imran Mehdi Gondal, a real estate agent, for supporting me by
sponsoring this event.”
AllamaInayat Ali Shakir said: “I have found Canada as one of the best role
models of multi-faith and inter-faith. There is religious tolerance here. Ever
since I came to Canada,I met important people of various multi-faith
organizations and other distinguished personalities and leaders and was greatly
impressed by their approach, attitude and support.”
He said: “In my religious lectures, I focus on inter-faith. I engage myself in
research works, read most holy books including Bible, meet religious scholars
and leaders and discuss issues including inter-faith with them.”
AllamaInayat said: “There is an urgent need to promote the inter-faith concept.
For this we need to create awareness and understanding in Muslim communityin
general and Pakistani community in particular so that they can join and help.
They are interested in the inter-faith concept but need encouragement and
support to come forward and act. “
He said: “People of different faiths should respect each other and visit each
other places of worship and other centres, attend festivals and greet each to
know and understand each other and promote love, respect, peace and
understanding. This will help inter-faith concept and dialogue. The Inter-Faith
Eid Celebration Dinner too was organized with this very purpose.Festivals of all
religions are celebrated to spread such messages.”
The prominent and distinguished personalities of various faiths and communities,
who attended the Inter-Faith Eid Celebration Dinner, included Joe Daniel, MP,
Rob Oliphant, ex-MP, Imam Dr Abdul Hai Patel, a renowned Muslim religious
scholar and leader, Maulana Abid Hussain Naqvi of Madinatul Ilm, Imam Ali
Centre, Yosi Behar of the Behar Group and a Jewish Community leader, Zenji
Acharya, a Buddhist community leader and scholar, Re. Earl Smith of Church of
Scientology, Didar Singh Khokhar,Khalid Mehmood, President of Asian Canadian
Association, Syed Muhammad Iqbal, President of Pak Seniors Forum, Mazhar Shafiq,
Masood Alam, Masood Haq, Rashid Chatta, Tariq Malik, Muhammad Talha Javed and
Akbar Cheema.
The leaders including Joe Daniel, MP, Rob Oliphant, ex-MP, Imam Dr Abdul Hai
Patel, Zenji Acharya and Maulana Abid Hussain Naqvi also spoke on the occasion
and highly praised Inayat Ali Shakir for organizing the event and promoting the
inter-faith concept and dialogue. They assured full support to him in this
connection.
AllamaInayat Ali Shakiris also Founder/Chairman of Tehreek-e-Akhuwat Islami
Pakistan and Inter-Faith Dialogue Committee.He hasa VIP status and impressive
following in Pakistan. The purpose of formation of both was to bring leaders and
people of all parties, religions, sects and sectors closer and promote peace,
love, harmony and solidarity in the interest of humanity.
He strongly discouraged and condemned all sorts of terrorist and criminal
activities and boldly spoke against the suicide bombings and attacks on places
of worships of minorities including Christians. Because of this he started
receiving serious threats to his life and finally had to move to Canada.
In Canada, he is highly respected because here too he engaged himself in
promotion of inter-faith dialogue and activities and found the environment best
suited for him. AllamaInayat Ali Shakir encourages people to contact him as he
needs their support for this purpose. He could be contacted in Toronto, Canada,
at Cell: (647)710-2076. Email: [email protected]..
Zenji Acharya, the Buddhist leader, is an acclaimed self-help expert who
uniquely combines Eastern philosophy with Western motivational speaking.Reverend
Zenji Acharya has been described by media pundits as "the foremost Buddhist
expert in the world from the oldest and highest lineage in history".
Reverend Zenji has also given more inspirational lectures on Buddhism than any
other scholar in Canada and he has been praised by many national and
international leaders as well as a United Nations report. Reverend Zenji also
serves as the Chair of Media for the RCMP Commanding Officer's Diversity Council
and Head of the World Buddhist Council.
ISLAM:Islam has long encouraged dialogue to reach truth. Dialogue is
particularly encouraged amongst the People of the Book (Jews, Christians and
Muslims) as Qur'an states, "Say, "O People of the Scripture, come to a word that
is equitable between us and you - that we will not worship except Allah and not
associate anything with Him and not take one another as lords instead of Allah
." But if they turn away, then say, "Bear witness that we are Muslims
[submitting to Him]."[3:64]".
Islam also stressed that the supreme law of the land should be Islam and that
Islam regulates all life affairs and therefore regulates how non-Muslim and
Muslims live under an Islamic state, with historical examples coming from Muslim
Spain, Mughal India, and even starting as far back as Muhammad's time, where
people of the Abrahamic Faiths lived in harmony.
Many traditional and religious texts and customs of the faith have encouraged
this, including specific verses in the Quran, such as: "O people! Behold, we
have created you from a male and a female and have made you into nations and
tribes so that you might come to know one another. Verily, the noblest of you in
the sight of God is the one who is most deeply conscious of Him. Behold, God is
all-knowing, all-aware." [Qur'an 49:13]
In recent times, Muslim theologians have advocated inter-faith dialogue on a
large scale, something which is new in a political sense. The declaration A
Common Word of 2007 was a public first in Christian-Islam relations, trying to
work out a moral common ground on many social issues.
Relations between Muslims and Jews remain quite difficult, exacerbated by the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There are inter-Muslim issues in between Sunnis
and Shiites that are very much unresolved in the Middle East. Also, relations
between Muslims and Hindus in India and Pakistan could theoretically be much
better if interfaith efforts were more successful.
MUSLIM THEOLOGIANS: According to Council of Muslim Theologians of Jamiatul Ulama,
KwaZulu-Natal-South Africa, on the subject “What Exactly Is The Inter-Faith
Dialogue?”
(https://jamiat.org.za/blog/what-exactly-is-the-inter-faith-dialogue/):
“(O Muhammad!) Follow what has been revealed to you from your Rabb. There is no
God but “He (Allah), and ignore the Mushrikeen.” (Qur’aan)
“What is ‘Inter-Faith Dialogue’? A grave misconception exists regarding this
concept. The shallow-minded Muslim merely looks at the words and concludes that
inter-faith dialogue is a friendly discussion of different religious groups
which provides an opportunity for propagating Islam. This is a fundamental error
which Shaitaan has adorned and by means of which he ensnares Muslims to
initially ‘tolerate’ shirk and kufr, and ultimately to subscribe to the supreme
kufr of the unity of religions which is the fundamental goal to which the
Inter-Faith movement aspires.
“It is this fundamental doctrine of the Inter-Faith ideology which is the very
antithesis and death-knell of Islam. But Shaitaan operates in subtle ways,
adorning kufr and shirk with even ‘Islamic’ hues to beguile unsuspecting and
unwary Muslims whose short-sightedness blurs their mental vision due to the lack
of Roohaaniyyat (spirituality on the basis of Tauheed), and Firaasat (spiritual
wisdom and insight) which are wholly dependent on Wara’ and Taqwa.
“If the question is asked: “What is Islam? Its answer is not obtained from the
literal meaning of the word in the dictionary. The literal meaning, viz.,
‘submission’, does not expound the doctrines, practices and the entire system of
life which the ideology of Islam connotes. To understand Islam, a study of its
belief and practice system is necessary. Similarly, to understand ‘Inter-Faith
Dialogue’, the literal meanings of the words are inadequate.
Inter-Faith is an ideology. It is a new concept and belief system which has
fundamentals, just as all other religious concepts and ideologies have cardinal
articles of faith.
What are the fundamentals of the Inter-Faith ideology? The Institute of
Interfaith Dialog (IID) outlining the fundamental basis of the Inter-Faith
ideology states:
“The premise of interfaith dialogue is that all religions are equally
legitimate.”
“No religion possesses absolute truth.”
“Both these doctrines of kufr are violently in conflict with the Qur’aan’s
concept of Tauheed and Islam. Islam can never condone the propagation of Tauheed
from the premises of ideologists of this ilk. Islam simply does not tolerate
shirk, kufr and baatil.”
CHRISTIANITY:Pope John Paul II was a major advocate of interfaith dialogue,
promoting meetings in Assisi in the 1980s. Pope Benedict XVI took a more
moderate and cautious approach, stressing the need for intercultural dialogue,
but reasserting Christian theological identity in the revelation of Jesus of
Nazareth in a book published with Marcello Pera in 2004. In 2013, Pope Francis
became the first Catholic leader to call for "sincere and rigorous" inter-belief
dialogue with atheists, both to counter the assertion that Christianity is
necessarily an "expression of darkness of superstition that is opposed to the
light of reason," and to assert that "dialogue is not a secondary accessory of
the existence of the believer" but instead is a "profound and indispensable
expression ... [of] faith [that] is not intransigent, but grows in coexistence
that respects the other."
JUDAISM:Modern Orthodox movement allows narrow exchanges on social issues, while
warning to be cautious in discussion of doctrine. Reform Judaism,
Reconstructionist Judaism and Conservative Judaism encourage interfaith
dialogue.
BUDDHISM: Buddhism has historically been open to other religions as Ven. Dr. K.
Sri Dhammananda has stated:
“Buddhism is a religion which teaches people to 'live and let live'. In the
history of the world, there is no evidence to show that Buddhists have
interfered or done any damage to any other religion in any part of the world for
the purpose of introducing their religion. Buddhists do not regard the existence
of other religions as a hindrance to worldly progress and peace.”
HISTORY:The history of interfaith dialogue is as ancient as the religions since
men and women when not at war with their neighbours have always made an effort
to understand them (not least because understanding is a strategy for defence,
but also because for as long as there is dialogue wars are delayed). History
records many examples of interfaith initiatives and dialogue throughout the
ages.
Since no good religions or people of the world encourage, support and promote
hatred, racism and discrimination and focus only on love, respect, peace,
solidarity, harmony and humanity therefore it is in the best interest of
humanity, communities and world to learn to live and work together peacefully
and respectfully. An environment be created for proper awareness and
understanding. Our enemies are common---The enemies of humanity and mankind. We
must remain alert against all such evil people, forces and plans.