RELIGIOUS LEADERS NEED TO PLAY ROLE IN PROMOTING PEACE, DEVELOPMENT

KUALA LUMPUR, May 31 (Bernama) -- Religious leaders in today's globalised
world should no longer confine their role to preaching as they should also
promote peace and development.

The Crown Prince of Perak, Raja Nazrin Shah said: "If the leaders of every
faith in every society could be mobilised to strengthen the fabric of peace and
the conditions for development, they would be a powerful force for the making of
a better world.

"We call upon religious leaders to be supportive towards initiatives that
can create awareness, promote understanding and encourage dialogue between
different societies, faiths and cultures."

Raja Nazrin said this as Malaysia's special representative at the interfaith
and intercivilisational dialogue at the Third Forum of the Alliance of
Civilisations in Rio De Janiero, Brazil, Saturday.

The text of his speech was released here Sunday.

Raja Nazrin said religious leaders had a unique catalytic role to play in
encouraging greater collaboration in support of the noble objectives of
maintaining peace so as to allow nations to develop and citizens to prosper.


"Together they must promote peace and development, encourage dialogue and
increase interaction," he said.

Raja Nazrin said religious leaders could do much by openly and
courageously urging their own leaders and others in their community who
counselled violence, to observe this universal ethic "that we should only do to
others what we would like others to do to us".

"There will then be less killing of innocent people, illegal invasion of
foreign countries and illegal occupation of other people’s lands."

He said resorting to the use of force and arms should only be permissible in
defence of territory and possessions after peaceful options had been exhausted,
and "this is the teaching of Islam and of many other faiths and also a basic
tenet of modern international law".

"For too long good religious leaders have remained in the background of
national and global affairs. It is time for them to come to the fore, for their
voices to be heard, and for their influence to be felt," he said.

Raja Nazrin said there was also a need for religious leaders to address
religious issues in a rational manner, while being mindful of the sensitive
nature and all the ramifications that came with such issues.

"There is also an equal need for religious leaders to refrain from
propagating any form of extremism and instigating the people with hatred,
distrust and intolerance based on religious biasness.

"It is therefore very important for religious leaders to refrain from
politicising sensitive issues," he said.

Raja Nazrin said misguided religious leaders had sometimes not only
been enemies and obstacles to peace, they also had been, unwittingly or
deliberately, impediments to human development.

Touching on Malaysia, he said its policy of welcoming and celebrating
religious diversity instead of suppressing any religious group had contributed
greatly to the building of a more peaceful and united nation.

"Malaysia’s experience is that embracing religious diversity enriches
rather than inhibits national unity in a multicultural society," he added.

-- BERNAMA




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