Speakers at a seminar, organised by Muslim Christian Federation International (MCFI) here on Sunday called for inter-faith dialogue for global peace, restoration of democracy and provision of justice to the downtrodden and to save world from terrorism.
Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD) Chairman Makhdoom Amin Fahim, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that the world was faced with many challenges today, therefore, after the tragic incidents of 9/11, the need for inter-faith dialogues for restoration of peace and democracy in societies had become need of the hour.
"We need collective efforts to end extremism, terrorism form the societies which have outraged the world peace." He also called for investigating the factors that led to extremism and the happenings of 9/11 and other such incidents, that took many innocent lives. He said that resolution of Palestine and Kashmir issues in accordance with the wishes of their respective people could go a long way in meeting such challenges.
He called upon the big world powers, especially the US, to play its role to ensure writ of justice in the world. With providing justice and basic and democratic right to people, the dream of peace and tranquillity could be realised.
He said that Islam is a religion of peace, love and tolerance therefore its followers could spread this message to other nations.
Principal Officer, US Consulate in Lahore, Brian Heath said that terrorism was not a problem that is being faced US only and added it was an international phenomenon which needed to be addressed by joint efforts. The innocent people killed in 9/11 incident were not only Americans but they represented many nationalities, he added. He said that terrorist kill innocent people and spread intolerance and hatred among societies.
Speaking about US relations with Pakistan he said they enjoyed long friendly relations which with the passage of time have improved and cemented further. He also lauded the role of Pakistan in combating international terrorism. He said that he respected the sentiments of people of Pakistan he would share the ideas discussed at this seminar with his colleagues.
PPP Secretary General Jehangir Badr said that the world had turned into a global village, hence, there was urgent need of an interfaith dialogue. In the changing world scenario, now the internal matters of a country have turned into international matters.
He said the world is changing rapidly and regional organisations like WTO are coming into being to meet the economic challenges. "But at the same time an international mafia is out to disturb the global peace, and to meet these challenges we will have to follow in the foot steps of the Prophet of Islam, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) and the Jesus Christ who always gave the message of love, brotherhood and peace." He maintained that in his view there was also need to frame an international agenda for teaching the message of peace and this could be done from the forum of MCFI.
Former Justice Fakhr ul Nisa Khokkar, Munir Gilani, Allama Hameed al Mashriqi, Qazi Abdul Qadir Khamosh, Munir Hussain Gilani, Josef Francis and other speakers also addressed the seminar.
A resolution was also adopted on the occasion, which said inter-faith dialogue is the only way to save the world from the incidents like 9/11, 7/7 and Madrid. "Therefore," it added, "MCFI and the participants of the seminar requests to all groups and individuals who have pain their hearts for those innocents dying because of hatred between different civilisations of different religions to pay their effective role to empower the inter-faith dialogue."