Participants’ Point of View-2
KAICIID: Global Hub on Dialogue to enhance
cooperation, respect for diversity, justice and peace
Dr. Mozammel Haque
The
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious
Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) was opened at the Hofburg Palace, Vienna, on
Monday, the 26th of November, 2012, in the presence of a global
audience of almost 800 guests, including ambassadors, government
representatives, religious leaders, academics and scholars.
Participants’ Point of View
In
the evening of the Inauguration ceremony of KAICIID at Hofburg Palace, Vienna,
on 26th November, 2012, most of the leaders of different religions
of the world; representatives from the Churches of Christianity,
representatives of the Jewish communities with all their backgrounds from the
East and the West, the Hindus and the Buddhists; the United Nations Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon, Vatican representative Cardinal Tauran, representative
from the King of Spain and the President of Austria, three Foreign Ministers of
the three founding states, Saudi Arabia, Austria and Spain were at the opening
ceremony.
I had
the opportunity to interview participants at the opening ceremony of KAICIID
and enquire their point of view about the Centre. While interviewing, I had
tried my level best to give wide representation in my interview from the
religious, regional and continental perspective.
Reverend
Kyoichi Sugino from
the
Religion for Peace International
Rev.
Kyoichi Sugino, Deputy Secretary General of the Religion for Peace
International, New York, who greatly admired Dr. Abdullah Mohsin al-Turki, the
Secretary General of the Muslim World League (MWL) whom he met in a meeting
organised by ASEAN in Bangkok, Thailand recently and hosted by MWL, said, “Dr. Turki
met both Muslim and Buddhist leaders at Patani, southern part of Thailand in
the Buddhist temple and in the Buddhist school and also visited universities.
“It
is important that King Abdullah’s initiative is now spreading across the globe
and the Religion for Peace and the Muslim World League are working together,”
he said and added, “The most important thing is religious dialogue and
collaboration to continue; we need interreligious mechanism; mechanisms of
collaboration. So this centre KAICIID receives one of those instruments.”
“Two
important things, one is how to strengthen interreligious mechanisms at the
national level, continental level and international level. And how we bring all
these experiences together and concretely,” said Rev. Sugino.
He
also said, “I think this centre’s initiative is important. King Abdullah’s
leadership in this field is extremely well received by other places and
Religion of Peace.”
Former State Senator Larry Shaw
Larry
Shaw was a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly. Former
state Senator Larry Shaw said, “It is just a realisation of the dream of the
journey. Now a real journey begins. It is now time to stop and reflect upon
where we come from and what lies ahead. We have to think about the possibilities
of all possibilities.”
“The
dialogue is the key to begin in the process. Keep it fresh; keep it vibrant; by
keeping openness about itself,” Mr. Shaw said.
Baba
Jain, Secretary General of the
World
Council of leaders
Baba
Jain, Secretary General of the World Council of leaders, said, “I think amongst
all the initiatives this one has a maximum potential to succeed. Why? Because
it has a name of His Majesty behind it and he is the Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques which nobody else has. God bless him. His Majesty is taken this step;
he is reaching out to the others. I think others have to see that what a
historic step this has been and now they are making it a reality.” Jain
said.
Recalling
what he said in a few years ago at Kazakhstan Forum, Baba Jain said, “I would
like to state this: I think if this centre takes the leadership initiative
under the patronage of the three governments together jointly with a Vatican,
together jointly, and they ask each government each country create a centre for
dialogue; every country a centre for dialogue, people from all walks of life;
from all sectors can come together to resolve the differences.”
This
time Baba Jain also repeated his statement which he told me at Madrid in 2008.
Baba Jain said, “I repeat that and even now I am saying I said this earlier
that I think Noble Peace Prize Committee would be wise to give him (King
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz) the Noble Peace Prize. He does not need it; but to give
this initiative recognition; give this initiative to the Muslims to support and
specially the conservative support to His Majesty, that would be a wonderful
step.”
Dr.
Abdullah Omar Naseef, former President of the
Jeddah-based
King Abdulaziz University
Dr.
Abdullah Omar Naseef, former President of the Jeddah-based King Abdulaziz
University and present Secretary General of the Cairo-based International
Islamic Council for Daw’ah and Relief (IICDR), said, “Dialogue is part of the
Islamic Shari’ah; because if you read the Qur’an or read the history of the
Prophet (peace be upon him) you will find that that was the communication of
every two parties to convince them that there are better language to achieve
goals. So dialogue is not strange for Islam.”
“The
opening of the Centre was very great,” said Dr. Naseef and mentioned that we
have seen presence of all Churches of Christianity, Jewish with all their
backgrounds from the East and the West, the Hindus and the Buddhists and
everybody was there during the opening
ceremony and also at the seminars which were held just two hours before that.
Dr.
Naseef said, “The opening ceremony shows that there was a great interest; not
only interest people want to be involved; they want to promote dialogue and
they accepted the idea that the centre which was established with the King
Abdullah bin Abdulaziz idea promotion and finance is really going to happen.”
Referring
to the speeches and the commitments of the board of directors and the secretary
general Faisal bin Muammar, Dr. Naseef said that there is a clear vision in their
mind and there is great dedication that they will continue. “This centre should
not be a symbolic; it will really be a think-tank which can be an operation
theatre,” he said.
Speaking
about the future of the Centre, Dr. Naseef said, “As it goes through in the
future, it will attract new ideas, new programmes and new people and it will
help to promote idea among the young people to be involved and to adhere to the
dialogue between religions because the old generation is going out and they
have something in their backgrounds.”
Dr.
Ahmad S. Turkistani
Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau
Professor
Dr. Ahmad S. Turkistani, Director, Department of Cultural Affairs, Saudi
Arabian Cultural Bureau, London, said, “This is the first international global
centre for interreligious intercultural dialogue. First of all, it combines
religion and culture; interreligious intercultural. There are some projects
taken by the head of state but not as big as this one. Some countries tried to
do something.”
There
will be many challenges before the Centre, but it has to find solutions.
Speaking about the work of the Centre, Dr. Turkistani said, “This is what the
centre is expected to do is to work on resolving problems, removing obstacles,
managing crisis, dealing with conflicts and hopefully we can do something; at
least put with representation of all the major religions and intellectual
cultural orientations of the world. I am sure the centre will respond to all
the needed developments and work on this.”
“I
think one of the greatest news said on the opening evening UNICEF and Religion
for Peace has started working,” mentioned Dr. Turkistani.
“I
feel the most important thing is that this one has the support of the religious
establishments in the world. We saw the Rabbi, the Archbishop, the Catholics,
the Vatican - all these people are giving this centre the full support and
their prayers and hopefully this will materialise into support.”
Dr.
Hamad al-Majed, one of the
Trustees
of the KAICIID
Speaking
about the uniqueness of this centre, Dr. Hamad al-Majed, one of the Trustees of
the KAICIID, said, “What is so unique about this centre is that this is the
first initiative which has been put forward by the Custodian of the Two Holy
Mosques from Saudi Arabia, in cooperation with other religious organisations. This
is why the big representations of other religions took it seriously. They think
Saudi Arabia is there and it will help a lot.”
In
the past two decades, the violence has accelerated and religion was given a bad
name. Dr. Al-Majed said, “This centre has to prove that religion is the
solution; it is not the problem.”
Dr.
Al-Majed also wanted to send a frank message to some Arab countries which think
that to sit with the Christians and the Jews you come to give up your own
belief, he said, “that is not true”. “I can sit with you on the common ground.
One of the major things that we can work on commonality, pollution, climate,
racial discrimination, homosexuality, all these things and also on some human
values,” he said.
Dr. Abdullah Saleh Obaid
Former Saudi Minister of Education
Former
Saudi Minister of Education and also former Secretary General of the Muslim
World League, Dr. Abdullah Saleh al-Obeid, said, “First of all, I would like to
thank King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and
Intercultural Dialogue for the arrangement of this conference. I hope this
centre will bring people, human beings of different religions, different
languages and different thoughts together to build peace and harmony in the
whole world.”
“I
think Muslims all around the world need to be in touch with the other people to
explain that there are situations to know each other and to inform other people
about Islam; about its message of justice, peace and human dignity,” said Dr.
al-Obeid.
HE Faisal Bin Abdulrahman Bin Muaammar
Secretary General of KAICIID
The
Secretary General of the Centre, HE Faisal Bin Abdulrahman Bin Muaammar,
stated, “It is my profound belief that this Centre can become a place of
leadership and applied learning, a place where candid dialogue among followers
of different religions and cultures can flourish so that we can value and
cherish the richness of our diversity and live together as good neighbours. And
I am convinced that KAICIID will, within a short period of time, build a bridge
for better mutual understanding, facilitating interreligious and intercultural
dialogue to enhance cooperation, respect for diversity, justice and peace.”
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