Daily Times

Speakers at an international conference emphasized the need for joint efforts to promote religious harmony and peace through Sufism. They were addressing a three-day international conference on “Interfaith Relations: Challenges and Prospects” started on Monday at Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad.

The inaugural session was presided by Vice Chancellor, AIOU Prof. Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum while Dr. Alexandre PAPAS, Director at CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research), Paris was the keynote speaker. Dr. Tryna Lyons from The University of Arizona Global Campus, USA, Prof. Dr. Abu Sufyan Islahi, Department of Arabic, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, and Dr. Herman Roborgh from Minhaj University were among other guests. This conference is being organized by Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies, AIOU and the Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Dean, Faculty of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Prof. Dr. Muhyiddin Hashmi, Chairman, Department of Interfaith Studies, Prof. Dr. Ghulam Shamas ur Rehman and Dr. Hafiz Muhammad Sajjad are the organizers of this conference. The three-day conference will have 5 sessions in which discussions will be held on the topics of interfaith and social diversity, minority rights and environment, interfaith harmony and dialogue, religious interpretations and extremism, religion, peace, violence, and interfaith studies.

Prof. Dr. Alexandre Papas said in his address that Sufism is the best way to progress toward peaceful coexistence among interfaith harmony. He said that Sufis have given peace, harmony, and tolerance to society. He said that peace and harmony can be nurtured by the promotion of Sufism in the present era and the goal of human welfare can also be achieved. The speakers also expressed their determination that people of different religions will make the world a place of peace and human dignity. They said that inter-religious discourse is needed to establish an atmosphere of harmony and peace in the world, and we have to play our part to create harmony among all the countries of the world and all religions should come forward to play a role.

They congratulated Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Zia Ul-Qayyum, and the organizers for holding the conference and termed it as good progress in terms of dialogue between different religions.