Daily Times

The Caretaker Federal Minister for Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony, Aneeq Ahmed Friday underscored the need of spreading the message of harmony and peaceful coexistence among the masses particularly the youth.

He was addressing to a seminar on “Bridging beliefs: Interfaith Harmony in Pakistan” organized by the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony in collaboration with Dawood University of Engineering and Technology (DUET) Karachi.

The minister said that young generation was our future and message bearer of Islam’s message of Husn-e-Akhlaq (moral excellence) and hoped that they would spread it further across the globe for realizing the dream of establishment of an inclusive and holistic society. He said all the religions have identical divine message inculcated within their ideology because they are interrelated in the string of Creator’s guidance from Adam AS to Muhammad SAW who announced completion of the ‘Deen’.

Islam attaches a dignified status to human being declaring him ‘Naib of the Allah’ on the earth while the Quran narrates that every human is member of the Allah’s family, Aneeq Ahmed said and questioned, “How one can claim having love for Allah when his heart has occupied with feelings of prejudice, enmity and hatred to other humans even if they belong to a different religion.”

Ensuring justice to every citizen is mandatory in governance system of Islam that also requires complete freedom to non-Muslim citizens within an Islamic state, he maintained adding that injustice to a non-Muslim in an Islamic state was considered more oppressive act as compared to a wrongdoing with a Muslim citizen whereas the government was also responsible of ensuring safety and security of place of worship of all the religions.

In Pakistan, equal treatment is being made with every citizen and non-Muslim communities were living safely in a better environment while the government was providing security to non-Muslims, the federal minister said and emphasized that all citizens- irrespective of their beliefs- have to play their due role independently for development of the country.

Speaking at the seminar, Bishop Fredrick John, Bishop of Karachi and Balochistan emphasized on living our lives while following the religious ideologies in letter and spirit. “We are meant to develop and encourage others and accept and respect each other in their own capacities as God has created the human without any difference,” he noted adding that being from a different religion should not be made a matter of contention but actually ‘being different is a blessing’.

Dr. Mufti Irshad Ahmed Ijaz, Head of Sharia Department of State Bank of Pakistan, expressing views on evolution of human being and religion in the world, said that all the religions coexisted in the world from centuries.

He said that Allah has commanded for justice to all, developing social harmony and living in peace and tolerance. People with different beliefs, races, and languages can live in harmony by learning and adopting principles of peaceful coexistence, he added.

Sardar Ramesh Singh, Patron in Chief Pakistan Sikh Council, lauded the initiative of the Ministry of Religious Affairs for holding a series of seminars and conferences on Interfaith Harmony and said that every religion preaches love and brotherhood and denounce aggression and violence.

Sikhs have special reverence for Pakistan as all their religious sites were situated in this ‘holy land’, he said and expressed his gratitude to government of Pakistan for taking care of those holy sites and extending commendable facilitation to Sikh pilgrims.

Dr. Mohsin Naqvi, former member Council of Islamic Ideology, opined that there was no thing like conflict of religions but actually it was conflict of believers in pursuit of material things. The narrative about other religions was distorted and a wrong narrative was built up in the country during previous three decades, he observed and stressed on changing that distorted narrative by informing the masses about basic beliefs of the all the religions.

Dr. Jai Pal Chhabria, former member National Commission for Minorities said that minority communities played an important role in creation of Pakistan and Quaid-e-Azam’s August 11, 1947 speech paved foundation of interfaith harmony in the country.

All the speakers proposed core changes in the educational curriculum and including content on Interfaith Harmony, knowledge of different faiths, history and heritage of the area in it. Education can change mindset of millions, connect diverse communities living in Pakistan, clear away the negative perceptions and wrong narratives, and nurture an environment of peaceful coexistence and mutual respect, they said.