Religion: Musharraf stresses the need for an end to Inter-Faith friction | September 19, 2005

9-14-2005

New York (AKI/DAWN) - Pakistan's president Pervez Musharraf urged world governments to resolve long-standing disputes and ensure a just distribution of economic benefits if they wanted to fight extremism. “It is necessary to urgently resolve conflicts and disputes, especially where these involve friction between different religions and faiths, for example in Palestine and Kashmir,” he told an international conference in New York on Tuesday.

The conference, 'Interfaith Dialogue and Cooperation for Peace', was co-sponsored by Pakistan, brought together world leaders to explore initiatives for promoting harmony among major faiths.

Musharraf said that specific efforts should be made to bring the benefits of development to societies facing problems of inter-faith friction and extremism. “Such support should aim at poverty eradication and the generation of socio-economic growth and human development,” said Musharraf.

He said Pakistan had been promoting religious and cultural understanding, harmony and cooperation within its border and with other nations. Underlining the need to take a united stance against terrorism, he urged all nations to ban extremist groups and prevent the distribution of hate literature.

“We must prohibit extremist organizations and hate literature and prevent the misuse of places of worship for the promotion of extremist views. We need to ensure that educational institutions do not foster extremism and terrorism,” he said.

The Pakistani president said that religious leaders and scholars from all cultures and faiths should be involved in the interfaith dialogue, “even some of those who hold extremist views and are un-enlightened about the virtues of other faiths, cultures and civilizations”.

Welcoming the United Nation's secretary general Kofi Annan’s initiative for promoting interfaith trust, he suggested that the secretary-general should also create a "United Nations office for interfaith cooperation".

The international community, he said, should adopt and implement a comprehensive strategy for promoting cooperation and understanding among faiths and cultures.

Musharraf also urged governments to “adopt conscious policies forthe protection of religious minorities.”