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 on Friday. The minster 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. 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. 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. 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.
Dr. Mohsin Naqvi, former member Council of Islamic Ideology, opined that there was nothing like conflict of religions but actually it was conflict of believers in pursuit of material things. 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.
