JDV appeals for inter-faith dialogues to stop conflicts

Speaker Jose de Venecia called yesterday on religious leaders attending the Fifth World Summit on Leadership and Good Governance in South Korea to avert a "clash of religions" by conducting regional inter-faith dialogues among nations.

De Venecia is in Seoul attending the summit, which is aimed at pushing regional inter-faith dialogue "in each of the conflict regions of the world to stanch bloodshed and senseless violence."

He reminded world leaders that age-old conflicts continue to bring "bloodshed and senseless violence to nations and peoples in entire regions," among them Aceh in Indonesia, the Islamic enclave in Thailand, Mindanao in the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Palestine, Kosovo, the Sudan and Nigeria in Africa and Chechnya in the Russian Federation.

"We must regard these regional conflicts as our new battlefronts. At the regional level, the inter-faith dialogues are more immediate and more urgent, and they can explore in detail hard and effective solutions," De Venecia told participants at the summit.

He also urged Muslim and Christian leaders in various parts of the world to "use your moral influence to the limit in the effort to reconcile the two great religions in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

De Venecia made a similar appeal in last week’s seminar on Islam and inter-faith dialogue organized by the Iranian embassy. He urged Muslim leaders to use their moral influence "to exorcise the extremists who invoke your peaceful faith to justify the mindless violence they inflict on innocents – and on themselves."

At the leadership summit, he said the clash of civilizations – which scholars say is actually a clash of religions – must be stopped "at all cost because mankind could face mass destruction," especially in light of today’s nuclear age.

De Venecia noted that in the past, the clash of religions was tolerable as "limited wars (were) fought by the armies of... Saladdin and Richard the Lionhearted (in the late 12th century), whose men fought on horses and on foot wielding only swords and arrows."

"But today, the clash of civilizations – of religions – lurks in the lethal shadow of nuclear age, between nations that possess nuclear weapons of awesome power that could bring annihilation and mass destruction to the entire human race," he said.

De Venecia is a principal advocate of inter-religious dialogue, which the United Nations General Assembly formally adopted in November 2004 as part of its mechanism to reduce ethnic conflicts and religious tensions in various regions of the world.

He said he recognized the role of a "dialogue among civilizations" earlier proposed by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and that the two religions can reinforce each other for mankind to achieve multi-cultural and multi-religious understanding.

De Venecia said this "multi-religious understanding could be the only basis for the long-term security of the global community, and the only basis for global peace that will endure."