Christians, Muslims join hands in peace rally

In a symbolic manner, some one thousand representatives from different religions held a prayer rally yesterday, United Nations Day, for world peace, at the World Trade Center in Manila.

Organized by a civic group, Millennium Women for Peace and Development Foundation, Inc., Catholic, Muslim, El Shaddai, Jesus is Lord (JIL), and Iglesia Evangelical Methodista en Las Islas Filipinas leaders took turns in saying a short prayer during the program.

Several prominent people, including Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Senator Noli de Castro, and Secretary Heherson Alvarez, attended the event.

Lay representatives, as well as nuns from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), also joined in the prayer for peace.

Hundreds of Muslims were also seen attending the prayer rally.

Children from the Girl Scouts of the Philippines (GSP) opened the ceremony with the entrance of the Philippine flag brought up the stage.

Lourdes Pimentel, president of the Millennium Women for Peace and Development Foundation Inc. who delivered the opening remarks, recalled the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon by suspected terrorists identified with Osama bin Laden.

In a related development, the Inter-Faith Network for Justice and Peace (IFNJP) said Catholic and Protestant Christians and Muslims reiterated calls for justice and peace.

The IFNJP strongly urged the international community to demand that the US government and its allies stop the bombings that blatantly disregard and destroy the lives of Afghan civilians, including scores of children and women.

The group urged leaders of the United Nations to help save the lives of Afghan people by exercising their influence to stop the US attacks on Afghanistan.

The IFNJP also prepared a peace booth displaying the national flags of the Philippines, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Japan, as well as others that suffered atrocities in US wars of aggression.

Iba, Zambales Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez, chairperson of the Episcopal Commission on Ecumenical Affairs of the CBCP, said the US-led war does not qualify as a just war.

Iñiguez said that last Oct. 2, Catholic and Protestant Christians and Muslims gathered in an inter-faith forum to reflect on the implications of the US retaliatory action against those allegedly responsible for the attacks on the WTC in New York and the Pentagon in Washington.

Amie Dural, deputy secretary of the Promotion of Church People’s Response (PCPR), said that the US attacks on Afghanistan since Oct. 7 have been conducted without the benefit of a fair trial.

Amirah Lidasan, of the Moro Christian Peoples’ Alliance (MCPA), said that the US policy of war against terrorism has only fanned biases against Muslims.