News

  • Nation
  • World Updates
  • Courts
  • Parliament
  • Columnists
  • Opinion
  • Honours List

Wednesday August 4, 2004

PM talks about key to peace

BY JANE RITIKOS

Full text of the Prime Minister's
speech at the World Council of Churches.

KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called for dialogue among the various faiths and urged the people to set aside their religious differences to create a better world.

“What we need more than ever today is a concerted effort to initiate inter-faith dialogue,” he said as he made an impassioned plea for religious moderation at the opening of the World Council of Churches meeting here.

TEARS FOR PEACE: Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dabbing the tears from his eyes after opening the World Council of Churches meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday. The Prime Minister later told a press conference that he was moved by the many unresolved problems facing the world. - STARpic by Victor K.K. Ng
Abdullah urged the 150 participants, who included world church leaders, to join him in calling upon people of all faiths to work together for peace and justice.

“We cannot stand before a compassionate God while there is so much we have left undone because we are disunited,” he said.

This is the first time that the WCC had its meeting opened by a Muslim leader.

Abdullah, who is chairman of the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organisation of Islamic Conference, said to loud applause that as Malaysia’s Prime Minister, he was not “a leader of Muslims but a Muslim leader of all Malaysians.”

“I have a responsibility not just to my fellow Muslims, but also to Malaysians who profess other religions as well.

“It is my duty to ensure that their rights are protected, that they are free to practise their faith and that they are not pressured because they are not from the dominant majority.

“It is my duty to spread the message of tolerance among all, especially to the Muslim majority,” he said.

He said the strength of Malaysians was

their diversity that united them. However, he did not deny that there were problems among them.

“I do not want to claim there are no latent tensions and frustrations. There are still very many things we need to work on.

“But if the world ever needed a lesson in diversity and making it work I am confident that Malaysia can be a showcase,” he said.

He said the important virtue that the diversity brought out in Malaysians was moderation, which had always curbed extremism.

Abdullah, however, said that promoting moderation was not easy and many practised their faith in absolutist terms without any compromise with others.

“This is why I believe it is important to call for moderation in our respective religions. If we fail to do so, we risk having our religion hijacked by those who promote hatred and violence,” he said.

He said that the global scenario, including terrorism and the Iraq and Palestine issues, had led to less trust and goodwill between Muslims and Christians than before.

Thus, there was a great need for a concerted effort to initiate inter-faith dialogues.

Abdullah said injustices in the global financial and trading system, threat to the environment, poverty, diseases, natural disaster, war and conflict were problems affecting everyone, regardless of their religion.

He said that solutions to the many problems humankind faced today were sometimes not forthcoming as “we refuse to build an international consensus that can generate the political will for change”.

This, he said, was where inter-faith dialogue came in as the different faiths all shared common values of peace, friendship and co-operation.

In stressing his point, Abdullah quoted a Quranic verse and a biblical passage, both which required the people to live in peace with one another.

He said that with all the problems surrounding the people, religion must be a beacon of hope.

“Religion must guide us towards conflict resolution, towards peace, towards a more just and equitable world order,” he said.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story

News Poll