From rxpgnews.com
Communalism destroying composite culture: PM
By IANS,
Apr 21, 2007 - 2:26:27 PM
New Delhi, April 21 - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Saturday that 'forces of bigotry and communalism' were trying to destroy composite culture and that these could be checked by interfaith dialogue.
'Your mission gains urgency at a time when the forces of bigotry and communalism are trying to tear apart this fine fabric of our composite culture,' Manmohan Singh told religious leaders from various SAARC countries participating in a two day South Asia Interfaith Harmony Conclave here.
'Attempts to divide society along religious lines deserve to be condemned with contempt,' he said.
'Any political formation trying to incite people in the name of religion, whatever religion, is in fact betraying both religion and our civilization,' he stressed.
Underlining the Indian ethos of the co-existence of different faiths as epitomised in the concept of 'Sarva Dharma Samabhava', Manmohan Singh set the tone for the conclave by asking religious leaders to stress the concept of religious harmony as an antidote to communal forces.
Alluding to Swami Vivekananda's famous speech at the World's Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in September 1893, Manmohan Singh stressed on the ingrained Indian ethos of universal toleration.
'We have not merely learnt to live and let live. We have in fact learnt to live together, grow together, learn together,' he said, while underscoring the secular nature of the Indian constitution and equality of all religions.
Prayers from different religions mingled in one divine note, celebrating religious and cultural diversity of South Asia, and religious leaders from nine faiths that have found home in the region blessed the first interfaith conclave in South Asia, before the prime minister inaugurated it at the Jawahar Bhawan.
The conclave, also attended by nearly 80 religious scholars and public figures from South Asia, is organised by the Interfaith Harmony Foundation of India, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations - and The Temple of Understanding, India.
Pakistan's Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani, Imran Khan, cricket icon and leader of Tehrik-e-Insaaf, and Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, are also attending the conclave that takes place less than three weeks after India hosted the 14th SAARC summit here.
A harmony compound that will include the places of worship of nine major religions of the world and a university named after Sufi poet Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi are the major projects of the interfaith initiative that will fructify in the near future, said Khwaja Iftikhar Ahmed, founder president of the Interfaith Harmony Foundation of India.
In a speech peppered with Sanskrit verses, ICCR president Karan Singh said promoting a confluence of religions, and not a clash of civilisations, held the key to social harmony.
'Interfaith movement hasn't moved to the centre. It is nobody's baby. The key is to not to get entangled in theological debates, but work around universal values,' Karan Singh said.
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