Alliance of Religious Leaders

World Youth Peace Summit Asia-Pacific was held on February 29, 2004 in Thailand where young people appeared with genuine commitment to work for the cause of peace in the region.

The purpose of the summit was to enhance peace by creating a friendly environment for all youth. It gave them the opportunity to make friends across the Asia-Pacific region.

Actually, all peace nitiatives stemmed from Millennium World Peace Summit held in August 2000 in the United States. After the millennium summit, the World Council of Religious Leaders was formed in June 2002 and Thailand was the host for this great and memorable gathering of religious leaders. Later on women step forward and Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders was held at Switzerland in October 2002. Following this, religious leaders and other prominent personalities decided to highlight the contributions of youth for the cause of peace. It was considered of utmost importance as the youth are affected by the conflicts and hence the need to utilize their energies in positive ways to forge a better world.

At the world youth peace summit, Pakistan was represented by five most dynamic youth delegates. Lots of issues were raised for discussion at the summit. Most important amongst them was the association of religion with peace, as religion always has a strong influence on the minds of the people. Therefore religious leaders can play a most effective role in the global peace making process.

There was a discussion among the religious leaders of the ten most populous religions in the world. A question was raised for the Muslim scholars from Jordan and Iran with regard to Jihad or Holy war in Islam? The scholars succeeded in explaining the true concept of Jihad by telling that Jihad in Islam is Jessesntially jihad against personal desires. Jihad-bil-Jabar is Holy war against aggressors, only for defensive purposes.

Why the Muslims get blamed for any terrorist acts across the world? It is a common practice in the media to report that Muslim terrorist groups have claimed responsibility for attacks, or, it is assumed that behind these attacks there is the hand of Muslim terrorists.

There are lots of common things in all religions and the one thing that no religion encourages is the existence of violence or terrorism in any of its forms i.e. religious conflicts, war, violence against women and children etc. But in our daily lives we see lots of examples of conflicts in the name of religion.

Quran is very clear with respect the religious values of non-Muslims. There are many verses in Quran regarding the rights of fellow human beings. There is only a need to implement the teachings of Islam in our lives, in its true spirit. We need to realize that this label is affecting our socio-economic lives too.

Another problem is creating internal conflicts in many parts of the world. That is religious extremism. Who knows better than Indians and Pakistanis about religious extremism. Both of the countries face many internal conflicts where hundreds of people die each year, only because of religious extremism.

In this regard religious leaders can be productive. W need to have regional committees of the World Council of Religious Leaders to work in collaboration with the influencial leaders across the world, as there is no participation in the council of religious leaders from countries facing religious conflicts, especially Pakistan.

All the influential Muslim scholars and leaders should step forward for this cause and make a Council of Muslim Religious Leaders to discuss the issues and to clarify the misconceptions about the Islam and Muslims under the light of Islamic perspectives for the outer community. We can prove that Islam is a religion of peace and harmony, not a religion of terrorism and the interpretation of Muslims as terrorists is just a misconception. But that will be possible when we will set the practical examples of peace in our societies and when we show respect for all people, Muslim or not.