ISLAMABAD, Oct 11 (APP):Prime Minister’s Special Representative for Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi on Tuesday said religious diplomacy was a way forward to maintain peace and tranquility in the comity of nations.
In an exclusive talk with APP, Ashrafi who is also the chairman of Pakistan Ulema Council, said it would help control extremism and terrorism across the world.
Acknowledging the services of Muslim World League (MWL) Secretary General Dr Mohammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, Ashrafi said President Dr Arif Alvi had conferred the Hilal-e-Pakistan upon the former which is the second highest award of the country.
He assured all out support to Dr AL-Issa on behalf of the religious scholars for the steps being taken to resolve the Ummah’s issues worldwide.
He said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were tied in unshaken religious and cultural bonds, adding the Pakistani nation could sacrifice every thing for the security and sovereignty of the Saudi Arabia.
Ashrafi quoted Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa as saying that the Pakistan and Saudi Arabia’s defense was correlated. It was pride for us that the Pakistan Army trained Saudi Arabia’s youth, security forces and staffers of various departments, he added.
Addressing a seminar in connection with minorities’ rights the other day, held under the auspices of Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) here at local hotel, the MWL secretary general said the MWL was establishing a platform for religious diplomacy to achieve common interests and maintain peace across the world.
In this regard, he said, the MWL organized a conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in a bid to create an environment of peace and harmony world-over. In this conference, it took some major initiatives including setting up a platform for religious diplomacy and preparing an international encyclopedia in which all human beings shared values can be discussed from all aspects, he maintained.
He was of the view that a special day should be designated to highlight the shared values of people interlinked with various hues and nationalities across the world.
Dr Al-Issa said the plan was afoot for a unified curriculum to provide a good schooling to our coming generations and to control the menace of extremism and terrorism in the Muslim societies.
He said all people had the right to practice religious rituals in accordance with their faith and belief without any reservation as per Riyadh declaration.
He emphasized that the mutual cooperation between various religions and civilizations was must adding the United Nations had established a global platform to unite the representatives of various religions and civilizations to promote peace and interfaith harmony in the world.
On this occasion, he lauded Tahir Ashrafi’s unwavering efforts for the promotion of religious harmony, brotherhood and tolerance in Pakistan.
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