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Faith issues settled by mediation

Monday, 10 October 2011 10:18am

©The New Straits Times (Used by permission)
by Predeep Nambiar

PETALING JAYA: About 90 per cent of religious and interfaith issues in the country have been resolved through mediation.

This was possible through mediators trained under a joint programme managed by the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and the National Unity and Integration Department.

The department's director-general, Datuk Azman Amin Hassan, said these mediators' role in resolving such conflicts was encouraging as they had solved 299 out of the 320 cases received by the department nationwide.

He said 330 trained mediators had undergone the four-day course.

"We will evaluate these mediators twice a year to gauge their performance and also to make sure they maintain their standards," he told the New Straits Times.

The department is also studying the possibility of introducing a diploma and degree programme, in collaboration with IIUM, on religious mediation, he said.

Azman, who is also the chairman of the Committee for the Promotion of Inter-religious Understanding and Harmony, was speaking after opening the United Religions Initiative (URI) Asia-Pacific regional conference here yesterday.

The committee was set up last February to promote inter-religious understanding between various faiths in the country under the auspices of the department, which comes under the Prime Minister's Department.

The committee comprises the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia, the Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism, and the Allied Coordinating Committee of Islamic Non-governmental Organisations.

Azman said new measures were in place to help its committee members further promote peace and understanding.

"The prime minister has taken a personal interest in the committee and wants it to be successful."

In his keynote address at the conference, Azman said the government would continue to support the activities of interfaith groups through the committee.

The URI conference saw more than 200 people from the Asia-Pacific region sharing their national initiatives on fostering interfaith understanding through dialogues.

Azman said Malaysia had pledged to have further open interfaith dialogues and roundtable discussions with religious leaders.

"There is an urgent need in the world today to remove distrust and misunderstanding among different religions and cultures and foster greater understanding and mutual respect for all.

"Inter-religious dialogue contributes to the promotion of mutual respect, uniting everyone in the defence of spiritual, moral, social and cultural values, which constitute the solid foundations upon which society rests."

The conference was co-organised by Pure Life Society's Inter-Faith Spiritual Fellowship, Malaysian Interfaith Network and Nur Damai.

URI is an international, interfaith-building non-profit organisation modelled after the United Nations and has a membership of more than one million people worldwide.

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