Greetings of peace!
It is with great joy I share with you the "Ambassadors of Peace" conference and workshop organized in Doha, Qatar from 13-16 June, 2015. This conference was organized by the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue. Invitations were sent by Pro. Ibraham Saleh Al Naimi, Chairman DICID.
From Pakistan, two URI leaders; Maulana Abdul Khabir Azad, former Global Trustee and myself, URI Regional Coordinator for Pakistan, were invited as Ambassadors of Peace. It was a great experience to be part of the International Ambassadors of Peace conference, particularly with participants from USA, Qatar and Pakistan. Both of us shared in detail about our work with URI and other interfaith and peace and dialogue work and activities. Our inputs and comments were received with great appreciation. And this conference also provided us with the opportunity to listen and learn from others from different countries.
One of the objectives was how Imams, religious leaders, priests and pastors can play imperative roles in peace building and thus create culture of peace and reconciliation. The focus of conference was how the Imam and priests/pastors from America, where Christians are in majority and Muslims are a minority, and Imams and priests/pastors from Pakistan, where Muslims are in majority and Christians are a tiny minority - can learn from each other to live in peace and overcome the tensions and issues they are confronted with. And how we can set a model (for example, from Pakistan) which can be adopted in America to bring closer relations and build trust among Christians and Muslim in America.
It was a very fruitful conference. The one-month visas were sent by the Foreign Ministry of Qatar and we were invited as State Guests. It was so good to see that activities of URI in Pakistan are being noticed by several other countries as well; both the governments and organizations.
I am pasting below some photos of this conference. In one photo Maulana Azad and I are with Prof. Abraham Naimi, Chairman of DICID. There is also one photo with a very famous Muslim scholar and religious leader, Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Asharafi, Chairman, Pakistan Ulama Council. There are 60,000 mosques and 10,000 madarassa/schools associated with this Pakistan Ulama Council.
May Peace Prevail On Earth!
In peace,
fr James Channan OP
URI Regional Coordinator Pakistan
