BANGALORE: “The world will not be a safe place, even if a small part of the world lives in ignorance. Today’s problem is the anger and frustration amongst the peace-loving people. This needs to be channelised towards a creative and productive future,” said His Holiness Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in his keynote address at the 3rd World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace. The three-day conference started yesterday in Paris in collaboration with UNESCO and will bring together Imams and Rabbis to ini- tiate peace between Judaism and Islam. The theme of the 3-day conference is “Sacredness of Peace”.
Gurudev urged the religious leaders to envision a violence-free and stress-free world. “I would like to remind ourselves and our society that we belong to One World,” he said. “The world and life, in itself, is sacred and no one has any right to destroy them. Spiritual education is the vaccination against fanaticism and terrorism in the world.” Among the dignitaries present were Koichiro Matsuura, director general of UN- ESCO and H. E. Abdoulah Wade, President of Senegal.
Gurudev also said, “The wise would recognise the similarity among religions and celebrate the differences. We have to educate our youngsters to honour human values.” He called for a strong resolution to work towards peace in the individual, peace among the communities and peace among the nations.
Mr . Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO in his address said: “Intercultural and interfaith-dia- logue has to continue,” and reiterated UNESCO’s commitment to bring multi-cultural and multi-religious education.
In his presidential address, H.E. Abdoulah Wade, the President of Senegal said, that finally religion was being given its due importance.
“Whenever there are any negotiations, religion and religious groups play a vital role. This we cannot deny under today’s circumstances.”