300 religious leaders of the world, Hindu, Islamic, Jews, Christians, Shinto, and Confucians concluded their interfaith conference today. For three days they all meet in Madrid Spain, guests of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.The conference reflects the current world situation. Terrorism, intolerance and war to stop violence are tearing allies apart, maiming innocent victims and making the followers of intolerance stronger. The possibility of the world dissolving into a full culture war becomes more real everyday. Fear spawns a need for simple answers where none exist. So the conference was timely.
The conference called on the U.N. to institute an on-going dialogue. The Madrid Declaration acknowledges the unity of human kind. Calls for greater dialogue, greater respect and defines terrorism as a world phenomena. It calls for a refined definition of terrorism and a reasonable and international plan to cooperatively combat terrorism. Finally it calls for protection of the environment.
Our faith is one that demands that we love, demands that we forgive, demands that we reach out to our enemies and forbids us to judge. Dialogue, sounds like something we can all live with.
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