Dialogue itself is not an aim. The aim of dialogue is mutual acquaintance, to know and to understand each other, to contemplate our joint fate, to discover our common ground and to define our joint task. Let us please ask ourselves!

 What is our common task in the present life?

Before answering this question let me remind you and myself that ALLAH Almighty has created us from one soul then from a male and a female and mad us into nations and tribes, also He has given every one full freedom to choose his faith and his path in life.

Therefore we are here from different religions, cultures and nationalities, we accept each other, and respect our religious and cultural particularities. On the basis of this spirit we can easily answer the above-mentioned question.

What is our common task in life?

Let me please remind you also that the Almighty has created us to worship Him alone. But what is the meaning of the worship?

Worship means: Thanking, blessing, glorifying and praying to the Almighty for his uncountable graces, also it means obedience and adherence of His will in life.

Therefore I believe there are two kinds of worship:

·        Spiritual worship,

·        Constructional worship,

I am sure that you know very well the meaning of the spiritual worship, let me explain the meaning of the constructional worship some body may needs that.

Constructional Worship means: Building up life according to the requirements of human dignity and the environmental security, sense the Almighty has appointed us as successors on Earth for carrying out the following main goals:

1.    Building of Earth to be safe home for all,

2.    Exploring and investing of Earth’s resources for all,

3.    Glorifying of life and human dignity,

4.    Establishing of justice and peace for all,

5.    Protecting of environment from pollution and corruption,

Achieving of these five goals that is what we mean with (Constructional Worship), also these five ends represent our common task in the present life. On other hand I can say that our joint task is:

How to build our common life?

How to realize our mutual benefits?

How to bring safe coexistence to the human communities?

Surely the practical answer of these questions is what we mean by the Constructional Worship. Truly, Constructional Worship is the most important part of the obedience and worship of the Almighty.

Someone may asks:

What is the link between the Spiritual and Constructional Worship?

Actually, there is a very relevance between the two worships. Spiritual Worship qualifies humankind to be faithful, truthful, sincere, honest and patient, while the Constructional Worship qualifies him to be scientist, expert, skillful and clever. So the complementarity between the two Worships is very necessary for right life.

Truly know - how and straightness are the prerequisite for realizing of the success in the present life.     

But how can we realize this our noble task?

Regarding this big challenge I think we need to work together seriously to carry out the following three main matters:

1.    Crystallizing of a common human culture,

2.    Deepening of culture of the human brotherhood,

3.    Extending of culture of the constructional worship.

Regarding the common human culture let me suggest the following common principles:

1.    Emphasizing of culture of the faith,

2.    Respecting of the religious values and human ethics,

3.    Justice must be for all without discrimination,

4.    Peace, food, water, health and education are right for all alike,

5.    Glorifying of life and human dignity,

6.    Respecting of human properties,

7.    Respecting the individual freedom within freedom of others,

8.    Rebalance between the ethics and technology,

9.    Rebalance between culture of consumption and culture of production,

10.     Respecting of usufruct within respecting of the right of possession,

11.     Integration of the responsibilities between men and women in life,

12.     Family based on the legal marriage between man and woman is the essence of the human security.

But what is the practical step to achieve the above – mentioned noble goals?

I think the first step is seeking to establish within the United Nations:

1.    International Agency for justice and Peace       IAJP,

2.    International Agency for Human Fraternity       IAHF,

3.    International Agency for Earth Construction    IAEC.

For guarding and protecting of the standards of justice, peace and human fraternity among the human communities, and for controlling of the movement of the construction and technology on Earth.

Finally, we have to affirm that Justice is a deep and strong root of the tree of virtue among communities, while injustice and the double standards are the source of the evils on earth. 

By  

H.E. Prof. Dr. Hamid Bin Ahmad AL-Rifaie

President of International Islamic Forum for Dialogue IIFD

Co-Sec. Gen. of World Muslim Congress WMC

Jeddah- Saudi Arabia 13  Jumada l  1426 H  corresponding   20 June 2005

Report on Religious Peace Conference
with the theme:

"Towards a new religious model for global peace"

 

The conference was jointly organized by the Inter-Faith Roundtable and Saor-Ollscoil na hEireann (Free University of Ireland).

The attendees included leading Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Progressive Jews, Bahais, Christians (of several denominations), Humanists, politicians, diplomats, media and members of the public.

Venue: Church of Ireland Dublin Head-quarters (Anglican Protestant Christian) Castle knock Parish Center, Dublin 15 Date: 16th July '05

The conference commenced with introductory contributions, including prayers, from:
Rev. Elaine Dunne – Church of Ireland pastor of Castleknock Parish Fr. John Jones - Catholic Church priest Rev. Andrew Orr - Church of Ireland pastor, of Castleknock Parish Sheikh Dr. Shaheed Satardien - Muslim scholar and Chair of the Inter-Faith Roundtable Dr. Sean English - Head of the Free University of Ireland.

His Excellency Mr. Saurabh Kumar, Ambassador of India opened the conference with his very pertinent opening remarks.

The keynote address of the conference was then given by His Excellency, Prof. Dr. Hamid Bin Ahmad AL-Rifaie, President of the International Islamic Forum for Dialogue (IIFD) and Co-Secretary General of the World Muslim Congress (WMC).

Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie proposed some very interesting ideas to promote and establish co-existence and co-operation between faiths, cultures and peoples as a "religious model for global peace" which were very well received by the followers of the various faiths.

Altogether sixteen different religious persuasions were represented by eminent scholars from the North and South of Ireland.

Professor Hamid Al-Rifaie also wonderfully managed to keep the interest of the conference very high with his excellent scholarly suggestions, which he expounded very professionally and academically.

Firstly to generate a common ground, a common purpose for humanity. This leads him to differentiate between two forms of worship, which he termed:
     a.  Spiritual worship
     b.  Constructional worship

"Spiritual worship" concerns the particular modes of worship relevant to each individual faith community or person. It concerns the particular beliefs, theology & practices of each religion.

Constructional worship concerns those elements of life required by all (no matter what creed), which he termed:
       1.Creating Earth as a safe home for all.
       2.The discovery and use of the Earth's resources for all.
       3.The celebration of human life and dignity.
       4.Establishment of justice and peace for all.
       5.Protecting the environment from pollution and degradation.

Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie stated that in the above "constructional worship" areas, which are the creation of the Almighty, all creeds and cultures can co-operate as they are common to the concerns of all peoples.

Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie elaborated on the above issues. He then made a practical suggestion for their implementation, which was to create within the United Nations:
         (i)   International Agency for Justice & Peace.
         (ii)  International Agency for Human Fraternity.
         (iii) International Agency for Earth Construction.

Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie ended his keynote address with:"Finally, we have to affirm that Justice is a deep and strong root of the tree of virtue among communities, while injustice and double standards are the source of evils on earth."

Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie's address was very well received and was continually referred to throughout the rest of the conference.

The 2nd speaker was Dr   Nalinie Mooten, a young but brilliant academic, who spoke on "The role and responsibility of religion" in generating peace. This ended the First Session of the conference.


At the commencement of the Second Session of the Conference a statement was read out from a joint Catholic-Islam Dialogue Group (of which Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie is a participant) condemning as utter un-Islamic, the recent suicide bombings in London. This was followed by a prayer in Arabic by Sheikh Satardien, then a prayer by Father John Jones and then a two minute silence to respect the dead of that tragedy. Sheikh Satardien added that our prayers are for all the victims of violence all over the world including Palestine and Iraq. He extended the apology of the British ambassador to Ireland for being unable to attend.

The Second Session of the Conference was chaired by Prof. Chris Morris, a Humanist, and featured opening comments by Government Minister Brian Lenihan T.D..

The 1st speaker in the Second Session was Dr. Jasbir Sing Puri of the Sikh community. He gave a Sikh perspective on generating a model for global peace, and referred to the issues raised by Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie.

The 2nd speaker of this session was Dr. Emmanuel Bezzina, a Barrister from Malta, who described himself as being "Inter-Religious" and "Internationalist" although a Catholic by birth.

Dr. Bezzina referred to the injustices of the world as a primary cause of a failure to generate world peace. He continuously referred to Professor Hamid Al-Rifaie's keynote address and the model he proposed for global peace and his reference to spiritual worship and constructive worship, which was a new dimension, and perspective to him. He also highlighted the plight of the Palestinians whose land has been usurped and the injustices perpetrated on the people of Iraq.

The 3rd speaker of this session was Allama Zille Umar Qadri, a Muslim scholar. He gave the Muslim perspective on violence and so-called  "suicide bombers", pointing out that the killing of innocent civilians is completely forbidden in Islam. He stated that the killing of an innocent person was akin to killing every human being, in the eyes of God.

Lunch was then served for all attendees.

The Third Session, after Lunch, was chaired by Sheikh Dr. Shaheed Satardien and featured a further contribution from Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie.

The 1st contributor was Dr. Hemant Kumar who gave a Hindu perspective on generating world peace.

The 2nd contributor was Prof. Seosamh Watson of the Bahai faith who discussed the possibility of all faiths funding an "Inter-Faith" Chair in one of the Universities in Ireland. Currently there are no religious departments found in any of the Irish universities except the Centre for World Cultures and Contemporary Thought at Saor Ollscoil na hEireann headed by Sheikh Satardien which teaches different religions. To open a chair for religious studies was roundly endorsed by all the delegates.

The 3rd contributor was Dr. Terry Gilliespie an elder within the Quaker community (a Christian denomination).  His point was a very practical one of lobbying the media to have at least one day per year when it does not feature "killing" or "murder" in entertainment programmes. His point was that the continual broadcasting of objectionable material as so-called entertainment was "desensitizing" people to the horror of violence.

The 4th contributor was Prof. Chris Morris, who is a Secular Humanist. His central point was that religion must be taken out of education as it was promoting sectarianism. He maintained that each religion must be responsible for the religious education of its adherents, not the State. He stated that any education on religion within the State school system must be based on comparative religion, not just about one faith.

The conference was ended with some closing comments by Sheikh Satardien and Prof. Ahmad, who finished off with a prayer in Arabic. Colm Colgan of the Catholic faith then gave the vote of thanks.


Throughout the conference there were constructive contributions from the floor and all agreed it was a big success. This was the first truly Inter-Faith Conference ever held in Ireland, and in that sense it was quite historic. Other such conferences to date have been Inter- Christian (termed "Ecumenical") and have not involved the other world faiths.

Both Sheikh Satardien and Prof. Hamid Al-Rifaie were interviewed by TV3 news (which featured on television news on the evening of 16th July) and various newspapers. This contributed to showing interfaith dialogue in a positive light and that it is much needed in the current atmosphere of violence and polarization in the world. By the sheer numbers who attended and the diversity of the religious representations it proved that it is the only way of harmonizing society in the future.
We cannot live in a society of exclusivism, polarization and discrimination but we have to strive together to bring about peace.

The conference demonstrated that there is a lot of interest in Inter-Faith co-operation and co-existence, that all the world faiths repudiate violence as a means of achieving their aims, that Islam in particular (given current global circumstances) repudiates "suicide bombers" and the killing of innocent civilians. The conference resolved that there is a reservoir of good will between creeds that can serve as a foundation stone for a better world and therefore will work towards the harmonizing of faiths and peaceful co-existence and also to work towards funding a religious chair at one of the universities in Ireland.

by

Sheikh Dr. Shaheed Satardien