D

ozens of Asian interfaith leaders from 17 Asian countries grouped under the Asian Conference on
Religions for Peace (ACRP) are scheduled to discuss various recent religious issues that have arisen in the region.

The three-day conference starts on Friday at Malang Muhammadiyah University (UMM) and its results will be taken to the 2014 World Conference on Religion for Peace (WCRP) to be held in Seoul, South Korea.

The organizing committee chairwoman, Indah Prihatini, told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that 55
delegates from Australia, North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Bangladesh, Nepal, New Zealand, Cambodia, Pakistan, Iran, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Timor Leste, and the Philippines and host Indonesia had arrived.

'They are being represented by ACRP copresidents as each country has a copresident,' she said.

'They will discuss various religious activities that are aimed at promoting world peace.'

Representatives from Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Shintoism, Confucianism and Islam will gather at an Asia desk, which will conduct an executive committee meeting to prepare for the WCRP's general assembly in 2014.

'This year was actually Australia's turn to host the event, but ACRP secretary-general Sunggon Kim declared his inability to do so and requested Indonesia act as replacement,' said ACRP president Din Syamsuddin, who is also president of Indonesia's second-largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah.

'This year, we are organizing the event in Malang at the UMM so we have a different ambience.'

Din did not elaborate what points would be discussed during the conference, but he did say the conference aimed to mobilize religious leaders to reach peace in the Asian region.

Regarding Myanmar, he said the ACRP has sent a delegation to the country and established a representative office.

He added that no religious leaders from Myanmar were scheduled to attend the conference despite
the fact that invitations had been extended.

He said that UMM was chosen as the venue to highlight Muslim achievement in Indonesia, in this instance Muhammadiyah, because UMM as a private university had experience of organizing international events. 'Such conferences are usually held in hotels but this time I invited the delegates to Malang, so there is a recreational feel as well as introducing UMM to the delegates,' Din said .

The WCRP was established 36 years ago and is headquartered at the United Nations building in New York. The organization gathers leaders from various religions across the world to utilize a religious approach to resolve conflict and promote world peace.