T

he annual executive meeting of the Asian Conference of Religions for Peace (ACRP) ended on Sunday with an agreement to increase interfaith dialogue in Asia to push for conflict resolution.

As an initial step, the ACRP will use the conflict between North and South Koreas as a case to be resolved through interfaith dialogue.

Both Koreas have been named hosts for the five-yearly congress in 2014.

'€œNorth and South Korea are to jointly sponsor the congress next year. We too encourage reconciliation between North and South Korea. But, after we confirm the regions in [the Korean] Peninsula, we'€™ll make the final decision,'€ ACRP secretary general Sung Gon Kim told The Jakarta Post after the meeting.

All delegates from China, North Korea, South Korea, Thailand, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Timor Leste, Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Brunei, Bhutan and Vietnam have announced their attendance at the five-yearly congress.

'€œWe have a plan to drive a convoy from South Korea, crossing the border to North Korea carrying the numerous religious symbols,'€ said Abdul Mukti, secretary of the ACRP'€™s Indonesian chapter.

He said the convoy would send a message to all citizens in both warring countries that all humans were born with various religions and beliefs to keep peace and harmony.

Another effort the ACRP will be carrying out to reconcile both Koreas is to establish a peace education institution in North Korea. The institution will teach about peace to the Korean youth.

A similar non-formal educational institution has been established in the southern part of the Philippines.

Poey Tiang Poew, an academic researcher from the International Islamic University of Malaysia supports such efforts.

He said the efforts by the ACRP through interfaith dialogue would be very effective in resolving conflicts between countries.

'€œIn Malaysia, such efforts are being used to increase the people'€™s harmony and welfare. They are still effective today,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, Khalid Ikramullah Khan, executive member of the ACRP from Pakistan emphasized that peace messages were actually contained in all religions in the world but some people had different interpretations.

Those who interpret peace differently are sometimes called hardliners, he said.

'€œThey are not hardliners, they are just confused in interpreting their religions,'€ said Khalid.

Meanwhile, Sun added that it was important to have a leadership regeneration in the ACRP and considered Muhammadiyah chairman, Din Syamsyuddin as a figure worthy of replacing him after seven years leading the ACRP delegates.

 '€œWe expect the new young generations to take up the leadership. I see Din Syamsudin is still young and he can continue this leadership in the future,'€ Kim said.

Din did not attend the closing ceremony of the ACRP meeting as he had to fly to Jakarta to attend the funeral of the People'€™s Consultative Assembly speaker, Taufiq Kiemas.

Taufiq passed away in Singapore on Saturday evening.

The three-day meeting started on Friday evening with a gala dinner and a cultural performance at the Malang Muhammadiyah University (UMM) in Malang, East Java.