The annual two-day executive meeting of the Asian Conference of Religions for Peace (ACRP) kicked off in Bandung, West Java, on Wednesday with calls for everyone to promote religious peace.

The meeting is being held in the midst of a massive exodus sparked by the state-sanctioned persecution and discrimination against the Muslim Rohingya ethnic group in Myanmar, while the extremist Islamic State (IS) movement has caused alarm in Southeast Asia and Central Asia.

Myanmar Muslim figure Al Haj U Aye Lwin of the Islamic Center of Myanmar, Abdul Karim Hayder of the Religions for Peace and Sri Lanka'€™s Council of Religions for Peace secretary-general, the Venerable Dhammajothi, were among the speakers in the event.

In his opening speech on Wednesday, Vice President Jusuf Kalla reminded everyone, including conference participants and religious leaders of different religions coming from different parts of Asia, that all religions shared the similar principle of promoting peace regardless of differences in ways of teaching and rituals.

'€œPeace [...] I think we talk peace every day, maybe many times. If I say [the Muslim greeting of] assalamualaikum, it means peace be upon you; we pray peace for you. If you say [the Jewish greeting of] shalom, you say peace [...] Om swastiastu in Hindu or Bali, that is peace,'€ Kalla said. '€œIt means every day we pray for peace, but why in many countries and extremisms do wars or conflicts happen, sometimes within religions or between religions everywhere now?'€

Kalla also reminded the meeting, which was attended by around 200 participants, including members of the ACRP executive committee, that all religions also shared similar principles of believing in a God who is merciful and promotes humanity.

The Vice President argued that religious problems did not ignite violence until someone used religion for politics and forged solidarity in the name of religions-sparked extremism, while the roots of the problems, Kalla added, actually often lay in political situations and economic gaps, which happened everywhere.

Around 3,500 undocumented migrants, comprising Rohingya and Bangladeshi, are stranded off the coasts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, while thousands more are believed to be adrift at sea.

According to Kalla, people easily took part in conflicts when the religious leaders pronounced it to be a religious conflict.

In 2012, a religious conflict broke out in Sampang, in East Java, between Shia and anti-Shia groups, causing hundreds of Shia followers to be forcibly evicted from their homes. The two-day event aimed to discuss how to overcome violent religious extremism in all its forms, which ACRP president Din Syamsuddin deemed '€œa general theme of the world today'€ since almost all religions '€œhave been facing the threats and the challenges of violent religious extremism'€.

'€œReligions share the same values and principles [of peace] so no kind of violence has roots in religion, no kind of terrorism has roots in religion,'€ Din said in his welcoming speech, adding that violent religious extremism often misused religious principles in the name of religion.

Popular

Govt eyes September for mass relocation of civil servants to Nusantara

Govt claims 'mudik' 2024 traffic management a success

Public hopes swell ahead of election dispute ruling