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King Salman to meet interfaith leaders in Jakarta: Minister
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Personnel of Presidential Security Details (Paspampres) rehearse security procedures for the visit of Saudi Arabia's King Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta on Feb. 25. (Antara/Rivan Awal Lingga)
T
he Religious Affairs Ministry will convene religious leaders from various backgrounds in Indonesia to have an interfaith dialogue with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia when the King arrives in Jakarta for a state visit from March 1 to 3.
King Salman, who will bring 1,500 entourage members to Indonesia, is scheduled to arrive and to have a bilateral meeting with President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo at the Bogor State Palace on March 1. He will stay in Jakarta for the remaining two days.
(Read also: Saudi Arabia sees killed Densus 88 members as martyrs: Pramono)
Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin said his office was still arranging the time and the venue of the interfaith dialogue, whether it would be conducted on March 2 or 3 before the King flies to Bali for holiday from March 4 to 9.
Lukman said the interfaith forum would send messages of peace to the world that religions should not be used a tool to achieve political goals that could lead to extremism, radicalism and terrorism.
“This is something that we are now preparing. We will make use of the state visit of King Salman to have an interfaith dialogue in order to have a shared understanding on how to fight extremism,” Lukman said.
Lukman said religious leaders during the interfaith forum would encourage world citizens to use religion as a tool to campaign for moderation so that people in the world could understand the benefits of religion in maintaining the world's civilizations. (evi)
