Every major religion has a home in India: Ahamed

In a historic interfaith dialogue held at the United Nations -- where the King of Saudi Arabia and Israeli President broke tradition by dining in the same room at a dinner on the sidelines - India's representative E. Ahamed, Minister of State for External Affairs spoke about the tradition of dialogue and understanding in India.

Among the other speakers at the high-level meeting organized by the King of Saudi Arabia, were President Shimon Peres of Israel, King Abdullah of Jordan, President of Finland, Emir of Kuwait, President Karzai of Afghanistan, President of Lebanon and Prime Minister of Palestine. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice attended the meeting and President Bush and President Zardari of Pakistan addressed the session the following day.

The meet was a special session organized as part of the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly. In his address, Ahamed lauded the Saudi King's effort to spread understanding and goodwill amongst the peoples of the world as "both very timely and highly commendable". "It will enable us to better work together in a genuine partnership for a peaceful and equitable global order," he said. "In India, we strive in our daily lives in a million different ways to practice such a dialogue of equals," Ahamed said.

"This is an indispensable part of the process of building our nation as a shared endeavor. Such a dialogue is more than merely a conversation over issues of importance: it lies at the very core of our national existence." Stating that India was the birthplace of Hinduism, Buddhism, the Sikh and Jain faiths, he said that the great teachings of Islam, Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism found fertile ground on the Indian shores.

"Today, every one of the world's major religions has a home in India, making it a nation of unparalleled diversity," he added. "Islam has flourished in our subcontinent for over thirteen hundred years and modern day India has 150 million members of the ummah," Ahamed elaborated. "Put another way, today approximately one in ten Muslims worldwide is an Indian. Christianity too came to our shores shortly after its birth in the holy lands. Indeed, the Christian tradition reached India well before it reached most other parts of the world. Similarly, the Jewish and Zoroastrian people have an ancient history of having freely and peacefully practiced their faith in India."

Inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue was not new to India, Ahamed explained. And while faith and belief sustain Indians in their search for answers to existential questions, in their daily lives, they also recognize the importance of science and a scientific temper, rational and liberal social practices and economic growth and productivity, to help improve their lives, Ahamed pointed out. Making a special reference to the southern Indian state of Kerala, Ahamed said, "The State that I hail from in India, Kerala, is an outstanding example of the tradition of promoting dialogue and understanding that is to be found in my country.

Through the ages, Kerala has witnessed the peaceful co-mingling of different cultures and religions. Kerala was the state where Arab Muslim traders first arrived as messengers of the Islamic faith. The village of Methala, near the city of Cranganore in Kerala, hosts the first mosque to be built in the Indian subcontinent, the Cheraman Juma Masjid. It was constructed around AD 629, during the lifetime of the Holy Prophet. Our history also records that in AD 52, St Thomas, one of the thirteen apostles of Christ, brought Christianity to Kerala, landing on its shores in a ship owned by a Jewish merchant. The ship docked at a port which was home to a large trading settlement of Jewish and other people, including from Rome, Syria, and elsewhere.

Indeed, it is in Kerala too that the Jewish people built what is now one of the oldest synagogues in the world. Today, the population of Kerala is almost equally divided amongst Hindus, Muslims and Christians." Further, Ahamed said dialogue amongst different cultures and religions is also important because it is precisely in the absence of such dialogue and understanding, that intolerance, bigotry and violence flourish. "This is one reason why extremist ideologies, violence and terrorism, have grown in a world in which we seem to be moving away from dialogue and understanding. There can be no disputing that terrorism, which is a manifestation of extremism, intolerance and violence, is the antithesis of all religions."

Ahamed said that India was troubled by the rise of intolerance worldwide, and by the increase in resources, financial and otherwise, that are being made available to violent and intolerant groups that misuse religion to justify and propagate their extremist agendas. "The effort to counter such tendencies diverts attention and much-needed resources from development efforts in a country like ours. It is therefore increasingly urgent that the nations of the world come together to tackle such evils." World communities need to send out a clear message emphasizing the importance of tolerance for the faiths and beliefs of others, he said.

"The UN Charter states that the peoples of the United Nations are determined to practice tolerance and live together in peace. We need to emphasize the responsibility of member states to do all in their power to promote tolerance and respect. Eventually, however, we will need to build a larger platform based upon tolerance, which stresses the fundamental equality of all cultural traditions, religions and faiths, and the essential truth that all human beings are equal before their creator," Ahamed said.

Ahamed concluded his speech with a quotation from the revered saint and social reformer of Kerala, Sri Narayana Guru. In a message to an All Religions Conference held in 1924, he had stated that: "This great Parliament of religions makes it abundantly clear that the ultimate goal of all religions is the same, so there is no need for followers of different religions to indulge in mutual conflict."