Source/Credit: The Jimboomba Times
By News Desk | December 14, 2017
The Ahmadiyya Muslim community held its annual peace symposium on Sunday, December 10 at Bait-ul-Masroor Mosque in Stockleigh with speakers ranging from representatives of various faiths to community leaders.
The event was attended by more than 210 people, 95 of whom were attendees from outside of the Ahmadiyya community.
The aim of the event was to enhance love, respect and harmony between the religions of the world by discussing diversity, shared commonalities and understanding customs of others to inspire a concerted effort for lasting peace.
Jimboomba's local Imam Imam Ahmed Nadeem said it was important to teach the future leaders of the world about compassion in his opening remarks.
"There is a great purpose and objective behind why we are gathered here. This is not a political movement. Nor are we here just for a dinner,” he said.
“There is a great purpose behind this gathering.
“We have to teach our children, because they are the leaders of tomorrow.
“If the criterion for their leadership is that to become a leader you have to be a good politician, good in diplomacy or have this degree then we will fail.”
“But if we teach them today that the criterion is honesty, compassion, love for your brother what you desire for yourself, selflessness, no greed, you humble yourself to the ground, never think of yourself to be superior to anyone else whether he be of any colour, creed, religion or nation.
“If you embed this in them today, you will have good leaders tomorrow.
“Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Alan Tibbits, said the responsibility for building a better world lies with the common man.
“As people and intellectuals, it brings the responsibility back to us,” he said.
“It’s not something that we can give to our politicians not something we can give to our educators. It’s something we need to take full responsibility for in our own lives.”
Other speakers included Buddhist nun Wu Chin, Indigenous community representative Daryl Rae, Jewish community representative and Chairperson of Queensland Faith Communities Council.Gail Paratz, Order of Australia medal recipient Mr Surendra Parsad OAM, Sikh community representative Gyani Kuldeep Singh, Chief Commissioner of Scouts Queensland, Mr Daryl Scott, Senator Claire Moore and Logan City Councillor Cr Phil Pidgeon, Jitendra Prasad, district governor elect, Rotary District 9630.
The keynote speaker was National President and Missionary in-charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, Imam Inamul Haq Kauser who spoke of the symposium being ‘the need of the hour’.
"Today the whole world has become like one family, like one body. If anything happens in any part of the world, we get the news. If they suffer, we suffer. If they’re happy, we’re happy,” he said.
“Looking at the condition (of the world) one can imagine, something can happen anytime, any day.
“The world stands in desperate need of peace and security, this is the urgent issue of our time.
“All nations and all peoples must come together for the greater good and unite in the efforts to stop all forms of cruelty, persecution and injustice perpetrated in the name of religion or any other way.
“This includes the mockery of any religion which creates frustration and resentment."
Cr Phil Pidgeon said in order to create peace people need to listen and respect other views.
“I just think if you're going to do anything to work towards peace, we've got to start re-educating the young people and people in our society too that it's okay to express views respectfully but when you express a view, you also have to listen,” he said.
“We have lost the ability to sit around a table and discuss over a meal or a cup of tea or coffee.
“We have lost that ability and because of that we see the sad situation that we see overseas and in Australia we have people who feel the need to resort to violence to express their views, and that's just not right."
Read original post here: Australia: Ahmadiyya Peace symposium held at Stockleigh
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