By Vestnik Kavkaza
The Fifth Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions will be held in Astana from 10 to 11 June. The main topic of the forum is “The Dialogue of Religious Leaders and Political Activists in Favor of Peace and Development.” Many powerful politicians and religious activists of the world will participate in the event. President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev will meet President of Finland Sauli Niinistö, the Director General of the UN Ban Ki-moon, and the King of Jordan Abdullah II.
Deputy Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, head of the Service for Cooperation with NGOs, Father Roman Bogdasarov, thinks that it is important for leaders of traditional religions to meet today to find common answers to the challenges of the modern world. “Nowadays the world and the whole of humanity are oriented toward the examples and words of those people who not only express their opinions, but also speak about traditions and eternal immutable values. Speeches of representatives of traditional religions are very important for every person living on Earth. Often irresponsible speeches by political leaders can lead to terrible consequences, to humanitarian disasters. We can clearly see what is happening in the Middle East, where thousands of Christians are being killed because they refuse to change their religion and traditions. And in this regard, the leaders of traditional religions should meet and discuss how to resist this aggression, acts of terror and extremism. It is very important,” Roman Bogdasarov is sure.
Speaking about topics which would be discussed at the forum, Bogdasarov pointed out that interactions with young people will be discussed, as well as their role in the settlement of various processes in the world with the help of not only some traditional forums, economic and social reforms, but with the help of returning to traditions and cultural foundations. “There is a great demand in the European area for someone who could provide an example and give information, as together we are able to resist any threats of extremism and terrorism. We hope that the forthcoming congress will help everyone – religious leaders, political leaders and society – to come to some general common position, as the whole world needs it,” Roman Bogdasarov stated.
Igor Kovalevsky, Secretary-General of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Russia, stressed that “relationships among people and an understanding of their traditions are extremely topical for Russia and Kazakhstan, as both our countries are multi-religious and multi-ethnic. Russia and Kazakhstan have very good experience of interreligious dialogue – dialogue that takes place at the level of individual countries. This experience can be useful for other countries.”
Moreover, Igor Kovalevsky pointed out the importance of the religious aspect of the event. “Of course there will be political leaders, a sufficiently large representation of not only religious leaders, but representatives of various public organizations. But I would like to underline the religious aspect. What are the roots of religious extremism? The main root is weak faith, because of lack of education, because of a wrong understanding of their own religious traditions. And I hope that such interfaith forums will prevent all forms of religious extremism. The main goal of interreligious dialogue is not to merge all religions into one super religion. The main aim of interreligious dialogue is to allow different people to live together, to live in peace, love and harmony, respect each other's traditions, and understand the meaning of their own religious traditions, understand what holiness is, our aspirations and the purposes of life,” Kovalevsky is sure.
