An inter-faith collaboration meet organised by the British Deputy High Commission, MS Education Foundation, and Rubaroo, a local NGO, brought together school students and young men and women of different educational institutions in the city to spread the message of tolerance and peace.
Under the inter-faith dialogue, which had started with the celebration of the Inter-Faith Week in October, 2016, a total of 120 Muslim youth of classes 9 to 12 mingled with youth of other faiths who belong to the same age group.
The mingling brought out inter-faith dialogue on common concerns, including unemployment, corruption, gender inequality, education, and environment, to gather their views. This was followed by a panel discussion with religious leaders from different faith.
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Speaking at the meet, Andrew McAllister, British Deputy Commissioner, said, “Inter-faith dialogue is not something that is reserved for faith leaders and politicians. It needs to happen at all levels of society. That means the ordinary members of your neighbourhood mosque, the congregation from the local church, the people who go to temples and gurdwaras. Of course, our distinguished faith leaders have an important role to play in supporting this. Indeed, all of us are ambassadors who can share the importance of dialogue and help to bring it about”.
The religious leaders who spoke at the meet were Swami Poornabodhananda from the Ramakrishna Mutt, Raminder Kaur, Iqbal Ahmed Engineer, Al Mahad ul aali al Islaami, and Father Packiam Samuel from the Henry Martin Institute. The leaders urged the students to believe in spiritual oneness even as there are differences between religions.
A.K. Khan, Advisor on Minority Affairs, Telangana, said, “that peace and development in Hyderabad can largely be attributed to the rise in women’s education. The government’s priority in improving access to high quality education, especially to poor children from the minority community, through investment in residential schools has paid off.”
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The discussion among student participants were on the topics global citizenship, sustainable development, cultural diversity, and human rights, among other matters.
Students of Glendale Academy, St. Joseph’s, Vedic School, and other institutions from MS Education Foundation participated.