Spiritual leaders to strive for peace, amity in society

Hyderabad : In an attempt to bring closure different religious groups with the objective of attaining religious harmony, the first meeting of 'Dharmik Jan Morcha' of religious heads and spiritual leaders representing all major religious groups expressed their commitment to work for peace and amity and for cementing the bond of brotherhood with one another.

The Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) which was able to bring Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Jain besides religious heads from Muslim community held deliberations amongst the members of the Morcha.

They are planning a platform to be led by shri hari krishna vadalankar, arya samaj, TridandiDevanatha Ramanuja Jeeyar Swami, RevFrDr Anthony Raj Thumma, the executive secretary, Federation of Telugu Church, AP & Telangana, Swami PurnaTej, mentor of Art of Living Foundation, Telangana, Sardar Nanak Singh Nishter, Ambassador for Interfaith Harmony, Gurudwara Saheb, Gowliguda, and Vinod Jain, president Shri Digamber Jain Sansthan, besides Moulana Hamid Mohammed Khan, JIH State president.

Speaking on the occasion, Jeeyar Swami said that all religions teach peace even though they have different doctrines. While welcoming the development, he felt that religious heads and spiritual leaders coming to form a single platform was for the greater good of the society. "All the river streams only end up in the great ocean of oneness, hence I hope that this initiative would prove to be effective in bringing everyone closure to one another for building a better society," he added.

Swami PurnaTej hoped that this would not only develop brotherhood but also ease religious understanding of each other. He welcomed the initiative as differences whatever, could be brought down between communities.

Sardar Indersingh of Gowliguda Gurudwara held that the Sikh community always stood in the forefront in bridging the communities and was ready to take part any of the activities for common good being taken up by the Morcha. "The elements creating rift between the communities should be uprooted, so that all religious group exist peacefully," he said.

Dr Anthony emphasised the need for religious tolerance, respect and acceptance amongst different communities. "Unless all religious heads come forward and commit themselves for peace and unity, those who want to create rift between communities would create atmosphere of discord for political gains. Hence this was the need of hour," he added.

Vinod Jain hoped that this initiative would prove to be an example of unity in the coming days. Maulana Mohammed Husamuddin Sani (Jafar Pasha) hoped that this religious platform would work for the betterment of the society.

Salim Engineer, national secretary-general JIH, said that this was part of the national initiative in view of the existing scenario where attempts are being made to develop schism among communities. He hoped that all the States like Telangana would come up with similar programmes. Sadiq Ahmed and his team members who worked to bring all on single platform and aides of religious heads were present.