Religious harmony

Religious harmony

From Media Indonesia

Alwi Shihab's lecture delivered at the Negara palace on the
occasion of the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, which fell on July
27 this year, interested me greatly.

Alwi, who is a researcher at the Research Center for Religious
Studies at Harvard University, U.S., emphasized that in a
multireligious society such as Indonesia, the awareness of
religious plurality is quite essential, besides understanding the
central theme of other creeds.

Pluralism should be taken to mean that every religious
believer should acknowledge the existence and rights of believers
of other religions and also try to understand the similarities
and differences between religions in order to establish harmony
in diversity (Kompas, July 29, 1996).

If we could digest and understand this concept, there would be
no need for a believer of one religion to regard another religion
as a mere philosophy. It should be well understood that freedom
of religion is one of the basic human rights, which finds its
source in the belief in God.

TJANDRA R. MULYADI

Jakarta