By TwoCircles.net news desk,
New Delhi: The Jamia Millia Islmia and McGill University of Canada are jointly organizing a three-day Global Congress entitled World’s Religions after September 11: An Asian Perspective. The Congress will be inaugurated by Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama at 10.30 am in the Ansari Auditorium, JMI on 17th January.
The Centre for the Study of Comparative Religions and Civilisations, JMI and the Faculty of Religious Studies of McGill University are organizing the programme which will distinguished international community of representatives from different faiths, scholars, the media and NGOs working in the field of peace-building.
The central theme would be to “lay the Foundations of an Eastern perspective on inter-religious dialogue. A major outcome of the Congress would be an Asian reflection on Human Rights discourse in the form of a proposed Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the World’s Religions, as a supplement to the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights,” says a JMI release. The aim of the Congress is to reflect over the contribution that World’s Religions together can make to create Peace and Harmony, it adds.
Over 150 Delegates from 14 countries will be participating in the Global Congress. They will be exploring the interface between Religions and other disciplines such as Religion and Civilizational Dialogue, Religion, Conflict and Peace, Religion, Science and Technology, Religion and Human Rights, Religion, Art and Morality, Religion and the Arts, Religion and Ethics, Religious Freedom, Conversion and Human Rights, Religion and the Media, Religion, Hermeneutics and Literature, Religion and Gender, Religion and Ecology, Religion and Globalisation and Mahatma Gandhi and Conflict Resolution.
The Dalai Lama will give the Keynote Address at the Inaugural Function after which there will be an interactive session between His Holiness and the delegates.
There will be two plenary sessions on the 17th January. The eminent panelists such as Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, Prof. Mushirul Hasan, Sir Mark Tully, Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, Srivatsa Goswami, D.R. Kaarthikeyan, Maulana Wahiduddin Khan, Swami Agnivesh, Prof. Joseph Prabhu, Prof. Asghar Ali Engineer and Prof. Bettina Baumer will be speaking on the themes: Is there an Asian Way of Resolving Religious Conflict? and Can Interfaith Dialogue Make a Difference?
Other two plenary panelists Prof. Tariq Ramadan, University of Oxford will speak on Islam and the West on the 18th January at 9.00 am. Prof. Arvind Sharma, McGill University will speak on Mahatma Gandhi and Religious Pluralism on 19th January, at 9.00 am.