As part of its bid to build religious harmony and national unity, Muslim Youth Movement Malaysia (Abim) will feature the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso in an online forum on Islam and Buddhism at the end of this month.
Abim president Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz said the forum with the theme "Compassion and Mercy as the Common Values Between Islam and Buddhism" is jointly organised with the Tibetan Buddhist Culture Centre Malaysia.
The forum will also feature International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (Istac) philosopher Prof Emeritus Osman Bakar.
Faisal said Abim believes that any differing views about religion should be discussed on an appropriate platform to attain wisdom and truth.
Such debates should not be done randomly in a way that upsets others in the community, he added.
"We presently find ourselves constantly surrounded by Islamaphobia perpetrated by irresponsible parties, where we should be engaging in harmonious dialogue with diverse communities as a mechanism to explain Islam and its major contributions towards peaceful co-existence.
"Thus, Abim feels we should look at the larger perspective, which is how religious diversity can be an asset for unity and harmony, not a factor towards conflict," Faisal told Malaysiakini.
The online public forum on Sept 28 will also feature Tibetan Buddhist Culture Centre Malaysia president Casey Liu as co-moderator and event host.
At 85 years old, the Dalai Lama, a proponent of interfaith dialogues, has been living in exile in India since the 1959 Tibet uprising.
Together with a panel of selected scholars, he launched the Common Ground Project in 2010, an idea mooted with Jordanian Prince Ghazi Muhammad, based on the book Common Ground Between Islam and Buddhism. - Mkini
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