On 18 February 2024, my friends Junaid, Rizwan Qadri, Mohammad Javed, Saim Anwar, and Aman Khan members of Minhaj al Quran (India) invited me and Scholastic Joseph Gerald SJ to celebrate the 73rd birthday of Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri, the founder and spiritual leader of Minhaj al Quran movement. The Minhaj members have their center at Shaheen Bagh, near Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.
Minhaj ul Quran was established on 17 October 1980 and works to promote peace, tolerance, interfaith harmony and education, tackle extremism and terrorism, engage with young Muslims for religious moderation, promote women’s rights, development, and empowerment, and provide social welfare and promotion of human rights.
On that occasion, we listened to the lecture of Sahibzada Prof. Dr. Hussain Mohi-ud-Din Qadri. He emphasized the value of moderation and the contribution of MQI in fostering interfaith dialogue and cooperation in the present era. It is important to mention that he received the Ambassador of Peace award in Austria for contributing to interfaith harmony. He stressed that people of all faiths must work together promoting peace and coexistence in our interconnected world. We enjoyed a lovely meal together after the program.
While attending the program I recalled the Assisi Decalogue for Peace (2002). The first commitment in the Decalogue reads: “We commit ourselves to proclaiming our firm conviction that violence and terrorism are opposed to all true religious spirit and we condemn all recourse to violence and war in the name of God or religion. we undertake to do everything possible to eradicate the causes of terrorism”.
Dialogue enables us to stop hurting one another and thus we can create a world of peace and justice.