22 May 2017•Update: 23 May 2017
BERLIN
Germany’s foreign minister has called on religious dignitaries and scholars from around the world to play a more active role in promoting peace.
Addressing representatives of various religions from 53 countries at an international conference in Berlin on Monday, Sigmar Gabriel underlined that religious dignitaries and scholars had the potential for supporting peace.
“The goal of all religions, at least according to the holy books, is to build peace. I do not know any religious community that doesn’t have this goal in their holy books,” he told around a hundred religious representatives, who gathered in Berlin for a two-day conference, at the invitation of the German Foreign Ministry.
“The idea behind our invitation is that we want to use these days to focus on the potential for peace that religions have. And also responsibility they have to create peace in the societies,” he said.
"Religious representatives have a special responsibility not to contribute to radicalization, division and conflict,” he added.
The international conference “Responsibility of Religions for Peace” brought together Muslim, Christian and Jewish scholars, as well as representatives of various other faith groups, traditions and movements.
Grand Mufti from Sarajevo, Husein Kavazovic, Chief Rabbi David Rosen from the American Jewish Committee, and Agnes Abuom, the moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches Central Committee were among the attendees.
Gabriel stressed that while religions were too often mentioned within the context of conflicts and wars, they were not the source of these problems, but rather they were misused by political groups for hiding interests, or implementing political goals.
“Those who foster the stereotype that religion was always exacerbating conflicts are committing a huge mistake because they turn a blind eye to the complexity of the situations and the ambivalent effect of the religion,” he stressed.
- Anti-Muslim sentiments in Europe
The Social Democrat politician also pointed out that problems of religious intolerance, radicalization, were not only seen in the Middle East or Africa, but also in Europe.
“We are seeing that anti-Islamic and anti-Muslim violence is taking place in our countries and threatening the representatives of this religion,” he said, expressing his regret over growing support for far-right parties and movements in Europe and Germany.
Gabriel underlined that the religious rights of the Muslims in Germany were guaranteed under the constitution.
“We have to explain to our population that the sentence of our former president, Islam is part of Germany, is not only a theoretical comment. When you look at the reality, you see that it is part of everyday life. That people who are of Islamic faith are equal citizens in this country, and that’s what we truly feel,” he said, referring to former German President Christian Wulff’s much debated remark.
Wulff, who served as president from 2010 to 2012, was the first leading German politician, who publicly acknowledged that Islam was as welcome in Germany, as were Christianity and Judaism.
But his view was strongly opposed by far-right parties such as Alternative for Germany (AfD) which has seen growing support in recent years.
Gabriel said Germany’s democratic parties have to promote peaceful coexistence in the country .
“As politicians we have a task to explain our people what our constitution means, and that Islam is part of Germany, but we have not yet completed this task,” he stressed.
Germany has the second largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Among the nearly 4.7 million Muslims in the country, 3 million are of Turkish origin. Many of them migrated to Germany in the 1960s.
