Peaceful co-existence: Universities urged to encourage interfaith harmony

IIUI, Peshawar University join hands to eradicate extremism through dialogue

Academics have urged universities to encourage and work towards creating an atmosphere of interfaith harmony.

A three-day workshop on “Interfaith harmony and tolerance”, which was jointly organised by International Islamic University, Islamabad (IIUI) and the University of Peshawar, concluded at the summer campus of the latter institute at Bara Gali, said a press release on Monday.

“The holy Quran is the best source of abolishing differences,” declared the IIUI Rector, Dr Masoom Yasinzai, while addressing the participants of the workshop.

He urged universities to work towards creating an atmosphere of harmony.

Yasinzai suggested that more workshops on the topic be organised, where religious scholars from across the country should be invited to share their thoughts.

University of Peshawar Vice-Chancellor Dr Muhammad Rasool Jan observed that all eyes were on the educational institutions as they had the potential to change the prevailing environment of animosity that we lived in.

The workshop was also addressed by the IIUI’s Department of Hadith and its Sciences Head Dr Fatehur Rehman, University of Peshawar’s Islamic and Oriental Studies Dean Dr Merajul Islam Zia, Islamic Ideology Council former chairperson Dr Muhammad Khalid Masud and Iqbal International Institute for Research and Dialogue (IRD-IIUI) Executive-Director Dr Husnul Amin, among other renowned scholars.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2016.