 Australia is preparing to host the world's largest global inter-religious event through which thousands of participants from around the world will seek ways to foster inter-religious and cross-cultural dialogue on important local, national and global issues.
Sponsored by the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions, the 2009 parliament will take place in Melbourne, Australia, a multi-religious, multi-lingual and multicultural city. As the world's largest inter-religious gathering, the parliament will convene religious and civilian leaders and people of faith, spirituality and goodwill from more than 80 countries to improve relations among religions and their followers and to promote and encourage social cohesion within societies across the world.
Grove Harris, program director, said the event is a great opportunity to improve dialogue among various religions, seek solutions for mutual problems through dialogue and share different approaches to these problems.
"The event is held every five years in a major international city. We've chosen Melbourne for this year's gathering as it has a multicultural and multi-religious society. The event will have worldwide religious, spiritual, environmental, business and educational leaders to talk to one another about current problems and seek social cohesion and practical solutions through dialogue," she told Today's Zaman.
Dirk Ficca, executive director of the event, stressed that the parliament is also in interaction with the Gülen movement, led by well-respected Turkish intellectual and scholar Fethullah Gülen. "We are in constant interaction with the Gülen movement and key Muslim leaders to share our experience on such issues as education and get advice from them on major topics. We believe the Gülen movement is very successful in contributing to social cohesion and the formation of a peaceful and harmonious society," he added. (Betül Akkaya, İstanbul)
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