February 27, 2007 Cape Town, South Africa …. [IRLA/ANN Staff]
Some 500 participants including government officials, ambassadors, church leaders, lay leaders and religious freedom experts gathered at the Sixth World Congress of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) February 27 to examine the theme “Combating Religious Hatred through Freedom to Believe.”
In his welcome to attendees, Paul Ratsara, president of the IRLA in the Southern Africa region, referenced the fathers and leaders of South Africa, among them Nelson Mandela, who served long sentences at the nearby Robben Island prison.
“They were under the yoke of human oppression and yet they remained free because they were free in mind and soul,” Ratsara said. “All manner of suffering inflicted upon them only served to strengthen their resolve to persist in the fight against human oppression and for the advancement and protection of human rights.”
On the significance of the gathering, Ratsara said, “Your assembling here today is a bold symbol marking your dedication to the protection and advancement of human rights globally.”
“We are here to affirm and assert our belief that religious liberty is a God-given right. We are here to affirm with love yet with strong conviction our belief in the natural and inalienable right of freedom of conscience–to have or not have a religion,” he said.
“Religious liberty,” Ratsara continued, “is one of the cornerstones of any nation because the power of a free individual conscience rooted in the hand of God is much greater than any wealth or political freedom humanity may ever experience.”
IRLA secretary-general John Graz, who also heads the Seventh-day Adventist world church's Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department, made it clear that such congresses were essential. “As long as the right to choose one's religion is not respected, as long as innocent people are discriminated against, persecuted and deprived of their basic rights just because of their beliefs, we need to have congresses on religious freedom, congresses like this one.”
Graz went on to explain that coming to Cape Town, the first World Congress to be held in Africa, was a deliberate act–to speak to the issues in Africa and beyond.
“Our coming to Cape Town will not change the world in one day, but it will show the world that religious discrimination and persecution are not inevitable,” Graz continued. “There are people from all over the world, people from different faiths and traditions, who want to demonstrate that there is another way to deal with differences. There are people who have chosen to come to this Congress in Cape Town because they are determined to promote peace and justice through religious freedom for all people everywhere.”
In the keynote address, world IRLA president Denton Lotz identified the primary outcome. “Our goal is more than just co-existing together on planet earth, but rather our goal should be pro-existence, living together faithfully for a righteous and just society of all people, especially the poor, the persecuted and downtrodden. … If our search for and defense of religious freedom issues in such a pro-existence lifestyle [goes beyond this congress], then we will combat religious hatred wherever we are.”
The congress' first panel featured representatives from various inter-religious sectors of South Africa and dealt with “Racial and Religious Solidarity–The South African Experience.” The panel included: Nokuzola Mndende, who represented African Traditional Religion; Aslam Fataaz, the past president of the Muslim Youth Movement of South Africa; Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi and honorary president of the World Conference on Religion and Peace; Dr. Monzegi Guma of the Cultural, Religious, and Linguistic Rights Commission; and Anglican Father John Oliver, founding chairperson of the Cape Town Interfaith Initiative. These presenters shared their experience of combating apartheid and forming interfaith coalitions to foster religious harmony and human rights in the new South Africa.
The World Congress continues until March 1 at the Cape Town International Conference Centre in South Africa. For more information see www.irla.org.
Copyright (c) 2007 by Adventist News Network.
