World Interfaith Harmony Week

By DPI Staff Reporter, *GA Adopts Consensus Resolution Proclaiming First Week of February Each Year “World Interfaith Harmony Week”* - United Nations News and Media Division - New York, NY, USA / Wednesday, October 20, 2010

First Week of February Each Year proclaimed World Interfaith Harmony Week

Prince Ghazi Bin Mohammad, Personal Envoy and Special Adviser to the King of Jordan, introduced the draft resolution on World Interfaith Harmony Week (document A/65/L.5).

He said the Assembly was well aware the world was rife with religious tension, mistrust, and hatred, which facilitated war and violence. The remedy for such problems could only come from the world’s religions themselves, and although much good work had already been done towards that end, religious tensions were on the rise.

The present draft sought to turn the tide against that negative movement by coordinating and uniting efforts among all interfaith groups doing positive work through one focused annual theme. At the same time, it would harness the collective might of places of worship for peace and harmony and regularly encourage the “silent majority” of preachers to commit themselves on the record for peace and harmony.

The text used the Confucian concept of the word “harmony”, which suggested peace and also “beautiful and dynamic interaction between different elements within a whole”, he said.

The third paragraph of the text made religious reference to “Love of God and Love of the Neighbour, or Love of the Good and Love of the Neighbour” but that language excluded no one. He noted, however, the entire proposal was purely voluntary and no place of worship should be forced to observe World Interfaith Harmony Week.

The resolution “excludes no individual, compromises no one, commits no one, forces no one, harms no one, costs nothing, and — on the contrary — includes everyone, celebrates everyone, benefits everyone, unites everyone and has the potential to bring much needed peace and harmony to the entire world, in sha Allah,” he said.

The General Assembly adopted the resolution without a vote.

Click here to the UN General Assembly News Report.

Click on the title of this article or here for full text of Prince Ghazi's speech.

Click here to the Video of H.R.H. Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad's Presentation to the UN General Assembly.