Dear leaders and representatives of World and national traditional religions!

Today the ancient Kazakh land is honored to gather the leaders and high representatives of World and national traditional religions from around the globe to engage in dialogue between civilizations and religions.

Greeting you on Kazakhstan's land, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you for responding to our invitation and gathering here together.

I am grateful to our superior Muslim persons such as Supreme Imam Al Azhar Sheik Muhammad Sayed Tantawy, Secretary-General of World Islamic League Sheik Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsin Al-Turki and representatives of other Muslim organizations. We highly appreciate your participation in the Congress.

I express my deep gratitude to His Holiness Roman Pope John Paul II for his high attention and support to the Congress.

I am grateful to His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexis II for his support to our Congress.
I would like to thank the leaders of Judaism, first of all, Jonah Metzger, for their participation in the Congress at high level.

I would also express appreciation to the representatives of various confessions of Christianity who arrived to Kazakhstan from different regions of the world.

We are very glad to see among us the leaders and representatives of oldest religions and civilizations of the Orient such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Shinto.

I would like to greet on your behalf the Honored Guests of the Congress: Ex Premier of Japan Tsutomu Hata, and official representatives on behalf of UN Secretary General - V. Sotirov; of King of Saudi Arabia - Minister for Justice, Dr. Abdallah Al Ash Sheikh; of the President of Egypt - Minister for Vakufs and Islam of Egypt Mahmud Zakzuk; as well as delegation of Assizi City from Italy headed by the Minister Thomas Geremek and spiritual leader Lanfranco Serrini.

I would also like to express my gratitude to all good will men and women who have not remained indifferent to the idea of the Congress of International and National Traditional Religions and who enriched us with their advices.

Thank you for your support to and contribution in the cause of peace and understanding on Earth - for something which unites us all and what we have gathered here today for in Astana.

Speech of N. Nazarbayev upon being elected as the Chairman of Congress

Dear Participants of Congress!
I am highly privileged to announce the Congress of International and National traditional Religions open!

Today's Congress involves delegations of all religions of the world, in total 17 delegations of various religions, honored guests and representatives of international organizations.

Muslim delegations are represented at the highest level: Secretary General of the World Islamic League Sheik Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsin Al-Turki, Supreme Imam Al Azhar Sheik Muhammad Sayed Tantawy, President of Indian Muslim organization "Jamaat-e-Shabab-e-Islam" Salman al-Hussein al-Nadvi, Vice President of International Islam University Dr. Mahmood Ahmad Gazi, and Mehdi Hadawi Mogaddam, Chairman of the Ismal Jurisprudence and Law Committee under the Ministry of Science and New Technologies.

Cardinal Joseph Tomko is the head of the Vatican delegation including two Ministers. Metropolitan of Almay and Astana Methodius represents the Russian Orthodox Church; Metropolitan of France Emmanuel (to arrive tonight) the Constantinople Orthodox Church; Bishop of Croydon Nicolas Bayns the Anglican Church; and Canon Jonathan Robin Blanning Gauf, Ecumenism Secretary of Canterbury Archbishop.

Dr. Ishmael Noko, General Secretary of Lutheran World Council, represents the Lutheran World Union.

The Judaism delegation headed by Chief Rabbi Jonah Metzger takes part in the Congress at the high level. The delegation includes the President of the European Council of Rabbis, Chief Rabbis of Belgium, Switzerland, Russia, Kazakhstan and the President of the Eurasian Jewish Congress.

The head of the All China's Buddhist Delegation is Chiamyan Lossanchumey Tudangchiuechinim, and T.Bulgan, General Secretary of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Piece from Mongolia. The head of the All China's Taoist Association is Chang Chiuy.

The Shinto Delegation is headed by Minoru Sonoda, Director of Chief Shinto Temple Department; Hinduism Delegation Dr. Shantilal Somaya, Chairman, Indology and Inter-religious dialog Institute.

His Holiness Pope of Rome John Paul II and His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexis II, as well as Canterbury Archbishop Rowan Williams and Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew sent their messages to the Congress. I am glad to announce that, acknowledging the importance of our forum for piece and consent in the world, the heads of leading states and governments of the world sent their messages to the participants.
 
They include (by chronology):
Jacque Chirac, President of French Republic; Fahd bin Abdel Aziz, King of Saudi Arabia; Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, President of Russian Federation; George Bush, US President; Toni Blair, UK Premier; Hosni Mubarak, ARE President; Silvio Berluskoni, Prime Minister of Italian Republic; Kofi Annan, UN General Secretary; Roman Prodi, Chairman of European commission; a group of US Senators and Congressmen; Valery Jiscar d'Estain, Ex President of France; Lech Valensa, Ex President of Poland; Margaret Thatcher, UK Ex Prime Minister; and Ditrich Genscher, Ex Vice Chancellor of Federative Republic of Germany.
 
Dear Participants,

Before commencing the Congress and reading my report, I would like to propose you a minute of silence for reflection and appeals to God to be granted will, force and wisdom to unite all religions, confessions and peoples for piece and consent in the world.

Dear participants and guests,

I am very glad and privileged to greet you, representatives of the leading world religions, on the ancient soil of Kazakhstan.

Personally and on behalf of our multi-ethnic people, I express deep appreciation to you for responding to our invitation and honoring this forum with your presence and participation.

It is deeply symbolic that this forum is taking place in the very heart of Eurasia.

Over many centuries the Great Steppe has been characterized by peaceful co-existence of many peoples who worshipped various religions such as Tengrianism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and many others.

From ancient times until now, this land, through trade and cultural exchange, has functioned as a link between Asia and Europe. It is still home for many peoples and confessions. We are proud to talk about a unique social and humanity phenomenon reflected in the preamble to our Constitution, which starts with: "We are the people of Kazakhstan...".

I would like to bring up a very remarkable fact. There is a 13^th century town of Koylyk in the south of Kazakhstan. A Buddhist pagoda, mosque and Christian church neighbored together in this ancient town.

Today in our new capital city and other cities you can freely visit a Mosque, Orthodox Church, Catholic Church, synagogue, or a tabernacle. This is a link of times.

Preparation to this Congress suggested me an idea of building a Palace of Nations in Astana. It will embrace a mosque, church, synagogue and Buddhist temple. It will also have the Assembly of Kazakhstan's Peoples and all ethnic cultural centers.

Apropos, the Assembly of Kazakhstan's Peoples became a unique civil society institute for us to facilitate an efficient national policy. It is acknowledged by Kazakhstan's society and highly appreciated by many countries and international organizations such as UN and OECD.

The Palace of Nations will be a symbol of unity of the people in our country where more than one hundred and twenty ethnic groups live and work in piece and consent. More than forty confessions conduct free activities in the country.

This is our unconditional national wealth and chance for stable future and development.

I am convinced that the inter-ethnic and inter-confessional consent we keep and strengthen has become the foundation for dynamic cardinal and large-scaled transformations and success in the political, economic and social spheres. This is generally acknowledged today.

We also adhere to the principles of tolerance, consent and cooperation in our foreign political activities. These principles are based on the idea of multi-vectors, integration and consolidation for global and regional security, equity and progress.

Kazakhstan was first country to voluntarily refuse from the fourth most powerful nuclear arsenal in the world and to forever close one of the largest nuclear test sites. This was our worthy contribution in the global security recognized by other peoples and states.

Our country was the initiator of convening the Conference for Trust and Security in Asia which was organizationally executed last year at the forum of the regional country leaders in Almaty.

We have held the Conference of Peace and Consent this February. It involved many conspicuous religious actors representing various confessions. It adopted the To Peace and Consent Declaration and established the Peace and Stability Forum.

I think that each confessional leader in Kazakhstan can confirm the fact of revival and spiritual rise in their communities.

This is the result of our efforts to keep peace, consent and stability and we believe this is one of our key achievements. We will continue tirelessly and tediously work to strengthen the foundation of the stability and security in Kazakhstan's society.
 
At the same time, we can see and clearly realize that however great are the efforts taken by one country, they will not yield any proper result if external factors fail to contribute. This is a gospel truth of any country on the planet.

Peaceful coexistence and constructive interaction of peoples, religions, states and governments nowadays is especially important. It moved from the pure theory to one of the most important practical objectives.

That is why continuing dialog between religions, cultures or civilizations which many eminent political and religious players have been carrying since old times is extremely important.

What we need is an in-depth critical analysis of events and phenomena both globally, regionally and nationally.

This analysis will no doubt help as saying goes "winnow grain from husk" to protect humanity from any political, economic, religious and all the more so military extremism in future.

I have no doubt that this analysis can inoculate against "simple decision" temptations abounding today and against any anti-human ideas.

In this connection, I would like to only share my vision with the respected forum on some problems of today.

Firstly, I believe that recent speculations on "conflict of civilizations" and "crisis of religions" are invalid.

To the contrary, on the background of radical changes in the world order, challenge for billions to adapt to technological innovations all around the world and stringent requirements of global market, people have widely returned to finding answers in religious truths. By their moral and ethic potential such truths are unmatched.

Peculiarity of the Central Eurasia is the fact that religion here has also become a factor of national consolidation of many peoples. We also cannot forget that the tradition of freedom of conscience and satisfying religious needs was artificially discontinued for decades within this vast space. After adopting new laws on religion, faith had new life and number of parishioners in all communities soared.

This is a gratifying phenomenon because religion if anything is the only global phenomenon before globalization to keep and carry the ideas of humanism and cultural dialog.

Besides spiritual universalism, religion is also an effective institution of international cooperation. This is especially important today with increasing number of local and regional conflicts which in a number of cases have ethnic and religious tinge.

Where political regulation methods fail, Word of God remains the only way for reconciliation and hope. The role of religious traditions underlying highest moral virtues in our wildly sometimes chaotically changing world is impossible to overestimate.

Unfortunately, we witness religious capability being exploited to mobilize people for political actions for purposes far from good.

The very meaning of "sanctity" is being distorted. Perverse interpretation results in disdained human laws, permissiveness, actions incompatible with morality, ethics, humanism or any key postulate of any religion. I am convinced that it is time to decisively announce inadmissibility of attaching any ideological or political tinge to the existing cultural, civilization and religious differences.

We have to learn how to distinguish and reveal the true essence of aggression and violence facts which are disguised by pseudo-religious doctrines.

Secondly, it is more appropriate to talk about "meeting" rather than "conflicting civilizations". No "end of history" can be foreseen simply because the human race at this historical point and I think in future will not have any one and only universal civilization model of cultural and religious order which the world community would accept as the only basis for our existence.

I think all this is myths and absolutely wrong purposes brought by "dreams of mind". Each reasonable politician, each statesman or religious player should clearly realize this.

No mono system, I am deeply convinced, is able to provide balance, stability and development not only for entire humanity but even for its part. It will always hide a threat of conflict and explosion. The only correct formula is unity in variety - multi-ethnic and multi-confessional.

The fact should be realized and reckoned with of the existence of other civilizations, cultures and religions with not less profound or important history, symbolism and mentality. This cannot be broken by any forceful or willful methods.

What is happening today in the world in not conflict of civilization but rather adaptation of cultural and religious systems, thought not always easy and adequate, to new world, new technology and new societal relationships.

We are all likely to realize that globalization and modern technology in both industry and socio-political system undoubtedly respond to the challenges of the time. However, they bear not only benefits but also something bad, i.e. negative manifestations which the society can nevertheless minimize if not eliminate.

There are great undoubted values which are no way linked with any material benefits and will always remain priority and fundamental for human being. The key ones are spirituality and morality. Their key carrier is religion which keeps centuries-elaborated national and religious traditions, original historical and cultural experience of every people.

And finally, in the global 21^st century world filled with concerns and threats, any state, religion and civil society I think has a special and single strategy and way to manifest good will.

This is peace-building, appeal and action to reach consent, understanding and cooperation between countries, peoples and confessions. Tolerance and partnership are the only way to have success in the fight against global evil such as terrorism, weapons of mass or any other destruction, drug business and its consequences, environmental destructions, and heaviest physical and social diseases of our time.

This is also mercy and charity to any aggrieved strata of society.

In the coming period these issues I think should be high on agenda of governments, international organizations and all international social institutions.

And, of course, international and national traditional religions should play their weighty role in this.

This meeting on Kazakhstan's soil could make its modest contribution in forming the culture of inter-confession dialog.

We think we could establish a system of consultative meetings and develop procedures and rules for such dialog.
 
At the same time I believe you will share my opinion that we do not need any ultimate goals. We cannot create any common religious space. We cannot ultimately overcome the differences we have the more so as they sometimes touch upon the basics of great religions.

However, the value of continuous dialog is the fact that regardless of the existing differences, the meaning and process of finding some "golden middle" is kept. Dialog is the key to creating a territory of peace and consent and time of harmony and clarity. In this I see the undoubted value of the religious dialog.
 
In this connection, I appeal to the representatives of all religions and confessions with a proposal - to hold the Forum of Religions on the continuous basis.

Such institution would strengthen the basics of inter-religious dialog and provide systematic constructive contracts between religious officials and believers.
 
In future this could lay the foundation for an international organization to reduce inter-religious stress in the world and promote spirituality, peacefulness and tolerance.

We could also make a first step to developing a Charter of Religious Tolerance. Today we extremely need a document not only to simply write down the principles of peaceful co-existence of religions but also to prove the necessity in constructive dialog among them.
 
We could think about establishing an Integrated Religious Cultural Center. This idea has been lingering for a long time and today it is ripe to be implemented.

If religious personages trust this to us, we are ready with your support and participation to try to achieve these important and vital goals.

Dear Participants and Guests,

I would like to again heartily thank your for your participation and deep attention to the problems of the modern world.
 
I see the highest mission of pastors today in bringing their faith to people pure, unbiased, free of misunderstanding and the more so of hostility or spite.

I know you all bear light of true faith, verity, kindness and benevolence. I pay homage to you for your truly titanic and not always rewarding work.

Wish you well and happiness!

Thank you for your attention.