Congress of World Religions - Statement of Chairman of the Senate of the Republic of Kazakhstan K. MAMI at the opening ceremony of X session of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions

Statement of Chairman of the Senate of the Republic of Kazakhstan K. MAMI at the opening ceremony of X session of the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions

June 20, 2010, Astana

Your Holinesses!

Dear participants!

I warmly welcome you to the capital of the hospitable land of Kazakhstan - Astana. First of all I would like to express my gratitude to you and in your face to the religious leaders for continued active participation in our forum, and assure you of continuity of activities on development of the global inter-religious dialogue.

Recently, initiator and chief guardian of our forum Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev gave me great confidence to guide and coordinate the work of the Kazakhstan side in the Secretariat of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. In this capacity, I express my willingness to support you in regular contact and contribute to the promotion of global noble initiatives of religious leaders calling for good and peace, concord and stability.

Our meeting, devoted to preparation to the fourth Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, is being held in difficult conditions. Since the last Congress some events occurred in the world that significantly complicated the international situation, including in respect of religious tolerance and interfaith concord.

For the first half of this year, mankind has experienced a whole series of social and natural disasters. The wave of instability, that swept the continent of Africa and the Middle East, terrorist attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, floods and hurricanes in the U.S. and Australia, led to a huge disaster for many millions of people. Unfortunately, there were numerous casualties. The need for peace, wise words of cheer, love and compassion upon the neighbor, tolerance and spiritual endurance, i.e., that is an integral part of every religion, became apparent with particular force in these difficult hours of ordeals. I am pleased to note that these high moral standards are fully manifested by the clergy of countries faced miseries.

At the same time, recent events have demonstrated the urgent need for unity of all people of goodwill to strengthen their cooperation for the sake of building the world based on concord, friendship, mutual respect and support, rejection of violence and intolerance. The constructive dialogue of world and traditional religions, for the sake of which we have been gathered here today, is to play an important role in this process.

I want to stress that Kazakhstan attaches special importance to the interfaith dialogue. Located at the confluence of three civilizations, Muslim, Christian and Buddhist, our state from the first moment of independence, sought to create on their territory all the conditions for free, peaceful and equitable coexistence of ethnic groups and faiths.

As shown by decades of experience of Kazakhstan statehood, the very policy of interethnic and interreligious concord, pursued by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, became that belay knot, which has saved the country from the ethnic and religious tensions and conflicts, ensured territorial integrity, peaceful and stable development of our state. Thanks to this stability, based on national unity and cohesion, peace and concord of all nationalities and followers of faiths living in Kazakhstan, our country succeeds in moving forward and bold setting new ambitious goals.

Based on positive experience of its model of interethnic and interreligious concord, Kazakhstan has always been acting as a strong supporter of development and expansion of interaction between civilizations, religions, deepening cooperation and global cultural exchange. It is encouraging that the initiative of President Nursultan Nazarbayev to hold the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, serving this ideas, has obtained broad international support and become an important part of the global process of harmonization of relations between states and peoples. I would like to note that this success was reached largely thanks to you, your good will to participate in the forum, your activity to promote the noble mission of the Congress.

On its part, Kazakhstan has made and will make its best efforts to promote the interfaith, intercivilizational and intercultural dialogue between regions and countries all around the world. To this end, we intend to promote cooperation of the Congress with the United Nations, including through cooperation with UNESCO and the Alliance of Civilizations. It seems reasonable to solicit increased unified and humanitarian potential of the United Nations, make better use of the world's main platform for delivering inspiring ideas of the Congress to the peoples and the political leadership of their countries all over the world.As a part of our participation in the Troika of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Chairmanship in the Organization of Islamic Conference, the course on development and implementation of measures to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between Muslim countries and Western countries will be continued. Undeniable prospects for expansion of dialog mode are contained in the cultural and human dimension of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as other regional organizations around the world.

I am convinced that with active and committed involvement of all parties to the process on development of intercivilizational and interfaith cooperation we will be able to achieve our common goal - peace, global security and stability.

Today we enter the final straight of preparation to the Fourth Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Therefore, it is important to discuss our plans for further improvement of an inter-religious summit and measures to strengthen its role and influence in the global dialogue of civilizations and religions.

Dear participants,

I am confident that with your active participation in future discussions we will be able to develop a common vision for the next Congress in Astana in 2012.

Thank you for your attention.

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