RI, Lebanon to organize interfaith dialog

Antara News, Monday, February 8, 2010 01:37 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The governments of Indonesia and Lebanon will organize an interfaith dialog that will present religious leaders from both countries in Yogyakarta in the middle of 2010, an envoy said.

"This will be the second dialog of its kind organized by both nations," Indonesian Ambassador to Lebanon Bagas Hapsoro said here on Sunday.

The interfaith dialog will be attended by religious leaders and academicians of both countries. "This is interesting because in Lebanon alone there are 12 different religious groups," he said.

He said that the dialog would be held as a means of bridging the interactions and communications of religious leaders who had nowadays played an important role in building harmonious relations among religious communities.

In the dialog religious leaders are also expected to share their common experience in building and nurturing religious harmony and in establishing and increasing a new dimension in the relations between the two countries, the ambassador said.

Indonesia and Lebanon have previously organized an interfaith dialog in Beirut in late 2008 under a theme: "Promoting Interfaith Dialogue In a Plural Society."

The dialog was organized in cooperation with the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, the Indonesian Embassy in Beirut and the Dar El Fatwa of Lebanon.