The pontiff made the appeal during a speech to national leaders in Jakarta on 4 September at the start of his three-day visit to the country.

Speaking with Indonesian President Joko Widodo and other officials, Pope Francis highlighted the nation's cultural and religious diversity as a source of strength.

Francis emphasised the importance of mutual respect and collaboration among different ethnic and religious groups to maintain social harmony.

"Just as the ocean is the natural element uniting all Indonesian islands, mutual respect for the specific cultural, ethnic, linguistic and religious characteristics of all the groups present in Indonesia is the indispensable and unifying fabric that makes Indonesians a united and proud people" the pope said.

"A harmony in diversity is achieved when particular perspectives take into account the needs common to all" he added.

Religious extremism

While Indonesia is known for its general climate of tolerance, incidents of religious extremism have caused concern.

In recent months, authorities foiled an alleged plot by Islamic extremists to bomb two Catholic churches in East Java. And Catholic students in Jakarta were assaulted by a mob while praying.

Although these incidents were not directly linked to the Pope's visit, they illustrate challenges faced by minority religious communities in the country.

Interfaith dialogue

Pope Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's dedication to strengthening interfaith dialogue, emphasising its importance in promoting mutual understanding and cooperation. He noted that this approach is crucial in tackling shared challenges to combat extremism and intolerance.

He said that these efforts can overcome prejudices and develop a climate of mutual respect and trust. They will also help address "the imbalances and suffering still present in some areas".

Pope Francis will privately meet Jesuits serving in Indonesia after meeting with national authorities. He will then meet with bishops, clergy and members of religious communities serving in the country, and young people involved in the Scholas Occurentes organisation.

Pope Francis is in Jakarta during a broader 2-13 September visit to Asia and Oceania. He will stay in the city until 6 September when he flies to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea.

Sources

Crux Now

Catholic News Agency

CathNews New Zealand

The Western world's insatiable appetite to feed its cars and planes with petroleum products enriched these societies without developing them.

Their cultures and structures were still essentially as they were in the Middle Ages, and have not moved much further since.

Meanwhile, however, they have become economically powerful, and have used their wealth for ideological purposes.

In particular, they have extended the reach of their very conservative interpretation of Islam by founding and financing mosques and Muslim community centres wherever Muslim immigrant communities needed them, and supplying them with imams of the same conservative disposition.

This has undoubtedly hindered Muslim integration into British society.

It has made British Muslims, as a faith community, unhealthily dependent upon outside interests who are pursuing their own agenda.

There are many shades of opinion, many schools of interpretation, within the Muslim ummah, but the most aggressive one, backed by Saudi and Gulf State oil, is known as Wahhabism.

At the core this is the Salafi movement, advocating a return to the religious beliefs and practices of the first three centuries of Islam. It should be noted that Wahhabism and Salafism are Arabic, which the majority of the world's Muslim population is not.

The ideology which drives them tells them that is the will of Allah that the whole world should honour and worship him by keeping his laws, known as the sharia, and following the Quran and the Hadith, the sayings of the prophet.

The will of Allah has been frustrated so far in human history as other more powerful political forces have countered it, mainly centred in Europe and America.

In Wahhabi social theory, the main opponent of Allah is Satan, and those who oppose his will are therefore in league with him, that is to say, Satanic.

It is a world divided into Good and Bad, with not much in between.

The failure of the Muslim world to convert the rest to its ways is a source of deep and painful frustration and humiliation for ultra-conservative Muslims of the Salafi school.

The Taliban - the word literally means "student" - have studied this Wahhabi version of Islam in madrasas or theological schools, often in Afghan refugee camps over the border in Pakistan.

In Pakistan itself, as in India before partition, the main conservative tradition in Islam was known as Deobandi, against the more permissive and Sufi-based version called Barilvi.

Followers of the Barilvi school, who predominate in Pakistan, believe Islam must evolve and modernise; the anti-Sufi Deobandis, under Wahhabi influence, believe it should instead return to the fundamentals.

If it does not go voluntarily, they believe they have a duty to force it.

Some historians believe the British Raj in India encouraged the rise of the Deobandi movement in the 19th century on the principle of "divide and rule".

The significance of all this for the West is that it often finds itself as a spectator of, and clumsy intervener in, religious disagreements about which it knows little and cares less.

The basic Shia/Sunni divide it is aware of; Deobandi verses Barilvi it is not. Presumably from Lahore, the conflict in Northern Ireland looks similarly obscure and confusing.

What the West has largely forgotten is the enormous debt its civilisation owes to Muslim scholarship. Continue reading

Father Vinsensius Darmin Mbula, chairman of the National Council of Catholic Education says diversity, pluralism and tolerance need to be taught to children in the family and in school.

He said advice would be sought from Islamic experts and thinkers from other religions.

The guidelines will not only incorporate promoting the values of Pancasila — Indonesia's philosophy to respect pluralism, it will refer to Pope Francis' document, Educating Intercultural Dialogue in Catholic Schools: Living in Harmony for a Civilisation of Love.

Mbula said the guidelines would be presented to the government, where he hopes they would be integrated into the mainstream curriculum.

"In the current curriculum there is no special attention given to efforts to cultivate awareness about diversity and building tolerance."

Mbula referred to a 2015 survey in 171 schools in Jakarta and Bandung, West Java that revealed 9.5 percent of students supported violence committed by radical groups, including the so-called Islamic State group.

An earlier survey by the Institute for Islamic and Peace Studies revealed that almost 50 percent of students supported radical ideas.

Ahmad Nurcholish, a Muslim, and chairman of the education of diversity and peace division at the Indonesian Conference on Religion and Peace said students must have an inclusive and contextual understanding of religion.

"There are still many who only believe in the 'truth' of their religion, dismissing other people's beliefs as wrong and misguided," he said.

Source

• UCAN
• Image: Quora

In an interview with Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana, Mr Peres said religion is a predominant justification used for wars today, whereas in the past nationhood was the main motivation.

So he proposed a "United Religions" type organisation, which Pope Francis could lead, as the best way to bring about peace.

In the interview, Mr Peres said Pope Francis would be ideal for this role because "perhaps for the first time in history, the Holy Father is a leader who's respected, not just by a lot of people, but also by different religions and their representatives".

The former president and joint Nobel Peace Prize recipient told Pope Francis of his idea at a meeting on September 4.

But Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, said the Pope did not commit himself to the proposal.

"The Pope listened" to the idea just as he always does with any peace initiative, "showing his interest, his attention and encouragement", Fr Lombardi said.

The Pope reminded Mr Peres that the Vatican has the Pontifical Councils for Interreligious Dialogue and for Justice and Peace - two offices "that are suitable" for supporting or following such initiatives, Fr Lombardi said.

Mr Peres told Famiglia Cristiana the United Nations and its peacekeepers "do not have the force or the effectiveness of any one of the Pope's homilies, which can draw half a million people just in St Peter's Square alone".

"So given that the United Nations has run its course, what we need is an organisation of United Religions," Mr Peres said.

This would be "the best way to counteract these terrorists who kill in the name of their faith".

"What we need is an unquestionable moral authority who says out loud, ‘No. God doesn't want this and doesn't allow it'," he added.

Prayer is also an important part of peacemaking, he said; people should not underestimate "the power of the human spirit".

After meeting Mr Peres, Pope Francis later met with Jordan's Prince El Hassan bin Talal, who, for the past four decades, has worked to promote interfaith understanding and dialogue around the world.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Catholic Herald

The reasons include the rise of violent religious extremism and the actions and inactions of governments, according to Dr Katrina Lantos Swett of the US Commission for International Religious Freedom.

"Extremists target religious minorities and dissenters from majority religious communities for violence, including physical assaults and even murder," she said.

"Authoritarian governments also repress religious freedom through intricate webs of discriminatory rules, arbitrary requirements and draconian edicts."

In its latest report, the commission lists 15 countries of particular concern: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Vietnam.

All of these nations, it says, severely restrict independent religious activity and harass individuals and groups for religious activity or beliefs.

Examples include sectarian violence against minority Christians and Muslims in Burma, repression of non-state religious groups in China, and Iran's imprisonment of Christians on account of their faith.

In both Pakistan and Nigeria, the report says, religious extremism and impunity have factored into unprecedented levels of violence that threaten the long-term viability of both nations.

A second tier of countries is named, where there are also serious and troubling violations of religious liberty. These countries are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Cuba, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Laos and Russia.

The report also highlights the status of religious liberty in other countries that do not fall into either of the two tiers. These nations and regions include: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Ethiopia, Turkey, Venezuela and the entirety of Western Europe.

Some signs of hope were seen. The report noted that Turkey is "moving in a positive direction with regard to religious freedom".

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

Image: Religious Freedom Coalition