Introduction

Dato’ (Dr.) Anwar Fazal, the Chairperson of the Taiping Peace Initiative, and one of the principal initiators of the dialogue summed up the importance of the 1st Taiping Interfaith Dialogue Roundtable in the following words:

Taiping and the creation of the Malaysian Interfaith Network (MIN) was such an energizing and invigorating event to end 2002 and to enter into 2003 – with vision, with hope and with action!

Mr. T. Selva wrote on 8 January 2003 in THE STAR:

A group of concerned Malaysians representing various faiths met in Taiping recently to discuss ways to create a more harmonious and peaceful society in multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia amidst rising tension and rumours of war in the world.

In fact, the over 30 Taiping Roundtable participants informed each other about the many ongoing altruistic social activities of the various faith and interfaith organizations, defined common values and common concerns they share and set up 6 action groups to address the most urgent concerns. Finally they decided to establish the Malaysian Interfaith Network (MIN) in order to provide a platform of communi-cation for the various interfaith organizations, initiatives and actions in Malaysia

The 1st Taiping Interfaith Dialogue Roundtable on Common Values and Common Actions had been initiated by Dato’ (Dr.) Anwar Fazal of the Taiping Peace Initiative and by Mr. Peter Schier, representative of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation which had sponsored the Taiping event.

The founding members of MIN are associated with the following institutions and organisations:

  • Interfaith Spiritual Fellowship (INSAF) as part of the Pure Life Society
  • Malaysian Consultative Council of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Sikhism
  • Sisters in Islam
  • International Islamic University (IIU)
  • Council of Churches of Malaysia
  • Society of Jesus
  • Rosicrucian
  • The Theosophical Society (TS)
  • Sri Sathya Sai Central Council of Malaysia (SAI)
  • The Bahá’í Faith
  • Bahá’ís of Penang Island
  • Persatuan Brahma Kumaris Raja Yoga
  • Altruistic Leadership Institute (ALI)
  • The Taiping Peace Initiative (TPI)
  • Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, representative office to Malaysia
  • Institut Kajian Dasar (IKD)
  • World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA)
  • Kumpulan Aktivis Media Independen (KAMI)
  • The New Straits Times
  • The Star
  • Herald
  • Rotary Club, Taiping

The Taiping meeting discussed and identified the following key common values:

  • Integrity & Accountability
  • Love
  • Compassion
  • Respect
  • Justice
  • Freedom
  • Service
  • Environment Protection
  • Unity of Religions
  • Peace
  • Gender equality
  • Moderation

The Taiping meeting also identified the key common concerns as:

  • Loss of Family Values
  • Extremism
  • Environmental Degradation
  • Infringement of Human Rights
  • Lack of Spirituality
  • Lack of Multi-Faith Education
  • Lack of Tolerance/Intolerance
  • Prejudice & Ignorance
  • Dearth of Good Governance