When People Cross Borders
October 2003
Banner photo: ©SEKAI BUNKA PHOTO
"World Religions" Exhibition in Malaysia
Celebrating the opening of the exhibition
Soka Gakkai Malaysia (SGM) and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation coorganized the "World Religions--Universal Peace--Global Ethic" exhibition at SGM's Wisma Kebudayaan center in Kuala Lumpur, from July 27 to August 5, 2003.
The exhibition was opened by Jürgen A. R. Staks, ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the opening ceremony, a 60-minute film on Buddhism produced by Prof. Hans Küng, president of the Global Ethic Foundation, Germany, was shown. The speakers for the ensuing panel discussion were Ven. Dr. K. Sri Dhammananda, chief Buddhist monk from the Maha Vihara, and Dr. Christopher Boey from SGM, with Peter Schier from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation as chair.
This exhibition is an enlarged version of one created by the Global Ethic Foundation which has been shown at the UN Headquarters in New York, and in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the United Kingdom. Professor Küng writes: "People of all religions know far too little about one another; above all they know far too little about what all the religious and ethical traditions have in common. This exhibition tries to contribute towards changing that . . ."
The exhibition introduces six world religions: Buddhism, Islam and Judaism. New panels introducing Sikhism, the Bahá´í faith and Nichiren Buddhism were included. Also highlighted were six core ethical standards which all religions have in common. In addition, SGM also put up several exhibition panels introducing its objectives and activities.
Films on different religions were shown each evening, followed by a question-and-answer session. For the session on Nichiren Buddhism, the documentary "Embattled Buddhists: Under the Rising Sun" was shown.
In total, more than 2,000 people from various faiths attended the entire series of discussions lasting 10 days. Dr. Amir Farid, chairman of the Interfaith Spiritual Fellowship, commented: "From today's response, the people of Malaysia are yearning for opportunities to come together . . . I think SGM is such a vehicle that can foster a lot of intercultural, interracial and interreligious interactions and harmony."
