THE war on terror will falter and fail if it is not prosecuted vigorously in our pulpits, mosques, synagogues, temples and school rooms, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer said at the opening of an international dialogue on interfaith co-operation in Indonesia on December 6.
Mr Downer was addressing more than 120 religious leaders from 14 countries participating in the interfaith dialogue, ‘Dialogue on Interfaith Co-operation: Community Building and Harmony’ in Yogyakarta.
The Australian and Indonesian governments co-sponsored the meeting to promote moderate spirituality as one of the ways of overcoming terrorism.
Mr Downer said ‘ultimately it is the people of moderation who are going to be able effectively to curb the terrorists and others who commit violent acts in the name of religion, to thwart them in their attempts at recruiting and to vanquish them in the battle of ideas’.
Cardinal George Pell and interfaith advocate, Dominican Sister Trish Madigan, of Sydney, are members of the Australian delegation.
