This week is World Interfaith Harmony Week!

Below is an excerpt of an interview with Former Ambassador to Pakistan, Azmat Hassan, presenter and participant at Global Peace Convention 2013 and the preceding Interfaith Forum.

He spoke about the need for interfaith cooperation, an issue that has gained increased attention after 9/11.

“All human beings look up to a higher, transcendent reality, whether they accept it or not.  Therefore, to divide faith from practical aspects of life, from international relations, is an artificial division; which I don’t think works out very well,” said Ambassador Hassan.

He also pushed for the establishment of a faith-based council in the United Nations, a proposal that GPF’s Chairman, Dr. Hyun Jin Moon re-proposed during the Global Peace Convention 2013.  Ambassador Hassan called it “an idea whose time has come.”  He said in a world with high tensions, “we must create an interfaith movement to work together in harmony” centered on a “common platform, universal aspirations and principled values.”