Hindus laud Kazak President Nazarbayev for highlighting “religious tolerance” at OSCE summit

NEVADA - Hindus have praised Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s reported suggestion to Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) to add religious tolerance to its key dimensions.

Currently OSCE’s there dimensions are: politico-military, economic and environmental, and human dimension.

Nazarbayev reportedly stressed in his speech at the OSCE summit, held at Kazakhstan capital on December 1-2, the need for honest, open inter-religious dialogue and proposed jointly developing a document on tolerance for the new decade.

Calling it a “step in the right direction”, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, stressed that serious and honest interfaith dialogue was the need of the hour.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that religion was the most powerful, complex and far-reaching force in our society, so we must take it seriously. And we all knew that religion comprised much more than our own particular tradition/experience.

Stressing the merits of interfaith dialogue, Rajan Zed argued that in our shared pursuit for the truth, we could learn from one another and thus could arrive nearer to the truth. This dialogue might help us vanquish the stereotypes, prejudices, caricatures, etc., passed on to us from previous generations. Zed said that Hindus commended the interreligious dialogue initiatives of OSCE and hoped that Hindus would get adequate representation in its future interreligious efforts.

Headquartered in Vienna (Austria) with Ambassador Marc Perrin de Brichambaut of France as Secretary General, OSCE claims to be the “world’s largest regional security organization whose 56 participating States span the geographical area from Vancouver to Vladivostok”. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. (ANI)