Religion has played an important part in international relations and politics throughout the history of humankind. With the increase in globalization, interdependency of nations has started to increase. People began to migrate to different countries, and this has created many frictions among many cultures and backgrounds. Globalization has started a clash between civilizations. As it was easier to identify people based on their religion or culture and background, people began to focus on the differences in each of them. As a result, people from various communities started to treat people from other cultures in a different way.
The following are some of the reasons why interfaith dialogue is important:
Solving global issues:
There are so many global issues, and each day thousands of new problems are being added. With the increase in globalization, we need to work with people regardless of what they believe or do. We are at risk when we are unable to feel for people who do not act like us or look like us or have the same faith of us. Only when we work in harmony with each other, we can solve the global issues which are continually increasing on a daily basis.
Spreading the message of love and respect:
All religion speaks about love and respect for humankind. The Vedas teaches about self-sacrifice, humanism, and moral uplift; Buddhism illustrates the principle of Dharma and Jainism talks about the spirit of self-purification with by overcoming carnal desires; Christianity preaches the message of Hope, faith, and Compassion. It talks about providing relief to the needy and the suppressed. All religion talks about being compassionate with each other and yet we note only the differences among us. We need to show in our actions the things we believe, so it is important to treat others like how we would treat ourselves.
Networking to bring about productivity:
Our generation is criticized for not caring and being ridiculously self-centered. But we live in a world where we have to network with each other to develop and create various things. When interfaith relations are taught to people, they tend to network with people and develop a better understanding of people from different background and culture. Thus many interfaith conferences and workshops need to be conducted to students who will likely be the next generation.
Maintaining global peace:
When we focus on the developing a good understanding about interfaith dialogs we make the world a better place. Due to our differences, we face many clashes with each other. Our differences have become a reason for disturbing the world peace. Only when we accept interfaith relations, we will be able to maintain a healthy relationship with each other. We live in a world where it is impossible to live without the cooperating with various cultures, so only when we learn to adjust to them, we will be able to live in a peaceful world.