Source: Jakarta Post, the (Indonesia)
Source type: Newspaper
Published on: 09 Apr 2010

Themed "Consolidation of Religious Freedom and of Mutual Knowledge of Societies through Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue", the three-day meeting brought together 200 delegates from ASEM partners, the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) and Vatican, Krisnawati Desi Purnawestri, spokesperson of the Indonesian Embassy in Madrid, told an Antara correspondent in London on Friday.

The meeting was co-hosted by Spain and Pakistan and sponsored by 14 ASEM partners, including Austria, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Britain, Germany, Italy, China, Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand, Krisnawati said.

Indonesia is one of the initiators of ASEM interfaith dialog which was for the first time held in the resort island of Bali in 2005.

In a plenary session of the Madrid meeting, the Indonesian delegation led by the director general of public information and diplomacy at the Foreign Ministry, Andri Hadi, noted harmony among adherents of different faiths was one of the keys to creating a harmonious community.

Indonesia known as a pluralistic country in terms of religion and culture could not escape a wide range of conflicts among and within faith and culture groups, he said.

Yet Indonesia had proven that dialog and active participation of the entire community was a key to creating harmony among people of different faiths and cultures, he said.