The Dalai Lama speaks during an inter-religious meeting for harmony in New Delhi yesterday.
Agencies/New Delhi
The Dalai Lama yesterday condemned mindless violence in the name of religion, saying the concept of jihad was being misused and misinterpreted by Islamist extremists.
The Nobel Peace prize winner was referring to bloodshed unleashed by the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq where it has overrun swathes of territory.
“Killing in the name of faith is unacceptable,” he told a meeting of India’s religious leaders representing as many as nine different faiths including Islam.
Jihad or holy war should be a fight “to combat our inner destructive emotions,” the 79-year-old spiritual leader said. “It (jihad) does not mean harming other people.”
The hard-hitting statements by the Dalai Lama come after the Islamic State group released a video earlier this month showing the beheading of a second US hostage, journalist Steven Sotloff.
Earlier this week, British photojournalist John Cantlie appeared in a propaganda video released by the militants.
“If we remain indifferent to what is happening around us, it is wrong,” the Dalai Lama said.
“The spiritual people can show the world that it can be a happy family (despite) the different faiths.”
A senior Muslim cleric, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Mumbai and the head of the Jewish community in Delhi were among those who attended the two-day conference.
The Dalai Lama also praised India for proving that communities can live peacefully together, and said India must show its example of religious harmony to the rest of the world.
“India is the only country where all major world religions live together, not only in modern time but over 1,000 years,” he said in the meeting organised to mull some of India’s most pressing and seemingly endemic problems - from gender violence and widespread poverty to environmental degradation and communal violence.
India has been soul-searching somewhat, since national elections stirred up questions about the nation’s identity and ambitions for the future as it pushes for rapid economic growth and 21st century technologies even as three-fourths of its 1.2bn population still live on less than $1.25 a day.
The landslide victory by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party left some worried that his association with Hindu hardliners could encourage violence between Muslims and Hindus.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, lives in the northern Indian hill station of Dharamsala.
The inter-faith meeting was initially slated to be a three-day affair. But it was cut short to “accommodate” a request from the Indian authorities due to a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to the country which ended on Friday.
“Our meeting was to start on Friday but the Dalai Lama doesn’t want to cause any inconvenience to the hosts” so he acceded to their request, Tempa Tsering, who is representative of the Dalai Lama in New Delhi, said.
The Dalai Lama says he supports “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet within China rather than outright independence.
But China accuses him of covertly campaigning for Tibet’s independence and brands him a “splittist.”
But yesterday he praised Xi for being “more realistic” and principled than his predecessors. Beijing’s attitude appears to be shifting, the he said, noting that China’s Communist leaders, who officially are atheist, are now “mentioning the importance of spiritualism.”
“There are a lot of changes,” the Dalai Lama told reporters later.
He said that since becoming president in March 2013, Xi has demonstrated “through his handling of problems, he is comparatively more realistic and with more principles” than his predecessors.
The remarks brought no immediate comment from China’s government or state media.
India is home to a large Tibetan community as well as Tibet’s government-in-exile. During Xi’s visit to New Delhi, dozens of Tibetan protesters shouting “Hands off Tibet!” staged a noisy demonstration outside the building where he was meeting Modi.
The Dalai Lama also said on the sidelines of the interfaith meeting that India and China should put aside any animosities they harbour over a long-festering border dispute and “remain peaceful on the basis of mutual trust.”
