August 31, 2007

TRIPOLI, Libya/GENEVA – African parliamentarians have expressed their appreciation of a pan-African interfaith body grouping the continent's various faith traditions, and underscored its critical role in "spreading the message of hope, healing, faith and peace."

"The religious community is better placed to assist representatives in parliament to advance peace and security and promote issues of moral regeneration," South African Member of Parliament Hon. Albertina Luthuli told participants in the Inter-Faith Action for Peace in Africa (IFAPA) Commission meeting in Tripoli, Libya, 27-30 August. She recalled the joint contribution of religious communities and parliamentarians in some of the conflict-ridden areas in the Great Lakes region.

But Luthuli also pointed to the critical role of IFAPA in establishing working partnerships that promote gender equity and the breaking down of divisions such as language and religion that were imposed on Africa through the process of colonization and slavery.

IFAPA brings together representatives of African Traditional Religion, Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism in common endeavors to promote peace in the region. The network was established in 2002 under the leadership of Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Its Commission, which held its second meeting in the Libyan capital, promotes IFAPA's work on the continent and globally.

During a panel discussion on the "Role of Parliament in Africa Today," MPs from various African countries concurred on the need for closer collaboration with IFAPA, including the possibility of observer status for IFAPA at the African Union's Pan-African Parliament. "We all work for peace and security in the whole of Africa," said Elhadj Diao Kantè, Guinean member of the Midrand (South Africa)-based AU parliament.

The MPs were invited to the Tripoli meeting in preparation for the Third IFAPA Summit to be held in 2008 in Sudan, with a major focus on the political perspectives for stability in the respective countries and regions. IFAPA convenor, Noko spoke of the beginning of a new relationship.

Dr Joseph Prabhu, a member of the executive board of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions (CPWR), which promotes interreligious dialogue worldwide, stressed the common goals of IFAPA and the Chicago (USA)-based body, and called for greater collaboration. Attending the IFAPA meeting as an observer, he cited the discussions on international and local forms of justice, disaster and relief, economic justice and human rights as some of the shared concerns. He noted that the CPWR also advocated for marginalized religions such as the Baha'i in many Islamic countries.

He pointed out that the CPWR's first peace award was given to one of IFAPA's religious representatives, Ugandan Anglican Bishop Baker M. Ocholla II of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI). The ARLPI actively promotes peaceful resolution of the Northern Uganda conflict.

Lutheran World Information
Reported for LWI by Stuttgart (Germany)-based journalist, Rainer Lang, attending the IFAPA Commission meeting in Tripoli.