Ramadan: Month of Sympathy

What follows is based on a true story…
There was an affluent father who used to keep his family fed and clothed decently, if not splendidly. After a while, things changed and he became in straitened circumstances. Unable to afford food for his family as he used to, the month of Ramadan came. His social standing as well modesty prevented him from stretching his hand to ask others for assistance even if it were in the form of a personal debt. While struggling with life, all he could manage to be feeding his children with was nothing but cheese, oil and beans.

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Congress of Religious Leaders: Promoting Dialogue between Civilisations

Since its earliest days of independence, Kazakhstan has introduced numerous substantial legislative reforms focused on national policy and strengthening interethnic and interreligious harmony in society.

Effective domestic transformation and achievements in the international arena have created an image of a Kazakhstan active in global platforms, including international interreligious and interethnic dialogue.

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Tolerant Islam should be protected

It might feel a little more convincingly like a Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, commissioned perhaps as a celebration of religious plurality, were it not for the seven tonnes of Russian-made BRDM-2 armoured personnel carrier stationed outside. By contrast, within a preposterous Norman Foster glass pyramid – decorated with the kitschest white doves you have ever seen – the Fifth Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions meets, and the talk is of harmony and concord – even a condemnation of global arms spending by the Zoroastrian representative.

Observing this, a Martian could be forgiven for assuming that religion is the number one force for good in the world. Here the Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel sits next to the head of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought next to the president of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue next to some other terribly important religious dignitary.

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