A White House team, including State Department Head of Religious Freedom Peter Kovach and religion expert Mara Vanderslice attended the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religion according to Australian newspaper The Age.

The team attended unannounced but arranged a meeting to obtain guidance on Muslim relations.  “It was a great indicator of hope,” reported major speaker Imam Abdul Feisal Rauf.  “Their position was ‘we are here to learn from you.’”

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Three major speakers spoke to the Parliament of the World’s Religions on the future of Islam and the West reports Australian newspaper The Age.  The panel discussion, titled Islam and the West: Creating an Accord of Civilizations featured pre-eminent scholars Dr Chandra Muzaffar, Prof Tariq Ramadan and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf.

The wide-ranging discussion included a statement by Muzaffar that a decline in the global power of the West will decrease tension between the two cultures, while Ramadan expressed the need for mutual respect and acknowledgment.

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The Age has written an article on Parliament major speaker the Venerable Dharma Master Hsin Tao.  Recounting the Master’s personal experiences as a child soldier for Kuo Min Tang, the piece also describes his monastic vocation and ongoing interreligious work and activism.

Speaking on climate change, Hsin Tao observes that “if we can achieve a common understanding of the real problems — the ecological problems facing the earth — then the other problems will solve themselves.”

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Parliament major speaker Dr Hans Küng called on the Vatican to heed reform calls in the Roman Catholic Church,  The Age reported today.  ”Already the successor of this Pope will have to face the situation that churches are more and more empty, and parishes are without pastors, and communities are dissolving,” Küng said, arguing that reforms not discussed during Vatican II must be acknowledged soon.

Dr Hans Küng is the president of the Global Ethic Foundation of Tübingen University.  On Monday he launched his economic ethical manifesto at the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

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The Age newspaper of Australia has written an article on major speakers Dr Hans Küng and Dr Dipak Jain, participants in the Parliament’s program A New Ethical Manifesto for the Global Economy.  “We have a responsibility to build an adequate financial structure in which ethics is not the icing on the cake,” said Küng, while Jain commented that business schools are partly responsible for the prevailing corporate culture.

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Former High Court Judge and Parliament major speaker Michael Kirby spoke today about the Bible and sexual orientation, reports The Age.  The remarks, given alongside Abdullah Saeed and the Rev. Dorothy McRay-McMahon was part of the Parliament panel discussion Interpreting the Text: Apostasy and Homosexuality.  During the talk, Kirby argued that Biblical sources are often considered selectively and out-of-context, leading to an erroneous and ahistorical interpretation.  Saeed also commented on Islamic theology and sexuality.

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Australian newspaper The Age has published an editorial arguing for a robust international response to climate change from the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.  The piece references a 60-meter-long scroll signed by delegates from the Parliament of the World’s Religions.  The scroll will be sent to support efforts in Copenhagen.  Climate change is a subject of central importance at this year’s Parliament as reflected by the theme of Healing the Earth with Care and Concern.

The end of the Parliament of the World’s Religions will overlap with the beginning of the Climate Change Conference.

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“Most of the time we look at women as victims of conflict rather than as [resolving conflicts]” says Parliament speaker Jacqueline Ogega according to The Age,  “and it is very important for us to shift that mentality.”

The Age has published an article on the active role women of many faiths take in resolving conflict, as reflected by the experiences of Ogega, Director of the Women’s Program at the World Conference of Religions for Peace in Africa and Sande Hart, President of Spiritual And Religious Alliance for Hope.  The article is in response to the Parliament program The Impact of Women in Conflict Resolution.

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The Age reports on the Parliament panel discussion Islam and Politics: Faith, Governance and Society.  The panel features pre-eminent Muslim minds including Anwar Ibrahim, Dr Tariq Ramadan, Dr Siti Musdah Mulia, Dr Fahad a Alhomoudi, Dr Mahdi Mostafavi and Dr Burhanettin Tatar.  The discussion represented a variety of views and explored the relationship between religion and democracy and the importance of guaranteeing human rights.  The article can be read in its entirety here.

The Age has written an article on Sulak Sivaraksa of the Santi Pracha Dhamma Institute, a Parliament participant and Nobel prize nominee. Sivaraksa has published over 100 books about culture and religion, including Seeds of Peace: A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society and Loyalty Demands Dissent.

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