Reverend Dr Richard Treloar, Vicar of the Christ Church of South Yarra, Dr Guy Manson, Headmaster of Christ Church Grammar School, Distinguished Guest, Ladies and Gentlemen.
May Peace be Upon You, and Selamat Pagi (in Malay) or a Very Good Morning. I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land.
I thank you for inviting me to this deeply meaningful event; and I am glad that this country and its government has taken active steps to encourage respect, understanding and acceptance of multi-cultural and multi-religious beliefs. This move of inclusiveness is surely a sign of a society that seeks to be a healthy and peaceful democracy.
Being the Consul General of Malaysia and a proud Malaysian, who is of the Muslim faith, I am glad to see that our nations, mutually shares many common values of inclusiveness and acceptance.
As many of you would know, the official religion of Malaysia is Islam. However, as a Malaysian I can proudly say that Malaysia, has taken an active leadership role in the region, showing that like many other religions, Islam is a beautiful religion that promotes acceptance and respect, and it is about love, forgiveness and peace.
I am also glad that Australia like Malaysia has managed to prove that the best way forward in a multi-ethic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society is to adopt the practice of moderation and tolerance.
To this affect, permit me to share that, Malaysia adopts the practice of ‘moderate Islam’ which allows and promotes the freedom to worship and the mutual respect of other religion.
As a staunch Muslim, I for one am also a firm believer that moderation and tolerance is inherently important, especially in this day and age where technology is seemingly supreme and communication is instantaneous; this is a lethal cocktail and potentially a dangerous platform for misconceptions, malice, hate and rumours to be easily spread to the masses especially our young who are a predominantly naive sound bit society.
It is therefore clearly important that we continue to promote interfaith dialogue and mass prayers like today’s event to unitedly embrace peace and harmony, which would promote strong fundamental values and norms in whichever society we come from. I believe this would be an adequate counter balance to any force that seeks to undermine harmony, stability in governance and peace.
Malaysia a country of the size of 329,000 sq. km and with the population of 28 million is the 43rd most populated nation in the world. Its population composed of a multi-racial society with the Malays, Chinese and Indians making up of the largest numbers. With these multi-racial society off course its comes with the diversity in cultural as well as religion. In this predominantly Muslim country there are substantial communities of Buddhist, Hindus, Christians, Taoist and Sikhs. As a result of this, it is not unusual to hear especially during days, Muslim calls for prayer(The Azan), the Church bells ringing for masses, and the Hindu and Buddhist temple bells and chanting occurring during the same time, which is a testament to the harmony we enjoy in Malaysia. The various celebrations held during the year like the Chinese New Year, Wesak Day, Deepavali, Hari Raya (Eid) and Christmas is also a testament of such harmony.
The recent inaugural International Conference on the Global Movement of Moderates held in Kuala Lumpur last January is a testament that Malaysia is a country that preaches moderation and not extremism.
To quote what was said by our beloved Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib during his keynote address at the Conference “…moderation has always been our chosen path…is the fitrah, or essence, of humanity’s greatest heights; the solid bedrock on which all of the world’s civilisations have been built…is not just in the defence of willpower, discipline and restraint but of acceptance, freedom, tolerance, compassion, justice and peace”.
The real divide in this world is not between religions but between moderates and extremes. Prophet Muhammad counsels that ‘moderation is the best action’, Christianity, the Bible says ‘let your moderation be known unto all men’, and in Judaism, the Torah teaches that moderation in all things is a way of life. Even Confucian teaching promote the idea of being moderate in all things we do. Thus, it is my sincere hope that regardless of which faith you are, we should always promote peace and moderation in our thinking and way of life.
With that I say thank you and My Peace be upon you.