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PM: Bringing people together key to achieving true civilisation

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said the key to achieving true civilisation, one that has sustainability at its core, is to bring people from different walks of life together as one.

He said the relationship among religion, sustainability and civisation was something that "everyone must discuss more widely as we set the course of developing our nation".

"If the power of religion is to be harnessed to send the message that it is a religious duty to promote sustainability, and that a true civilisation is one that has sustainability at its core, we must be sure that people of different faiths are talking to each other, discussing what we have in common and ensuring that we are as one in fighting extremism and radicalisation," he said in his speech before opening the international forum on 'Religion and Civilisational Sustainability' in Kuala Lumpur today.

Also present at the forum, organised by the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikim), were former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also Ikim chairperson, and Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Baharom.

Najib said Islam described humankind as khalifah (caliphs), and there was a similar biblical notion of man being God's steward on earth, which both conveyed the idea that man's role was to sustain the world.

"But our duty is not only to take care of it, to heal it, and to nurture it. It is also to ensure that it thrives.

"So it is our responsibility not only to protect life from crime, war, epidemic diseases and other afflictions, but also to further it, quantitatively, for example, by expanding provision of health care that lengthens people's lives and, qualitatively, by providing for an enhanced quality of life.

Najib said the natural result of protecting and furthering these objectives meant that any society that did so was on the path of civilisation.

"A state in which quality of life, religious philosophy and practice, and intellectual development are all supported and cherished," he said.

Najib said this was why Abdullah had championed 'Civilisational Islam' or 'Islam Hadhari', because the values of a civilisation were what sustained it.

"This is also why I have championed moderation - or wasatiyyah as the path of the best, for moderation is the path of human perfection, an idea that is taught to us by Islam as well as other religions," he said.

Najib said Malaysia had taken the role as khalifah very seriously, in fact sustainability was one of the three pillars of the New Economic Model that was announced in 2010.

"And I'm proud to be able to say that under the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011-2015), we achieved a 33 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions," he said.

Earlier, Najib launched Ikim's Silver Jubilee celebration and its four latest publications.

- Bernama

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