Reconciliation, coexistence and interfaith harmony for the youth, in general and for elders, in particular is the key to take forward the goal of establishing peaceful society to counter violent extremism with a healthy and positive narrative. This was stated by the visiting faculty of Information Technology University (ITU) Dr Pippa Virdee in her opening remarks while addressing a symposium on, 'Countering Violent Extremism with Peaceful Narrative" held under the auspices of Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB)'s project Peaceful Pakistan in collaboration with ITU's Center for Governance and Policy (CGP) here Wednesday.

Dr Malik Hammad, Assistant Professor of CGP while illustrating the importance of peace by observing 30 seconds silence in the room opined that staying silent was not the answer to violence as indulging in dialogues was the peaceful narrative to resolve differences. Diversity was the beauty of the society, which has acceptance in the society while fundamental belief of every religion focused peace, he added.

Religious scholar and fellow Al-Mawrid, Dr Khalid Zaheer highlighted the importance of peace in the light of Islam and added that the Holy Quran preached Islamic values and ethics to exercise tolerance and to refrain from killing any human being as 'Killing an innocent is as grave as killing the whole humanity'. Islam is a religion of peace, which ensured basic human rights for all beliefs without taking into account cast, colour, region or religion, he added.

Representatives of Mashl-e-Raah foundation, students and faculty members of Saint Anthony's School and School of Contemporary and Islamic Learning, employees of ASTP, PITB and ITU attended the event. The event concluded with an interactive question and answer session, where students and attendees poured in questions.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017