LAHORE, Nov 22: Christian and Muslim religious leaders have stressed the need for a greater religious understanding and amity between the two communities for world peace.

They were speaking at a seminar arranged by the Lahore Forum of the Lahore Diocese here on Monday. Bishop Alexander John Malik was in the chair. Canterbury Archbishop's special representative Bishop of Manchester David Gillette was the chief guest, while Badshahi Mosque's Imam and Khateeb Maulana Abdul Kabir Azad and Jamaat Ahle Hadith President Maulana Zubair Ahmad Zaheer represented the Muslims' point of view and Sardar Sham Singh Sikhs' point of view.

David Gillette, who is leading a delegation of British Christian leaders on a visit to Pakistan for the past two weeks to study the conditions of the Christian community here, said after the 9/11 incident, the west had caught what he called 'Islam phobia', and the western media had further aggravated the situation by projecting misconceptions about Islam.

He said the need of the hour was to remove these misconceptions from the minds of the western people. He said he and his associates were doing a great deal in England to remove the wrong image of Islam.

They had formed a Christian-Muslim Forum consisting of religious scholars from both the communities. "They hold their meetings every month, and discuss the problems and important questions put by the people."

He said when he had started studying Islam, there were only five mosques in England, and now after a period of four years their number had swelled to over 2,000. Muslims formed three per cent of the British population.

He said it was the responsibility of both the communities, in all religious communities, to work for peace in the world, and this responsibility had been put by God on all people being His representatives on the earth. "If they don't realize their responsibility, there cannot be any peace in the world," he warned.

He said according to the recent census in England, there were 72 per cent cultural Christians and 25 per cent religious Christians, and only 10 per cent of them attended Church services. Thus in England we were living in a secular society.

More or less similar was the case with the Muslims as a few of them were practising Muslims. Thus a majority of both the communities lived together in England as members of a secular society.

Referring to Britain's involvement in Iraq war, the bishop said all Christian religious leaders had opposed the war and the UK support to the war. He said they had told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that war was unjustified. "We pray for peace in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East," he said.

As regards the condition of the Christians in Pakistan, he said he had found them quite happy contrary to the propaganda in England. He said before he left England for Pakistan, some of the people had prayed for his safe return to home.

Lahore Bishop Alexander John Malik said he had invited the Christian delegation from England to see for themselves the conditions of minorities, particularly the Christians.

He said there had been some unfortunate incidents in the past like those of attack on the Bahawalpur Church and a Christian colony, Shanti Nagar. He said the Muslim religious leaders had condemned the incidents believing that these were the individual acts of some misguided persons. He hoped the delegation would find wrong all misconceptions about the safety and security of the Christianity in Pakistan caused by the western media.

He said the religious leaders of both the Christian and Muslim communities had a great responsibility to keep their people under control, not to be misled by emotions. He said Islam is the religion of peace as its very name means peace and security. He said the Quaid-i-Azam's speech of Aug 11, 1947, in the Constituent Assembly guaranteed equal political rights for all communities of Pakistan.

He appreciated President Musharraf's message of 'enlightened moderation' for Islam. In fact, this formula should be applied for every religion and the socio-political system. He said: "Violence breeds violence and terrorism breeds terrorism."

Wars and violence could not solve issues. He emphasized the need for removing the root cause of violence in Palestine, Kashmir, Chechnya and other places of repression. Referring to Afghanistan and Iraq, he said the US had overreacted to the 9/11 incident.

Had the incident not taken place, the US would have not attacked them, he said. Sikh community leader Sardar Sham Singh also emphasized the need for peace and justice for the followers of all religions.