Stephen Jeffery

A Canberra Muslim minority community has hosted its first inter-faith summit in the capital, calling for peace and understanding between cultures.

The Ahmadiyya Muslim community, part of a South Asian-founded Islamic movement that arrived in Australia during the 1980s, held a Peace Symposium at Albert Hall on Saturday.

Organisers reached out to representatives of other faiths within Canberra to speak at the event, including Catholic Archbishop of Canberra and Goulburn, Christopher Prowse, Tibetan Buddhist master Lama Choedak Rinpoche and Canberra Sikh Association president Madhusudan Singh Sidhu.

ACT Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur and Pakistan High Commissioner to Australia Naela Chohan also attended the meeting, as well as a Hindu and Anglican representative.

Canberra’s Ahmadiyya population has steadily grown in recent years, though the site for a permanent mosque is still being negotiated with the ACT government.

Ahmadiyya national president, Imam Inam-ul-Haq Kauser said such symposiums had been held across Australia for about 25 years, but the weekend’s was the first to be held in Canberra.

He said the idea of the symposium was to develop understanding and care between different sections of society.

“We are struggling for peace, not just around the… read more at source.