We live in a time when there is a need for broad peace initiatives to help resolve ongoing conflicts and wars, and to make both young and old feel more optimism and hope. In the eight decades since the end of WWII, there has, for most of the time, been hope for better days ahead, despite the Cold War and other direct wars, such as the quite unnecessary Vietnam War from 1955 to 1975. At that time, there were major peace movements and anti-war groups that placed peace issues high on the agenda in politics, public debate, and education. Today, it seems we have relapsed into a form of apathy, even accepting ongoing rearmament and militarisation, especially in the West, and not holding East–West dialogues. Yet we know, too, that Russia can only move towards more peaceful thinking through open debate at home and abroad. Furthermore, there is a need to work for a more democratic and just world order, particularly between the Global North and the Global South. All people and organisations of goodwill should do what they can to create a more peaceful and safer world.

Traffic plan with alternate routes announced during PIMEC- 2025 in Karachi

In today’s article, I shall draw attention to the role of religions — notably Christianity, Islam, and others — in playing a more active role in peace creation, both within and between faiths. It falls within the purpose of all religions to work for peace and care for the needy. I believe that religious organisations have the potential to do much more for the promotion of peaceful thinking, in general and in relation to concrete wars and conflicts in our time and the future. It must also be mentioned that religious organisations must never contribute to increasing conflicts or prolonging wars, as we must admit has happened many times in the past and perhaps even today.

When King Charles III and Queen Camilla last week made an official visit to Pope Leo XIV in the Vatican, it was an historic........

© The Nation