Speakers of the seminar highlighted some important points. First of all, religious freedom has strong scriptural foundation. The Quran for instance, as Prof. Seyed Amir Akrami (currently a research fellow at Birmingham University) argued, offers a lot of verses on religious freedom. In one of its verses, the Quran clearly insists that there is no compulsion in religion (lâ ikrâha fi al-dîn).

Secondly, there is a greater need for interfaith dialogue. The executive director of the International Center for Islam and Pluralism, M. Syafii Anwar, who was the only Indonesian speaker at that event, suggested that interfaith dialogue needs to be advanced to promote mutual understanding and tolerance. He agreed with the statement that no peace among nations without peace among religions, and no peace among religions without dialogue among religions. In his view, dialogue is a must, while the idea of clash (of civilization) must be deconstructed, otherwise it continues to be the source of our disharmony. He believed that interfaith dialogue and cooperation can foster peace and tolerance. Indeed, the program, which is part of the Building Bridges mission, was designed to develop this kind of dialogue. This mission, as the Deputy Chief of Mission of the British Embassy, Matthew Rous, put it in his opening remarks, “is to achieve common voice and joint concerns between Muslim and Christian communities.”

Thirdly, interfaith cooperation has to be free from prejudice. Any possible prejudice must be prevented. The Professor of Christian Muslim Relations at Nottingham University, Hugh Goddard, gave an interesting example: if Christians would like to distribute food among Muslims who need help, let alone in Muslim majority areas, or vice versa, it is better that the food is distributed together, and if symbols have to be used, both Christian and Muslim symbols should be used. In such a way, any suspicion that the help is for missionary purposes can be anticipated.

Fourthly, Indonesia—as Mr. Goddard said—has very strong tradition of tolerance and—as Mr. Rous stated—has very rich experience in terms of interfaith relations and dialogues. Many interfaith organizations have been founded and continue to grow in Indonesia. “The spirit of pluralism of Indonesian people is high,” Mr. Anwar said. Indeed, Islam in Indonesia, the main religion in the country, since its coming has been peaceful in nature and coexisted peacefully with other religions. Mr. Anwar argued that extremism or radicalism is just a new phenomenon that has been brought from abroad.

Last but not least, religious pluralism is not the same as religious relativism. Agreeing pluralism does not mean agreeing relativism, Mr. Anwar argued. In fact, according to the chairman of CDCC, Prof. Dr. M. Din Syamsuddin, who gave closing remarks, it is the assumption that distorted religious pluralism to religious relativism, which often lead people to anti-pluralism.[]