The Muslim World. DECEMBER 1999 ISSUE

One of the most distinguished leaders of the world of Buddhism, reverend Nikkyo Niwano who was a steadfast friend of the Motamar AI-Alam Al-Islami (The World Muslim Congress) died in a Tokyo Hospital on October 4,1999. He was the founder and builder of Japan's leading Buddhist organisation, the Rissho Kose-Kai, which worked for religious liberalism in the practice of Buddhism and built innumerable bridges of understanding between Buddhism and the world's other living faiths, including Islam. He was in his early 90s when he passed away in Tokyo after a short illness.

After a career in the Japanese Navy from 1926 to 1930. Mr. Nikkyo Niwano devoted all his life to the service of Buddhism's the Buddhist community and in promoting inter-faith dialogue, understanding and concord. Reverend Nikkyo Niwano was one of the dynamic founders of the World Conference on Religion and Peace and the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace and contributed substantially to the holding of their conferences. He travel led in scores of countries, reaching the message of goodwill and cooperation among all human beings, irrespective of colour, language and creed.

In 1938, Mr. Nikkyo Niwano founded the Rissho Kosei Kai organisation in Japan. Since then it has burgeoned into the world's leading Buddhist organisation with 2.2 million households in its fold and some 6.5 million members in Japan and around the world. Propagating the creed that all religionists should cooperate in a spirit of goodwill and compassion, Mr. Nikkyo Niwano joined a number of nobly motivated world religious leaders in establishing the World Conference on Religion and Peace and it held its first Grand Assembly in 1970. Mr. Nikkyo Niwano's belief was that all the great religions spring from one main root and that the good of all mankind is their purpose. He told me in the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace in Singapore in 1976 that inter-religious cooperation is essential for the benefit of mankind and it is possible if the followers of all religions fully understand the universal truths of their respective religions and respect the beliefs and practices of other religions and their followers. In the pursuit of this goal, Mr. Nikkyo Niwano had established in 1957 the Federation of the New Religious Organisations of Japan. In 1965 Rev. Niwano was specially invited by Pope Paul VI to attend the Second Vatican Council in the Vatican. The Pope appreciated Reverend Nikkyo Niwano's efforts to promote inter-religious cooperation and understanding. He promised the Pope that he would do his best to promote friendship and concord among the followers of all religions. Rev. Niwano played a key role in arranging the first Japanese-American Inter-religious Conference on Peace in the Japanese town of Kyoto in 1968. Mr. Niwano's Rissho Kosei Kai organisation was a host to the Conference. One of the American religious leaders who was co-sponsor with Niwano was the eminent Dr. Dana McLean Greeley whom I met in the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace in Singapore in 1976 and in the Princeton University in 1979 in the World Conference on Religion and Peace. Rev. Niwano put his heart and soul into the efforts for creating the World Conference on Religion and Peace as a permanent body. He associated Muslim organisations with it, including the Motamar AI-Alam Al-Islami. The First WCRP was held in Koyoto in Japan in 1970 and the Grand Assembly drew delegates from all the major religions and scores of countries. Since then the World Conference on Religion and Peace has held Grand Assemblies in Belgium, at Princeton University in the USA, Kenya, Australia, Italy and Jordan (in 1999). Pakistani delegates from the Motamar have been attending these conferences.