Melbourne, Australia—UPF peacebuilding principles could counter fundamentalism and extremism, said members of the Peace Council of the state of Victoria.
The Peace Council members attended a seminar on the UPF peacebuilding principles on May 30, 2015, at Monash University in Melbourne.
Several participants remarked that the principles could provide the necessary shared, universal values needed to counter fundamentalism and extremism.
A number of distinguished individuals were awarded Ambassador for Peace certificates at the same meeting:
Raghad Sayeg, a high school teacher and current member of the Victorian Peace Council;
Sara Cohen, a psychologist and a member of Psychologists for Peace, who is also a current member of the Victorian Peace Council;
Pastor Nelson Pervaz, a chaplain with the Multifaith Chaplaincy of RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology) University and the pastor of the Nelson Pervaz Global Ministry;
Adel Gaballa, a former senior teaching fellow in the Faculty of Economics and Politics at Monash University, who spent 15 years in the airlines and aviation industries, wrote a book entitled Mary and Jesus in Islam and Islamic Mystic Traditions (Sufism), and is a current member of the Victorian Peace Council;
Dr. Herman Roborgh, a retired Catholic priest who worked for many years as a chaplain to students in Jakarta, Indonesia. After completing his master’s degree in Islamic Studies at Birmingham University, England, he moved to Lahore in Pakistan, where he rebuilt a library of important Muslim and Christian source material. Since receiving his doctorate from Aligarh Muslim University in India, he has been active in inter-religious dialogue projects in Australia and is a current member of the Victorian Peace Council.