Astana, Kazakhstan - The World Council of Religious Leaders has 14 members representing various religious confessions, said Kazakhstan's Supreme Mufti Absattar Haji Derbisali, who is leader of the Muslim Board of Kazakhstan.
"Four represent Islam, four Christianity and the rest other religions, including Shinto, Taoism, Buddhism and Hinduism," he said at a press briefing in Astana on Wednesday on the sidelines of the fourth congress of the leaders of world and traditional religions.
Islam is represented by the Muslim World League's secretary general, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsin Al-Turki, by the Worldwide Assembly for Improved Relations Among Islamic Mazhabs' secretary general, Ayatollah Muhammad Ali Al-Taskhiri, the head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, Mehmet Gormez, and by Absattar Haji Derbisali.
The Orthodox Church is represented by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the Roman Catholic Church by Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, who is president emeritus of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State, Martin Junge, the secretary general of the Lutheran World Federation and Bishop of Bradford Nicholas Baines (the Church of England).
"The leaders of world and traditional religions bear enormous responsibility for our living in peace, tranquility and accord. Only if there is peace, accord and tranquility, can the state achieve major successes," Derbisali said.