God has created us all and as such he could not, and will not discriminate any one. He has not signed a deal with any religion behind any one's back, he just could not do it, he is simply open, just and a kind God. He will judge us all based on our Karma - we earn and pay for the good and the bad things we do right here in this life as well as the life here after.  In fact he/she/it has set up a self working mechanism where the release from our sufferings is directly dependent on our deeds.

Every religious tradition has talked about "oneness of mankind".  In the following pages, I will seek ( and request you to help me out) scriptures from all faiths, where oneness of mankind is emphasized and oneness simply means accepting and respecting every one that God has created.

As and when I get the time, I will continue to add to the topics. To begin with, here are two items that you might enjoy. Let me know.

HH Karim Aga Khan: http://213.92.16.98/-1/41933_2/hh_ak.jpg

And so, in the speech with which he began the London seminar on the theme “Word of God, Art of Man: The Qur’an and its Creative Expressions” on October 19, Aga Khan began:

“Rich in parable and allegory, metaphor and symbol, the Qur’an-e-Sharif has been an inexhaustible well-spring of inspiration, lending itself to a wide spectrum of interpretations. This freedom of interpretation is a generosity which the Qur'an confers upon all believers.”

He continued: “As a result, the Holy Book continues to guide and illuminate the thought and conduct of Muslims belonging to different communities of interpretation and spiritual affiliation, in diverse cultural environments. The Noble Qur’an extends its principle of pluralism also to adherents of other faiths. It affirms that each has a direction and path to which they turn so that all should strive for good works, in the belief that, wheresoever they may be, Allah will bring them together.”

And: “The power of its message is reflected in its gracious disposition to differences of interpretation; its respect for other faiths and societies; its affirmation of the primacy of the intellect; its insistence that knowledge is worthy when it is used to serve Allah’s creation; and, above all, its emphasis on our common humanity.”

Aga Khan has insisted greatly upon the primacy of knowledge – which is consistent with the Gnostic character of Ismaili thought. He cited the 11th-century Persian poet and philosopher Nasir Khusraw, for whom the true jihad, the real holy war, is fought with the light of knowledge against the darkness of ignorance and intolerance.

And Aga Khan said he was certain that “the light of revelation granted to the Holy Prophet Muhammad” will be victorious. “Its message is still potent in the Muslim world today, although it is sometimes clouded over, distorted and deformed by political interests and by struggles for power over the minds and hearts of people. There are attempts at transforming what are meant to be fluid, progressive, open-ended, intellectually informed and spiritually inspired traditions of thought, into hardened, monolithic, absolutist and obscurantist positions.”

But, in conclusion, the imam of the Ismaili Shiites asked the West to take a step in the same direction:

“As more and more nations develop increasingly multi-cultural profiles and as the process of globalisation continues apace, educators are confronted by the challenge to provide to the mainstream population of their society, an informed understanding of the culture and history of minorities domiciled in their midst, as well as other major civilisations beyond their shores. In particular, the West should fill the lack, in its systems of education, of a nuanced knowledge or appreciation of the traditions of the Muslim world.” In this connection, Aga Khan said that he was in contact with American universities to try to get them to develop their courses related to Islam.

Prince Charles:

Prince Charles is Heir to the Throne in the United Kingdom, and one of the Tasks that he will inherit is 'Defender of the Faith' in the United Kingdom.  It has been interesting over the recent years that Prince Charles, along with the Queen, have given emphasis to 'Defender of Faith' rather than specifically defending any one faith as superior to any other. Such a practice has evoked much good will in the United Kingdom.

Before the meeting started Dr Kapila Vatsyayan, a Hindu scholar well known internationally for her writings on different religious cultures, asked the Chairperson how he was going to prevent the various representatives merely stating their faith's position on religious pluralism. He replied, "As we are all believers, perhaps we should leave it to God. But actually I am putting you in the firing line." So the meeting started by asking Kapila: "Is there something special about Indian culture, and is it still relevant today?"

Among many things Kapila said, was her emphasis on the lack of absolutes in Indian religious thought. That has always seemed to me the key to a religious tolerance which has allowed all the different religions represented at the meeting to make homes in India. Ezekiellsaac Malekar, the secretary of a Delhi Jewish synagogue, pointed out that his faith had existed in India for 2,000 years without ever experiencing anti-Semitism. The Parsi representative, Mrs Piloo Jungalwalla, a wonderfully sprightly 90-year old authority on Zoroastrianism, said her community had survived peacefully in India for 1,000 years.But how did this lack of absolutes fit in with Catholic belief? One of the two Christian representatives, the Jesuit Fr Samuel Rayan, pointed out that Catholics were no longer taught the absolute belief that there was no salvation outside the Church. He noted that Fr Jacques Dupuis, whose book on religious pluralism had caused concern in the Vatican, had lived in India. Yoga now helped many Catholics "to meditate and meet God". India with its stress on orthopraxy or right practice, he said, was providing a contrast to the West's emphasis on orthodoxy or right doctrine.

The Indian tradition is often accused of encouraging cafeteria religion, taking bits from here and there according to taste and jumbling them all together. It was the Muslim representative, the scholarly Maulana Wahid-ud-din, who pointed out that this was not the Hindu tradition, nor indeed the tradition of his own faith. He quoted the nineteenth-century Hindu teacher, Vivekananda, who made such an impact in the West, as saying "Follow one, hate none".

Prince Charles asked the Maulana why Sufi Islam was not more influential. The Muslim scholar explained that it had been very influential in the spread of his religion in India but that had changed during the colonial period. Then Islam was overcome by a sense of defeatism and so the attention of its leaders turned to politics. They believed that if they were politically weak, Islam would be weak. Today's rise of jihadis - believers in religious war -was also linked to defeatism, according to the Maulana. He deplored the jihadis and the misuse of religion for political purposes. That, said the Sikh scholar Dr Mohinder Singh, was to blame for the violence which had erupted in Punjab.

Prince Charles listened for an hour and a half to a discussion which demonstrated the variety of Indian religious pluralism, the different emphasis, for instance, between the Maulana and Dr A.K. Merchant of the Baha'i faith who believed that children should be educated to transcend specific religious identities, while P.K. Jain, a follower of an outstanding Jain leader of our times, argued that we should adopt what is common in religions and ignore differences.

Summing up, Prince Charles appreciated that truth differed from person to person but was keen to emphasise the similarities in religious experiences too. This was demonstrated by the near-death experiences of people of various religions. But he believed in "unity in diversity rather than a multi-cultural soup". He practices one religion, Anglicanism, but respects all, as he demonstrated at this meeting.

The Prince suggested that good leadership was needed if the good name of religion was to be restored, respect for a sense of the sacred in human life revived, and a balance found between science and religion. What a pity the ridiculing of his religious views in the press prevents the leadership he provides from being more effective.