Religious Leader: Model agent for inter-faith dialogue implementation in Malaysia

Abstract

Religious leader is a vital part in ensuring well implementation of inter-faith dialogue be it external (inter-dialogue) or internal (intra-dialogue) particularly those aiming to resolve conflicts. However, the role of religious leader as agent of conflict resolution within the Malaysian context does not exist, and interfaith dialogue supposedly serves as discussion platform also share the same fate. An immediate impact was the unending inter-religious issues and some prolonged cases even from the 80's. Following research of dialogue model initiated at international level, it was found that religious leader has profound significant and particularly relevant to serve as agent of dialogue towards conflicts resolution. Through those research, the authors developed a model focussing on religious leaders as agent of interfaith dialogue implementation in Malaysia. The authors identified expected qualities and features of religious leaders from four basis: (a) normative rationale, (b) resources rationale, (c) governance rationale, and (d) integrative rationale. Data gathered uses purposive sampling from questionnaire distributed to 73 respondents consisting of two groups, religious leaders of Islam and Christianity. The authors' employs fixed comparative method and matrix analysis in analysing research data, while its composition is descriptive in nature. Regarding the qualities and characteristics expected from religious leaders to become agent of inter-faith dialogue in Malaysia (accompanied with the four basis stated earlier) the main findings were, (1) knowledgeable: understanding and applying the concept of inter-faith dialogue, (2) well-experienced: active participation in interfaith dialogue activities, 93) good personalityreligious: good religiosity, (4) good relationship building: ability to cultivate good relation with Malaysia's plural society.