Alright, Hallelujah! What next?

INFLUENCE: RELIGIOUS LEADERS
How religious leaders can help the world for its betterment

A close scrutiny exemplifies the fact that be it the Pope in Christianity or Dalai Lama in Buddhism, Rabbis in Judaism or Imams in Islam, religious leaders do all have implicit and explicit influences in the lives of even non-devotees.To start off with, Pope Benedict XVI. Given the current global scenario, each of the Pope’s visits, addresses to the common people, official statements marks history. For instance, his mind-boggling address to the youths of Germany, inter-faith talks with Jews and Muslims and many other similar visits to Brazil, Austria, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the US have been overwhelmingly successful in garnering more international attention than his religious designation should warrant. His recent visit to Africa might have drawn some controversies due to his remarks on condoms as ‘not [being] the solution to end HIV/AIDS’, but what one misses is that his visit in itself helped Africa get enough attention from world authorities. Even Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos, despite the Pope’s ‘condom-controversy’, had to accept, “We are very grateful for all the advice that you have given to our people.” Similarly, the Israeli chief Rabbi, Shlomo Amar, has contributed considerably by reaccepting the Falash Mura community – a group of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity – and also fighting for the rights of non-Israeli immigrant Jews. Similarly, calls or addresses by Muslim leaders like the 49th Imam, Prince Karim Al Husseini or Imam of Jama Masjid remain very prominent. And the Dalai Lama’s politico-religious influence is in another seventh sphere already. Quite clearly, if with great power comes great responsibility, then would it be too churlish for us to comment that with great responsibility comes great duty? Towards global peace?