Tokyo, 12th
May, 2008
On Wednesday
7th May, the Niwano
Peace Foundation awarded the 25th
Niwano Peace Prize to HRH Prince
El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan
“for his tireless efforts toward
building peace with justice in
the Middle East”.
In selecting
Prince Hassan as the 2008
recipient, the Peace Prize
Committee said, “He has played a
significant role in combating
prejudice and hatred worldwide
and that his voice has been one
of faith and reason, deeply
formed by Islam and his own
intellectual gift. His
spiritual and theological world
view has been enriched by other
faiths. He has been a bridge
builder across existing
political and religious divides
and he has been fighting all
forms of religious extremism and
terrorism. He promotes the
elevation of the moral authority
of Judaism, Christianity and
Islam above politics.”
The ceremony
for the presentation of the
award was held at the Foreign
Correspondents Press Club in
Tokyo.
The Niwano
Peace Prize is named in honour
of the Rev. Nikkyo Niwano, the
late founder of the lay Buddhist
organisation Rissho Kosei-kai,
who believed that peace was not
merely an absence of conflict
among nations, but a dynamic
harmony in the inner lives of
peoples as well as in our
communities, nations and the
world.
In his
response at the presentation of
the award, Prince Hassan said,
“I am here today to pay a humble
tribute to humanity and to the
realisation that the crises in
our world are a concern to all
on moral, political and economic
grounds. I am here to emphasise
that common humanity is where we
can begin – to give a voice to
the poor and the powerless, to
plead for unity in diversity and
to articulate a humanitarian
perspective to cope with an
increasingly global society.”
On Saturday
10th May in Kyoto,
Prince Hassan addressed a
symposium on the Challenges
Facing Religious People in the
New Century. His Royal Highness
stressed the importance of
developing common standards of
comprehension leading to shared
understanding. He noted that at
the end of World War II, in the
spirit of Article 9 of the
Japanese Constitution, Japan
renounced war and the threat or
use of force as a means of
settling international
disputes. As a member of the
Board of the Nuclear Threat
Initiative, Prince Hassan said
that he was encouraged by the
support of George P. Shultz,
William J. Perry, Henry A.
Kissinger and Sam Nunn in an
Op-ed in the Wall Street Journal
of 15th January this
year, in which they recognised
the importance of “extending key
provisions of the Arms Reduction
Treaty of 1991 as well as taking
steps to increase the warning
decision times for the launch of
the nuclear and armed ballistic
missiles thereby reducing risks
of accidental or unauthorised
attacks”.
