"Conflicts in the Middle East will certainly affect Indonesia," he stated in his speech at an international seminar themed "Conflicts and Democratization in the Middle East" at the Al Hikam Boarding School here on Thursday.
He added that a countrys participation in efforts to ensure world peace was essential for globalization. "Indonesia is obliged to be active in the current era of globalization," he remarked.
Even with the expected differences in democratic processes, rigid borders no longer exist as globalization has made us "part of the world," the minister noted.
"Democracy provides a way out by treating differences respectfully," he said, adding that Indonesia had experience in dealing with differences in state-religion relationships.
"Founders of the state have been very wise in formulating basic values that have, so far, helped in maintaining unity in the country," Syaifuddin pointed out.
The two-day seminar that will be held till Saturday was organized by the International Conference of Islamic Scholars (ICIS) in cooperation with the foreign ministry and the National Anti-Terrorism Agency (BNPT).
Issues related to the ISIS are meant to be the primary subject of discussion at the seminar, for which clerics and religious figures from Iraq and Syria were invited as speakers.
"The seminar aims to learn about the root of all ISIS-related problems from an Iraqi and a Syrian. Therefore, speakers from those countries were invited," the Chairman of the media affairs committee, Ahmad Millah Hasan, affirmed.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
