On the afternoon of 23 February, Soka Gakkai president Minoru Harada visited the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation of the International Islamic University Malaysia (ISTAC-IIUM). He led a delegation consisting of Soka Gakkai senior vice-president Yoshiki Tanigawa, SGI South Asia Division leader Shinji Ushioda and Soka University of America president Prof Edward Feasel. Also present were SGM General Director Koh Sia Feai and other SGM representatives.

President Harada was received by ISTAC-IIUM dean Prof Datuk Dr Abdelaziz Berghout and Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Osman Bakar, Holder of the Al-Ghazali Chair of Epistemology and Civilisational Studies and Renewal, ISTAC-IIUM. Both of them are renowned scholars on Islamic thought and civilisation, with Datuk Dr Osman having been included on The Muslim 500: Most Influential Muslims list previously.

President Harada expressed his gratitude to ISTAC-IIUM for hosting the Daisaku Ikeda Memorial Lecture on 2 January, the 96th anniversary of President Ikeda’s birth (see COSMIC, March 2024, pg 26). He further conveyed Mrs Kaneko Ikeda’s greetings and deepest appreciation for the memorial lecture, also thanking Datuk Dr Osman’s remarks praising President Ikeda’s contributions to global peacebuilding and fostering intercivilisational dialogue during this lecture.

He also lauded ISTAC-IIUM’s efforts in promoting interfaith dialogue and engagement, especially between Islam and Buddhism. One of these efforts includes ISTAC-IIUM publishing Hikmah Toleransi, the Bahasa Melayu edition of the dialogue between President Ikeda and former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid in 2022. Datuk Osman served as the editor and wrote a preface for this book, for which President Harada praised him, saying Datuk Osman’s insights added great value to the book and deeply inspired him. He conveyed his best wishes and prayers for ISTAC-IIUM’s great development in its endeavours to promote intercivilisational and intercultural dialogues.

Datuk Dr Berghout thanked President Harada for visiting ISTAC-IIUM, and stated that ISTAC-IIUM has had wonderful collaborations with SGM, and expressed interest in holding further events such as international conferences and also conducting research aimed at promoting President Ikeda’s ideals. He stated ISTAC-IIUM would be happy to work with SGM and Soka Gakkai-affiliated organisations in realising these endeavours, and also praised SGM’s efforts in peacebuilding through activities such as Run for Peace, and its support for IIUM activities. The IIUM main campus in Gombak was a venue for Run for Peace last year.

Love at First Read

Datuk Dr Osman thanked President Harada for his visit. He remarked he came to know President Ikeda and the Soka Gakkai through Choose Life, the seminal dialogue with Arnold Toynbee which he said was “love at first read.” Following Choose Life, he went on to read several more of President Ikeda’s dialogues, such as those with Majid Tehranian, President Wahid and Tu Weiming – whom he counts as friends.

He lauded President Ikeda’s philosophy and actions in promoting peace and dialogue, which are based on core values that share commonalities with Islamic values, such as protecting life, the oneness of the human family and peaceful dialogue. Datuk Dr Osman also paid tribute to President Ikeda as a thinker and leader who bridged East and West through his actions. He previously visited Soka University in 1999 and delivered the keynote lecture at the Seventh Pacific Basin Symposium (at the University of Malaya [UM]), which Soka University cohosted with UM.

During his visit, President Harada was given a tour of the ISTAC-IIUM campus, whose architecture is inspired by the Alhambra Palace in Andalusia, Spain. He also viewed precious artefacts in ISTAC-IIUM’s collection housed in the Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas Library, rare books and manuscripts in various languages from important Islamic civilisations such as Arabic and Persian and collections of the works of renowned scholars.

President Harada and Datuk Dr Berghout also exchanged souvenirs. This visit marks a new milestone in Buddhist-Islamic exchange.