European Parliament Prez invites Hindu statesman Zed

Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has been invited by President of European Parliament (EP) Hans-Gert Pottering for a meeting to discuss Hindu issues and promote interfaith dialogue.

Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, will meet President Pottering in his Brussels (Belgium) office on December 10. This might be the first major formal visit of a Hindu leader to EP during the current European Year of Intercultural Dialogue (EYID). Various other world religious leaders who visited EP as part of EYID include Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, Grand Mufti of Syria and Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

After exchanging views with the President, Zed will then meet Deputy Head of President's Cabinet, Ciril Stokelj, for detailed discussion of the issues. Pottering will list various achievements of EP during EYID in the areas of intercultural/inter-religious dialogue.

Rajan Zed read the groundbreaking first Hindu opening prayer in United States Senate in Washington DC during its 218 years history. He is one of the panellists for "On Faith", a prestigious interactive conversation on religion produced jointly by Newsweek and washingtonpost.com. He had also recited historic first Hindu prayers in California, Arizona, Washington, Utah, New Mexico, and Nevada Senates; Arizona House of Representatives and Nevada Assembly in USA.

Zed is Spiritual Advisor to the National Association of Interchurch and Interfaith Families, Director of Interfaith Relations of Nevada Clergy Association, and has been recognised by various organisations for his efforts in interfaith dialogue.

The EP consists of 785 elected members from 27 countries representing 492 million people. The EP and European Council established EYID in view of increasingly important role of intercultural dialogue in fostering European identity and citizenship.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents, and moksha (liberation) is its ultimate goal. Number of Hindus has been growing in Europe and now every country of Europe has considerable Hinduism presence.