Your activities are also relevant to global efforts to respond to the threat posed by terrorism. Muslims have been among those hardest-hit by this scourge. At the same time, a very small minority of Muslims have perverted their faith to justify heinous acts, prompting calls for Muslims to condemn terrorism and suicide bombings. These calls have been answered in part by your founder, Dr. Tahir-ul-Qadri, through his historic Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings. This and other works of Islamic scholarship can help counter those who twist the tenets of Islam to justify criminal and inhumane acts.

I hope you will join these efforts, using your consultative status at the United Nations to participate in our work.

This Peace for Humanity Conference is pivotal at this moment in time and we support the cause and efforts of Minhaj-ul-Quran International and Shaykh-ul-Islam Dr Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri whole heartedly. We pray to Allah Almighty for the success of this conference and our cooperation will remain available to all who work for Harmony until the Message of Mercy, Love and Peace of our Beloved Prophet ( peace be upon Him) is reached to every one effusively.

I would like to congratulate the Minhaj-ul-Quran International UK for taking this timely and praiseworthy initiative. I am confident that the Peace for Humanity Conference will be successful in coming up with concrete and contructive recommendations towards this end.”

So your conference today is even more important than usual. Coming together to talk openly and candidly about the issues that can divide people but crucially the values that unite us too, tolerance, human rights, peace, and belief in opportunity for all, a faith in young people and their potential to learn from our mistakes, from the mistakes of the past, to help tackle discrimination and prejudice, building communities that are strong, where we take on our problems together.

I want to congratulate you on being granted special consultative status by the United Nations, it’s a huge honour, one you richly deserve and one that gives an even louder voice in the world. Today I hope you take time to celebrate that success and I wish you all the best not just for the conference but for the future too. Thank you.

A month or so ago we saw the terrible riots that affected some of our major cities but what we also saw was the vast majority of people, right across this country, coming out, cleaning up and saying, ‘no’ to the violence that we saw on our streets.

It’s exactly that message of peace, harmony and working together that I know your conference is designed to promote. And indeed the way you come at the issues that you’ll be talking about today, your faith, is such an important part of British life.And I pride the fact that Britain and indeed the Labour party embraces people of different faiths and of different backgrounds and that by and large Britain works together and people live together in harmony. And I know that is a message that you are trying to promote. So congratulations on your conference.

I look forward to hearing about your discussions. And I look forward to your organisations going from strength to strength.

I want to live in a country where everyone is at ease with faith, where people of all faiths and those of none are proud to play their part in making their community and their country a better place. That is why this conference today is so important.

I commend Dr. Qadri’s hard work to built trust and mutual respect between people. I’m sorry I can’t be with you but I have huge admiration for what you are trying to do and I wish you every success