Justice is at heart of HIV commitments, multi-faith conference hears

WCC News, July 19, www.oikoumene.org/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1634/justice-is-at-heart-of-hi.html

A multi-faith meeting on the eve of the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna has heard calls for faith communities to keep commitments they have made to promote universal access to HIV treatment, care, support and prevention.  The conference gathered more than 250 people, including leaders of religious groups, networks of people living with HIV and international organizations, under the theme, “Rights Here, Right Now: What’s faith got to do with it?”

Leadership by faith communities in the struggle against HIV and AIDS, “doesn’t come just like that”, said Hany El Banna, the Egyptian-born founder and former president of Islamic Relief. “It comes with responsibility.”  Faith communities, he said, are able to mobilize people at the “grass roots”, in mosques, churches, synagogues and temples. “We shouldn’t be afraid of religion,” El Banna stated. “We should be afraid of ignorance and a lack of knowledge.”