Anwar calls for more empathy, open dialogue between faiths

TOKYO: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim on Friday (May 24) called for heightened empathy and open dialogue between people of different faiths and backgrounds as he addressed the growing threats of obscurantism, bigotry and intolerance that threaten to divide societies and undermine peace.

In his commemorative speech honouring the late Professor Toshihiko Izutsu at Keio University here, the Prime Minister said that coupled with other factors such as politics and ethnocentrism, lack of empathy gives rise, for example, to Islamophobia.