Imam Afroz Ali, of Sydney, who has been visiting Dunedin this week, gave the latest in an annual series of open peace lectures at the University of Otago campus yesterday.
His topic was ''Between Law and Spirituality- Islam's legal basis for its spirit of peaceful coexistence''.
Imam Afroz said in an interview that people should strive to achieve ''greater understanding and acceptance'' of people of other faiths, given there were ''good people'' everywhere, despite some efforts to promote fear, armed conflict and misunderstandings.
''But these wars are not about religion,'' he added.
His invitation to give the annual lecture was ''quite an honour''.
Organisers of the lecture series and the university's National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies were ''doing a great service for humanity'' by helping build greater mutual understanding.
''In this time of significant global tribulation, New Zealand remains a fertile environment to cultivate peace and coexistence.''
New Zealand was respected as a good international citizen and it had ''a great opportunity'' to do more in international peace-building.
He hoped former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark would become the next United Nations secretary-general.
The world still faced major problems with poverty and inequality and with growing environmental threats resulting from global climate change, he said.
Born in Fiji, of Fijian Indian heritage, Imam Afroz is a recipient of the Ambassador for Peace award and is the founder and scholar-in-residence at Al-Ghazzali Centre for Islamic Sciences and Human Development in Sydney.
He was hosted in the city by the Dunedin Abrahamic Interfaith Group and the Otago University Tertiary Chaplaincy.
