Nepal, Jan. 16 -- In the midst of several conflicts and tensions in the world, the compelling need to promote inter-faith harmony and understanding is increasingly realised. Such promotion increases possibilities of durable peace among various communities and often also among several countries. Religious fundamentalism is characterised by a rigid and narrow understanding of religious texts and precepts, leading to sectarian views and frequently to avoidable conflicts with people of other faiths or sects.

One main problem created by religious fundamentalism is that this discourages human understanding on the basis of rationality due to very rigid adherence to what was written or spoken several hundred years back, and may have had a very d...