Indian Expatriate wins Interfaith Award

Jeddah: Abdul Aziz Valiyaveetil, Jeddah-based Indian expatriate who acts as director of Al Hayat International School and vice president of Seagulls Food Service Company, has been selected to receive the “Pravasi Sawhritha” award in recognition of his continuous contribution in the field of “interfaith and intercultural dialogue” for more than a decade. The award is given annually by the Kerala Hindi Khadi Pracharak Samithi. “I am grateful and deeply humbled by this honor and I consider this recognition as both a token of notice as a well as a token of expectation from society. I hope my small efforts in the way of communal harmony and economic development will go a long way to bear fruits in the near future. And that will be the greatest award for me,” Valiyaveetil told Saudi Gazette. An advocate of communal harmony and economic development, Valiyaveetil, visualizes a transformation of the current materialist worldview to a humanitarian one. He strongly advocates that all religions are of divine origin; however we witness today the corrupted, ritualized form,devoid of true essence of spirituality and humanity. Peace can be achieved if everyone returns to the truth of their individual beliefs. He believes that communal harmony is not difficult to realize if people focus and work, based on commonalities rather than the differences among various sections of society. Valiyaveetil envisions making his native village ““ the 27-km long Vypin Island a ‘Crime Free Zone’ in five years’ time.