Doha Interfaith Conf. Urges More Efforts
DOHA,
July 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Muslims, Christian and
Jewish participants in the Third Doha Conference for
Religious Dialogue have called for promoting dialogue
between followers of the different faiths, rejecting any
effort to associate any religion with terrorism or using
religions for political purposes.
Wrapping up their meetings in Doha Thursday, June 30,
participants in the two-day conference endorsed a proposal
put forward by Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al
Thani to establish an international center in Qatar for
religious dialogue.
“The
objective is to deepen the reciprocal knowledge among
followers of the three religions, consolidate the culture of
dialogue and review the historical negative inherited values
which constitute a handicap on the way of mutual
comprehension between followers of there three religions,”
said the conference’s final statement, a copy of which was
obtained by IslamOnline.net.
The
conference also urged the establishment of academic sections
in the Arabic and Islamic universities for comparative
religions and the exchange of visits among teachers of the
three faiths to deepen the culture of dialogue among
followers of the three faiths.
It
further pressed for setting up religious cohabitation
councils in the Islamic countries to consolidate the spirit
of cohabitation, cooperation and achievement of social peace
and harmony.
The
conference also called for carrying out methodical and
serious efforts to remove the negative image on the three
faiths and their followers from the media, textbooks and
educational curricula.
The
religious dialogue conference, opened in Doha on June 29,
was shunned by a number of Muslim and Christian religious
leaders, including prominent scholar Sheikh Yusuf
Al-Qaradawi, in protest at the participation of Israeli
rabbis.
Success
After
attending the conference for the first time, Jewish rabbis
said the meeting was a success.
"The
real success story of the conference is that I as a Jew am
speaking in Qatar to Muslims and Christians," said Rabbi
Bernard Kanovitch of the Jewish Institution Council in
France.
"This
is just the beginning of much more things to come," he
added, according to Reuters.
The
five Jewish delegates from the United States and France
attending the meeting also acknowledged the political
challenges faced by Jews and Muslims, but stressed that
dialogue was the only way forward.
"The
more we talk, the better chance we have at overcoming
political obstacles ... the only way we can ever reach an
agreement is if we talk to one another," said Rabbi Burton
Visotzky of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.
More Difficult
Muslim
scholars who attended the two-day meeting said Israel's
occupation of the Arab lands made it more difficult to
exchange views between Muslims and Jews.
"I
think our Jewish colleagues would have been better accepted,
and this meeting would have been more fruitful had the
problems facing the Palestinians been solved," said Abdel
Rahman Abad of Jerusalem-based Muslim Scholars of Palestine.
"We
will continue speaking .... but we are facing many problems,
our land has been confiscated, we are under occupation and
all this is complicating the problems we face," he said.
Aisha
Al-Mannai, head of the organizing committee of the religious
dialogue conference said Qatar plans to invite Jewish
delegates, including Israeli nationals, to future interfaith
forums.
"We
take steps forward, not back," she said.
The
Third Doha Conference for Religious Dialogue was organized
by the Faculty of Shari`ah at Qatar University.
The
two previous inter-religious dialogue conferences were
arranged by the Anglican and Catholic churches.
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