“We want to strengthen our relations with India,” Al-Turki said during a meeting with Abdussalam Vaniyambalam, vice chancellor of the Islamic University in Shantapuram, Kerala, and V.K. Abdul Aziz, director of Al-Hayat International School in Jeddah and an executive member of the International Interfaith Dialogue India (IIDI) in Kochi.

Al-Turki has already sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his consent for the conference. He emphasized his organization's efforts to promote and enhance constructive dialogue among adherents of different faiths and cultures. The MWL has organized interfaith dialogue conferences in Makkah, Madrid and Geneva during the past three years.

Al-Turki and the university chief discussed prospects of cooperation between their two organizations. The secretary-general emphasized MWL’s support to establish an institute of science and technology in Malappuram, a Muslim majority district in Kerala. The institute will have engineering, science and arts colleges.

“The institute will be established in a new educational city covering an area of 100 acres. It will have modern educational facilities and hostels for both boys and girls,” Abdussalam said. “The project aims at educational uplift of Indian Muslims,” he added. He described his university as one of the largest Islamic institutions of higher learning in India with more than 1,300 students.

Abdul Aziz said the IIDI got the inspiration to host the conference from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah's interfaith dialogue initiative.

He highlighted the significance of such a conference in a country like India where communal tensions threaten its security and stability.

"The conference will surely evoke a positive thinking to strengthen Indian pluralism and secularism and help eliminate threats from disruptive forces," he said. "We anticipate participation of about 50 delegates from various countries in Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Far East apart from 200 others from various parts of lndia, representing different religious and cultural groups."