DAVOS, 24 January 2004 — The World Economic Forum announced the official launch yesterday of the Council of 100 Leaders. The group aims to become the foremost community of senior political, religious, business, media and opinion leaders to promote understanding and dialogue between the Western and Islamic worlds.
The Council will have 20 leaders from each of the five sectors, representing the Western and Islamic thought, and the dialogue is intended to be a process that will engage cultures and societies at all levels along three core stands — dialogue of discourse, action and experience. It will be unique by virtue of its origins in the work and strengths of the World Economic Forum. The Council will be co-chaired by Lord Carey of Clifton, former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Prince Turki Al-Faisal, chairman of King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies and Saudi ambassador in London.
Speaking at the launch, Lord Carey said: “We’ve come to see one another not as enemies, but as friends and colleagues on a journey together.”
Prince Turki said: “At this critical moment in human affairs, there is clearly an urgent need for the societies across both the Western and Muslim worlds to engage in dialogue to achieve mutual understanding as the basis for practical cooperation.”
Speaking in another session, Prince Turki complained that the United States talked about promoting democracy in the Middle East yet refused to recognize one of the few democratically elected leaders in the region, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Moreover, while Washington had put pressure on Iran, Syria, Libya and Iraq over their alleged weapons of mass destruction programs, it never mentioned Israel, which had not only nuclear but also biological and chemical weapons, the prince said.
