MADRID: The Muslim World League (MWL) has completed all preparations for the international interfaith conference that begins here on Wednesday, the pan-Islamic body said in a statement. More than 200 leaders of different religions, including Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, are expected to attend the three-day conference.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will open the conference. King Juan Carlos of Spain and Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and MWL Secretary-General Abdullah Al-Turki will address the opening session.
The fist session, titled “Dialogue and Its Religious and Civilizational Foundations,” will be chaired by Bawa Jain, secretary-general of the Millennium World Peace Summit. Hussain Hamid Hassan of Dubai Islamic Bank will speak on “Dialogue in Islam,” while Lebanese Minister of Culture Tariq Mitri, a member of the World Council of Churches, will speak on “Dialogue in Christianity.” Arthur Schneir of Appeal of Conscience Foundation in the US and M.M. Verma, director of Interfaith Foundation in India, will also address the session.
Saleh Bin-Humaid, president of the Saudi Shoura Council, will preside over the second session that will focus on “Dialogue and Its Importance in Society.” Nichiko Niwano, president, the Committee of World Parliament for Religion and Peace, Japan, will present a paper on “Dialogue and Interaction of Cultures and Civilizations,” while professor Federico Mayor Zaragoza, president of the Cultural Foundation for Peace in Spain, will speak on Dialogue and its Impact on Peaceful Coexistence. Abdulhadi Tazi, a member of the Moroccan Academy, will present a paper on “Dialogue and Its Impact on International Relations,” while Redwan Al-Sayyed, chairman of the International Institute for Islamic Studies in Lebanon, will speak on the topic, “Dialogue in the Face of Calls for the Clash of Civilizations and End of History.”
The third session on “Common Human Values in Areas of Dialogue,” chaired by William F. Vendley, secretary-general of the World Conference of Religions for Peace in the US, will be held on Thursday. Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR); Muhammad Ali Taskheeri, secretary-general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought in Iran; Shankaracharya Omkar Anand Saraswati of India; and Miguel Angel Ayuso Guixot, rector of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Vatican, will present papers.
The fourth session on “Evaluation and Promotion of Dialogue” will be chaired by Rabbi Caudio Epelman, secretary-general of the Jewish Congress in Latin America and the Caribbean. The speakers are: Ezzuddin Mustafa of the UAE, Xue Cheng of the Buddhist Association of China, Econos Haddad of Jordan’s Center for Religious Coexistence, and Nabil Luka Bibawi, member of Egypt’s Shoura Council.
The concluding session will start at 10 a.m. Friday when Abdul Rahman Al-Zaid, assistant secretary of the MWL, will read out the final communiqué.
