GENEVA: Abdullah Al-Turki, secretary-general of the Makkah-based Muslim World League (MWL), announced on Monday the MWL’s plan to hold an international interfaith conference in Southeast Asia within a year. He also disclosed plans to hold similar conferences in North America, Latin America and Africa.
“We have not yet decided on the country where the interfaith conference in Southeast Asia would be held,” Al-Turki told reporters at Geneva Inter.Continental Hotel, where a two-day international conference on the Impact of the Interfaith Initiative of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah opens on Wednesday.
He said King Abdullah’s initiative, which began from the holy city of Makkah, is having a great impact on world peace and stability.
Al-Turki said the Geneva conference aims to take the initiative to the general public and remove misunderstandings surrounding the initiative. President of Switzerland Hans-Rudolf Merz is expected to open the conference on Wednesday in the presence of religious leaders, academics and intellectuals from different countries.
Al-Turki spoke about plans to establish an international center to promote King Abdullah’s interfaith dialogue initiative. There is also a plan to set up an international committee on interfaith dialogue including prominent personalities from across the world.
“We want to give a message to the world that Islam and Muslims stand for peace, and Saudi Arabia, its leadership and people want to make their contributions to world peace by promoting dialogue among the followers of different faiths,” he said, hoping that these efforts would help stop the smear campaigns against Islam and Muslims.
Al-Turki said the main objective of the Geneva conference is to spread human values that are shared by all religions. “This will encourage them to work jointly to solve pressing humanitarian problems, such as poverty, family violence, drug abuse and terrorism and violation of human rights,” he said.
Referring to extremist claims that dialogue with others would weaken Muslims, Al-Turki said such campaigns are the result of a lack of knowledge about Islamic history and narrow mindedness. “The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and his Caliphs held dialogue with Jews and Christians and sent letters to non-Muslim rulers in various countries,” he said.
“We have emphasized that our dialogue aims at promoting cooperation with others without compromising on the basic teachings and principles of Islam,” he said.
As many as 166 religious leaders, academics and other prominent personalities from around the world will take part in the event.
The research papers will include titles such as “King Abdullah’s Initiative and the Scope of Coexistence Among the Various Civilizations”; “The Role of Religion and Culture in Promoting Dialogue”; “The Impact of Religious Values in Reforming Societies”; and “The Role of Media in Strengthening Dialogue and Human Values.” Rev. Metropolitan Emmanuel of the Orthodox Church will moderate the first session while Bava Jain, secretary-general of Millennium World Peace Summit, the second session, Salih bin Hussein Al-Ayid, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Saudi Arabia, the third session, Rabbi Steven Jacobs of Emeritus Temple in the US, the fourth, Yuzo Itagaki, chairman of the Islamic-Japanese Dialogue Forum, the fifth, and Prince Harith Shihab of Maronite Patriarchate in Lebanon, the sixth session.
