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Religious tolerance conference lives up to its name
A U.N. conference on religious tolerance broke new ground Wednesday when a half-dozen Arab leaders - including Saudi King Abdullah for the first time ever - stayed in their seats while an Israeli president spoke.
Perhaps the reason was that they liked what he said.
President Shimon Peres, a Nobel Peace laureate and leading Israeli dove, embraced a 2002 Saudi peace initiative to recognize Israel in exchange for a withdrawal by the Jewish state to pre-1967 borders.
"I must say there is a profound change in their perception," Mr. Peres told reporters an hour after receiving what might be the loudest applause an Israeli leader has ever experienced inside the chambers of the U.N. General Assembly.
The two-day conference initiated by Saudi King Abdullah was meant to defuse tensions among religions and sects.
Besides the Saudi monarch, those who sat and listened to Mr. Peres included the king of Jordan, the prime ministers of Morocco and Qatar, the president of Lebanon and the emir of Kuwait.
Until Wednesday, Saudi policy was to publicly shun Israeli leaders.
King Abdullah skipped a U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis a year ago and sent his foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, instead.
Prince Saud then sat in the hall outside the main conference room at the U.S. Naval Academy when it was Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's turn to speak.
At the United Nations Wednesday, King Abdullah opened the event:
"We state with a unified voice that religions through which Almighty God sought to bring happiness to mankind should not be turned into instruments to cause misery."
Mr. Peres spoke after King Abdullah.
"Your majesty, the king of Saudi Arabia, I was listening to your message. I wish that your voice will become the prevailing voice of the whole region, of all people. It's right, it's needed, it's promising," the Israeli president said.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad reminded the audience of his peoples' demands.
"Nothing that has been said from this rostrum or any other forum might change the historical fact that East Jerusalem is an occupied Palestinian territory since June 5, 1967," said Mr. Fayyad, demanding that Israel withdraw from that quadrant of the city and from occupied areas of the West Bank.
The two-day discussion was initially meant to be an interfaith dialogue.
However, General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto, a Nicaraguan priest, said the United Nations is a body of governments, not religions; therefore, the discussion would necessarily take a broader view.
Still, it was not quite a political discussion, either.
Leaders spoke in general terms about hope, mutual respect and the possibility for peace.
Heads of state and government from 80 nations are expected to speak by the end of the event Thursday afternoon, including President Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The conference opened just hours after Israeli soldiers killed four suspected militants in Gaza, saying the men were laying explosives along the border.
Associated Press King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Israeli President Shimon Peres both attend a dinner Wednesday hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York.
King Abdullah, curiously, did not refer to his 2002 peace proposal, focusing instead on the need for tolerance and the rejection of terrorism.
His appearance aroused criticism from human rights groups, which note that Saudi Arabia does not permit non-Muslims to practice their religions openly.
Jordanian King Abdullah II issued a lengthy appeal for peace and tolerance, switching from Arabic to English early in his speech so that more people in the hall could understand without interpretation.
He continued: "For with every day that justice is denied to Palestinians, with every day that the occupation prevents a positive future, the regional and global impact has grown. Resentment and frustration are felt throughout the region and, indeed, throughout the world. ... Extremists - Muslim, Christian and Jewish - are thriving on the doubts and divisions."
‘Religions should not be used to cause misery’
King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia told the world community on Wednesday that justice and tolerance were the key Islamic values and stressed that religions should not be used as “instruments to cause misery”.
“Terrorism and criminality are the enemies of every religion and every civilisation,” King Abdullah said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly meeting on interfaith peace and dialogue.
Describing terrorism as “absence of the principle of tolerance”, the king said: “Human beings were created as equals and partners, either they live together in peace and harmony, or they will inevitably be consumed by the flames of misunderstanding, malice and hatred.”
King Abdullah, the main proponent of the global interfaith dialogue, told the gathering of over 67 representatives from around the world that roots of all global crises could be found in human denial of eternal principle of justice.
The conference is being attended by 17 world leaders, including President Asif Ali Zardari, President George Bush, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, President Gloria Arroyo of the Philippines, King Juan Carlos of Spain, King Abdullah of Jordan, Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa and Israeli President Shimon Perez.
The world leaders have highlighted the importance of promoting interfaith dialogue to strengthen world peace and stability.King Abdullah said that throughout history differences between followers of religions and cultures had engendered intolerance and caused devastating wars and bloodshed.
“It is high time for us to learn from the harsh lessons of the past and concur on the ethics and ideals in which we all believe.”
The Saudi leader said the alienation and the sense of being lost, mainly among the young, and the use of drugs was due to the dissolution of the family bonds that in fact needed to be strengthened.
Earlier in his opening remarks, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon observed that Islamophobia was a “new term for an old and terrible form of prejudice”.
“Living together in peace has proved tragically difficult. We must try harder to bring shared values to life,” he told the heads of state and government and other delegates in the blue-and-gold hall of the assembly.
Opening his speech with “Asalamu alaykum”, Mr Ban said: “Anti-Semitism remains a scourge. Islamophobia has emerged as a new term for an old and terrible form of prejudice.
“And other kinds of faith-based discrimination and racism show a dismaying persistence. Sometimes it seems as if none of history’s awful lessons has been learned.
“With knowledge and leadership, we can live up to the best of all our traditions, and ensure human dignity for all,” Mr Ban added.
“One of the greatest challenges of our time must now surely be to ensure that our rich cultural diversity makes us more secure -- not less.”
He said globalisation could be a great force for progress, but as economies merged, as cultural boundaries disappeared, as new media brought societies closer together than ever before, new fault lines could emerge.
As a result, he said, communal strife was intensifying. “Extremist ideologies are on the rise. Societies are more polarised.”Traditionally, the secretary-general said, peace involved balancing the interests of different states. “But we have learned that lasting peace required more than a competitive equilibrium. For peace to endure, individuals, groups and nations must come to respect and understand each other.
“Interfaith initiatives are addressing this need with ever greater frequency and force. One of the most respected of these initiatives was the World Conference on Dialogue, held in Madrid this past July at the invitation of King Abdullah.
“That landmark meeting brought together followers of the world’s religions, eminent scholars, intellectuals and others. The participants affirmed their belief in the fundamental equality of human beings, irrespective of their colour, ethnicity, race, religion or culture. And they pledged to act within their spheres of influence to foster dialogue and cooperation.”
He expressed optimism that the dialogue, conducted in a constructive manner, would bring in a glimmer of hope for the future of mankind, where justice and security would prevail over injustice, fear and poverty.
In this regard, he suggested constituting a committee of the participants of the Madrid dialogue so as to continue the dialogue in the days ahead.
The Saudi king assured leaders of the world that the desire for dialogue stemmed from the Islamic faith and values and the compassion to overcome miseries for the mankind.
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Ambassador of Pakistan to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon sat in the UN General Assembly hall during King Abdullah’s speech.
President Asif Ali Zardari and President George W. Bush will address the forum on Thursday.
Masood Haider
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