Islamic body to defuse "clash of civilizations"

Leaders at a summit of Islamic states agreed on Friday to work with the West to fight religious bigotry and defuse a "clash of civilizations," while the group also accused Israel of war crimes against Palestinian civilians.

Delegates at the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) in Dakar, Senegal, said a final communiqué would focus on the threat of "Islamophobia" facing the world's around 1.5 billion Muslims.

But it would recommend cooperation and dialogue with the non-Muslim world to defuse a potential clash of civilizations stoked by Western fears over Islamic terrorism and Muslims' anger at perceived insults against their faith. "The Islamic Ummah (community) is moving in a moderate direction and almost on a progressive path, we're all moving in the same path," said Sada Cumber, who was appointed by President George W. Bush last month to be the U.S. envoy to the OIC.

Cumber said the risk from religious bigotry and extremism came not so much from a clash of civilizations, as from "a clash of ignorance on the part of Muslims to learn more about America and us, the Americans, to learn more about Islam".

The Summit also denounced "the current and increasing Israeli military campaign against the Palestinian people and the serious violation of human rights and war crimes including the killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians," the draft said.

It called Israel's "collective punishment of civilians" a violation of international human rights law and said "the occupying forces must be held responsible for these war crimes".

Summit delegates said the communiqué would offer political support for Iraq to help it regain stability, but would not include a specific declaration of backing for Iran, despite an Iranian request -- a decision seen as a sign of readiness to foster cooperation, not confrontation, with the West.

The Dakar summit would also call for greater solidarity and cooperation among OIC members, which include super-rich Arab oil states like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and some of the poorest states on the planet, most of them in Africa.