Interfaith meet urges global anti-terror pact

Reps of divine religions unite against terrorism

MADRID (Agencies)

Representatives of the world's great monotheistic religions Friday called for an international agreement to combat terrorism, greater gender equality and continued dialogue at the end of a landmark Saudi-organized interfaith conference.

The Islamic, Christian and Jewish leaders also appealed for a U.N. special session to promote dialogue and prevent "a clash of civilizations."

"Terrorism is a universal phenomenon that requires unified international efforts to combat it in a serious, responsible and just way," the three-day World Conference on Dialogue said in a final statement.

"This demands an international agreement on defining terrorism, addressing its root causes and achieving justice and stability in the world."

The conference also called for more "ways of enhancing understanding and cooperation among people despite differences in their origins, colors and languages," and a "rejection of extremism and terrorism."

The statement was read to the closing session by Abdul Rahman Al-Zaid, the deputy secretary general of the Makkah-based Muslim World League, which organized the conference from an initiative by Saudi King Abdullah.

Gender inequality: religion or culture?

Theologians told a seminar Thursday that women have historically suffered discrimination in the name of religion, and the world's great faiths must do more to encourage gender equality.

"Women have been forgotten and marginalised in religions," said Juan Jose Tamayo, director of theology at Madrid's Juan Carlos III university. "They are organised hierarchically and patriarchically, excluding women in all fields of knowledge and religious matters."

Now, at the start of the 21st century, all men, but especially clerics "must restore the dignity of women."

Esther Ruiz, a Protestant pastor and theologian, said that "doing the will of God is confused with doing the will of men."

In Christianity, there is "repression and discrimination, which is expressed in the limited possibilities for women to fully develop the gifts God has given them..."

"Often religion and culture have been used to justify this attack against the will of God to create a free human species, and to impose a partial, masculine and patriarchal vision of what God intended."

Amparo Ruiz, a lawyer and director of the Buddhist Centre, told the seminar that Buddhism "makes no difference between men and women."

Participants

Around 200 participants attended the gathering in Madrid, aimed at bringing the world's great monotheistic faiths closer together.

Among them were the secretary general of the World Jewish Congre
ss, Michael Schneider, and Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, who is responsible for dialogue between the Vatican and Muslims.

Tauran said the conference had "stressed the main convictions that we have in common."

The participants called on the U.N. General Assembly to call a special session to support the recommendations of the conference "in enhancing dialogue among the followers of religions, civilizations and cultures."

But the groundbreaking interfaith conference ended on a sour note, with a political spat between Muslims and Jews that Saudi organizers wanted to avoid, and there have been contradictory statements about whether there are any plans for a follow-up meeting.

Political Spat

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah had gathered followers of the world's major faiths for the Madrid conference to seek religious reconciliation and showcase a more liberal image of his kingdom's austere version of Sunni Islam. It is the only Arab Muslim country to ban all non-Islamic religious practices on its soil, even though it has a large community of expatriates professing other faiths.

It was the first time Saudi Arabia had invited Jews to such a meeting and the aim was to skirt hot issues like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, in order to focus on problems facing humanity.

Organizers played down a discussion on Zionism between Ezzeddin Ibrahim, an adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, and Rabbi Marc Schneir, North American chairman of the World Jewish Congress, which drew media attention.

"UAE Official Attacks Zionism at Saudi Conference," said The New York Sun newspaper.

"We have to distinguish between Judaism and Zionism," the paper quoted Ibrahim as saying. "Zionism is a political system. Judaism is a religion," he said, concluding with an appeal for "Judaic and Islamic dialogue."

"People said I attacked Zionism, I did not," Ibrahim told Reuters, adding that no interfaith conference would be complete without Jews.

Schneier also gave a strong defense of Israel in a debate on Thursday, after a Muslim participant referred to Zionists.

Good cause, good effect

"The fact there are some discrepancies, some differences between participants, that's normal," said Turki..

But the conference's final statement disappointed many, and did not contemplate another conference.

Rabbi David Rosen of the American Jewish Committee had said earlier the event would be little more than a photo opportunity unless it led to a follow-up in Saudi Arabia with Israeli Jews.

But participants said getting people from so many faiths under one roof had been an achievement in itself, even if there were no Israeli Jews or Palestinian Muslims and Christians.

"There is a desire for this to continue," said Anthony Ball, an aide to the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams.

Images on Saudi television of Abdullah meeting Buddhists and Hindus were also unsettling to some Saudi clerics, given their Wahhabi Islam considers believers in such faiths are heathens. Buddhists saw no problem.

"From a Buddhist point of view, if the motivation is good, then the result will be good, it is cause and effect" said Hongchih Shih, a Buddhist nun from Taiwan.