day Inter-faith Dialogue Conference concluded here Friday with a number of proposals for easing tensions within different sects of Islam and creating relations among different religions. The conference recommended reconciling brewing discontent among different Islamic schools of thoughts before the launching a landmark initiative for talks with adherents of other monotheistic faiths. The conference, which was the brain-child of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, called for establishing a King Abdullah International Award for Civilized Dialogue to be granted to “figures and international organizations that contribute to advancing the dialogue in order to reach its objectives.” It also recommended the establishment of King Abdullah International Center for Dialogue Among Civilizations to spread the culture of dialogue. The scholars called on the King to bring together specialists from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions and other beliefs “to agree on a format for a fruitful world dialogue that would contribute to solving problems faced today by mankind.” But the scholars insisted that dialogue should not mean abandoning their principles and their religion's fundamentals. “A constructive dialogue and peaceful coexistence and cooperation between the followers of Allah's messages and others does not mean abandoning the axioms, or giving up the religion's fundamentals,” their final statement said. Scholars called for forming an international commission for dialogue with the aim to chalk out unified strategies for dialogue and to activate, cooperate, and coordinate with agencies concerned. Members of this commission would be selected by the Muslim World League (MWL). Recommendation was also made for holding conferences and symposiums for dialogue between followers of divine messages and other ideologies. Delegates suggested practicing dialogue according to objectives envisioned by the Muslim world. They called for unifying an Islamic ideology towards dialogue and focusing on mutual interests for peaceful coexistence among people of different civilizations. The conference recommended spreading the culture of dialogue in the Islamic societies and publishing translated books and warned against calls of clash of civilizations. The Muslim world was urged to benefit from dialogue experience and develop and invest in its program with Islamic states and their institutions. It also recommended preparing a group of experts in dialogue and training them to participate in international dialogue conferences. The conference called for producing media materials in different languages that refute theories of clash of civilizations and encourage international community and institutions like the United Nations to play a role in fighting the culture of hatred and racism. In a statement, scholars stressed the need for dialogue with other religions to give a “correct picture of Islam” and to reach “out to other sects of Islam, which will lead to uniting the Ummah.” Finally, Participants thanked King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, for his support during this conference and they extended their warm thanks to MWL as well. __
