The UAE emphasized on Friday that any dialogue between civilizations should be based on equality and mutual respect and seek mainly to build international relations on the grounds of peace, harmony and integration.
"The dialogue we mean is the one that is based on exchange of opinions, experiences and facts, recognizes others and their right to exist and understands the characteristics of each culture without imposing certain cultures on others, and denounces differences and bolsters harmony," a member of the UAE parliamentary delegation said while addressing the second conference of parliaments of the member states in the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), held in Rabat.
Member of the Federal National Council (FNC) Ahmed Ali Laha said that Islam, in both spiritual and material aspects, accorded top priority to peace, thus making the culture of peace a basic pillar of the Muslim community, culture, values, heritage and history, reported the official WAM news agency.
"Throughout its history, the Islamic civilization has never been in conflict with any other civilizations and the Islamic world has never been a party to international confrontations in the 20th century," Laha said.
Islam, he said, took the lead in creating a concerted structure for social, political and economic relations and dealt with human beings on equal footing irrespective of their color or race.
"There is an urgent need today for a dialogue and peaceful co-existence of civilizations," he said. Laha said: "Failure of a civilization to understand another one has deprived the process of dialogue of its essence of honesty, truthfulness, fairness and tolerance.
"Such a situation has dragged nations and civilizations into bloody conflicts based on racism, hegemony and narrow interests."
Laha denounced Israel for its genocidal and racist crimes against the Palestinian people.
At the opening session, Morocco's King Mohammed urged members of parliament from Islamic countries to stand up to those who equate Islam with extremism and violence.
The king reiterated his "vigorous condemnation of all forms of terrorism".
He urged Muslim MPs to "challenge the detractors of Islam," who, he said, "equate our religion with extremism and violence."
"They exploit the aberrations of lost souls who have broken with the values of tolerance of this religion," Mohammed said.
But the king also urged MPs at the conference not to let "the odious acts of aggression" against the United States on September 11 "make us forget the dramatic situation facing our brothers in the Palestinian territories."
Morocco has "put the Palestinian cause and, more precisely, the question of Jerusalem at the top of its list of foreign policy priorities," the king told conference delegates.
Mohammed, who chairs the OIC's Al Quds Committee, told the conference he would spare no effort to get Israel and the Palestinians back around the negotiating table "quickly and without preconditions."
Delegates ended Friday a debate on the status of Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories, including the Golan Heights in Syria.
The Teheran-based PUOIC is made up of the legislative assemblies of 50 Islamic countries.
Founded in 1999, its executive committee consists of Bangladesh, Chad, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mali, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
