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Muslims urged to unite against fundamentalism
SANA: Information and Broadcasting Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani on Sunday urged the Muslim world to unite against the growing threat of fundamentalism by focusing on conflict resolution. He was delivering his opening address on the role of civil society and the state of political reforms in Pakistan at the conference on democracy and political reforms. The minister called upon the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to play a more pro-active role in resolving disputes in the Islamic world and emphasised the need for interfaith harmony and inter-civilisation dialogue.The need of the hour is for us to make a concerted effort to resolve the conflicts in Kashmir and the Palestinian territories, Durrani said. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh delivered the keynote address at the conference, which had been organised as part of the Broader Middle East and North Africa (BMENA) initiative by the G-8 countries focusing on 20 Muslim countries in Asia, Middle East and North Africa. Saleh criticised the occupation forces in Iraq and questioned the rationale behind imposing democracy on the developing world. We are not undeveloped, Saleh said in Arabic to resounding applause from the audience. We know what democracy is, he added. The conferences aim was to increase dialogue between nations in the BMENA region through non-state actors such as non-government organisations and civil society to further democracy in a region perceived to have immense economic and trade potential by their G-8 benefactors. Several such forums have been held since the BMENA initiative was launched nearly two years ago. Posted by: Fred 2006-06-26 |
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