US-Muslim ties ‘can defeat forces of evil’

Strengthening ties between the US and the Muslim world will guarantee the defeat of evil forces, a major conference on cultural communication was told on Sunday.

Dr. William Vendley, secretary-general of Religions for Peace International, a multi-religious coalition, said the relationship between the US and the Muslim world stemmed from the desire of both to help the human family.

Great civilizations, such the Islamic and American civilizations, were based on great religions, Vendley told the two-day conference in New York organized by the Muslim World League.

In his opening remarks on Saturday, MWL Secretary-General Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa said cultural communication between the Muslim world and the US had a long history of exchange and cooperation. This showed that the “Clash of Civilizations” theory was based on hate and racism.

Civilized coexistence between cultures need not be based on believing in each other’s point view, he said, but it was important to believe in diversity.

The secretary-general of the World Council of Religious Leaders, Bawa Jain, compared the situation of Muslims in the US to that of the black community in the 1960s. He said the number of Muslims in the US was projected to exceed 50 million by 2050, so there should be mutual understanding between them and other American communities. Jain said the time had come to move from simply accepting others to the stage of respecting them.

Dr. David Nasser, senior vice president for spiritual development at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, said his Christian university promoted tolerance and openness among students and encouraged them to communicate with Muslims in the US, who were also committed to religious principles that called for development and prosperity.

The chairman of the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments in the UAE, Dr. Mohammed Al Kaabi, said Muslims believed cultural communication with the US should be based on the shared principles of Islam and the American constitution, which respect freedom, democracy and human rights.

Abdallah Bin Bayyah, president of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, said American-Islamic relations were based on the principles of mercy, wisdom, interest and justice, which represented the essence of coexistence.

The conference was attended by 450 delegates from religious, cultural and political groups in the Muslim and non-Muslim world. It concluded on Sunday.

Source: Arab News