Posted on 03/14/2008 9:26:48 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
DAKAR (Reuters) - World Muslim leaders on Friday condemned extremism and terrorism as incompatible with Islam and proposed a high-level international meeting to promote a "dialogue of civilizations" with the Christian world.
Leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which represents 1.5 billion Muslims from across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, made the "Dakar Declaration" after a two-day summit in Senegal's capital.
"We continue to strongly condemn all forms of extremism and dogmatism which are incompatible with Islam, a religion of moderation and peaceful coexistence," the declaration said.
"We believe that it is important to plan along such lines a preparatory phase by organizing a major international gathering on Islamic-Christian dialogue that involves governments among other players," it said.
The Muslim body condemned acts of terrorism committed in the name of Islam, one of the biggest preoccupations of the international community since the September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda in the United States.
But, in an apparent reference to the Palestinian fight against Israel, it said terrorism should be differentiated from "legitimate resistance against foreign occupation."
As is customary at an Islamic summit, leaders of the OIC -- the second largest inter-governmental bloc after the United Nations -- had harsh words for Israel, condemning it for "war crimes" against Palestinian civilians.
"The conference denounces the current and increasing Israeli military campaign against the Palestinian people and the serious violation of human rights and war crimes including the killing and injuring of Palestinian civilians," an OIC statement said.
It called Israel's "collective punishment of civilians" a violation of international human rights law and said "the occupying forces must be held responsible for these war crimes."
The body also expressed concern over what it called "increasing pressure" on Iran in its nuclear dispute with the West, which it said should be resolved peacefully. It also called for Iraq's sovereignty and security to be respected.
"PROGRESSIVE PATH"
The summit denounced economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. government against Syria for supporting anti-U.S. groups in the Middle East. But this was the only anti-U.S. public statement.
The U.S. envoy to the OIC, Sada Cumber, said he saw the Islamic body moving to defuse a potential clash of civilizations stoked by Western fears over Islamic terrorism and Muslims' anger at perceived insults against their faith.
"The Islamic Ummah (community) is moving in a moderate direction and almost on a progressive path, we're all moving in the same path," said Cumber, who was appointed by President George W. Bush last month.
Cumber said the risk from religious bigotry and extremism came not so much from a clash of civilizations, as from "a clash of ignorance on the part of Muslims to learn more about America and us, the Americans, to learn more about Islam."
Muslim leaders acknowledged the challenge.
"We the Kings and heads of state and governments of the OIC renew our pledge to work harder to make sure Islam's true image is better projected the world over ... to combat an Islamophobia with designs to distort our religion," their communique said.
The summit called on wealthy member states to finance a $10 billion solidarity fund aimed at fighting poverty, especially in Africa. Only $2.6 billion has been contributed so far, to the disappointment of African leaders.
"If it's true that we belong to the same community ... then we should be showing more solidarity to each other," Guinea's prime minister, Lansana Kouyate, told reporters.
But the summit approved a project to build a railway stretching across the continent from Senegal to Sudan.
One success on the sidelines of the summit was a peace agreement between Sudan and Chad, meant to end cross-border rebel attacks in a region that includes Sudan's war-torn Darfur. But Chadian rebels said they would fight on regardless.
After days of difficult negotiations, OIC leaders approved a new charter to give a more active role to the body, which has in the past been accused of failing to back up words with actions.
Do you think Islam is a serious threat to our Judeo-Christian heritage?
Scroll down to see poll question.
(Written with the Pope's blessing, I'm sure)
Christians, Jews, Hindus, Budhist, Wiccans, Satanist, Taoist, Daoist, Shintoist, Rastafarians etc. etc. All seem to get along just fine. But Muslims have a problem with everyone of these groups.
A dialogue of civilizations? Yeah, right. For two civilizations to have a dialogue, there first have to be two civilizations...
“We continue to strongly condemn all forms of extremism and dogmatism which are incompatible with Islam, a religion of moderation and peaceful coexistence,” the declaration said.”
There’s the catch. Nothing that advances the cause of Islam is incompatible with Islam. And there are plenty of imams and holy men around to provide justification for most any cause enough Muslims believe advances the cause of Islam.
What the Muzzies mean by dialogue is a larger version of this ridiculous "peace process"with Israel. I.e. the Mahometans lob rockets, dispatch homicide bombers, saw off fingers and heads, and generally kill people, while pretending to be victims themselves.
Not happening. In some cases you have local political bosses who collect cash through temples and see Christian evangelism as a threat to their income streams, responding to it with typical Third World brutality. In CNN-speak, that gets simplified into "Hindu violence" in the same way Fred Phelps becomes a "Christian protestor". But you won't find a genuine Hindu or Buddhist who treats Christians with anything but respect. Islam is very different.
However, as I said, nothing compares to the millions who have been slaughtered over the centuries to advance the Religion of Peace.
The dialogue:
You weak kufar infidels, if you do not implement Sharia law and convert, we will kill you. We will not stop until the entire world is converted into an Islamic paradise.
End dialogue.
Yes, I have posted exactly what you have said. It is no wonder the Untouchable caste often is where the converts come from. The other castes believe Untouchables don’t even have souls, and that as such, they are not even reincarnated. (Not that I believe this, but it’s a very harsh thing). This is why animals are higher than Untouchables, because with animals, they could be former people reincarnated back as a cow, or rat, or ox.
The mohammedans could never lay claim to being civilized, the root of civilization and the west is rapidly losing it's grip on the last vestiges of it's own civilization.
You can't defeat barbarians if you are rushing headlong into barbarism yourself.
The discussions will be about how much the rest of the world will surrender to the barbaric muslims and when.
For that meeting to take place the Islamic side will first have to become civilized before any "dialogue of civilizations" can begin. For over a thousand years the cruel, bloody-handed Islamic religion has been forced on conquered nations and races by fire and sword, and now it's practitioners want a dialogue with the civilized world while it tries to eradicate the people of Israel from the face of the earth. For the west to make a deal with the Islamics now would be as foolish and useless as Chamberlain's infamous deal with Hitler in the 1930s, it wouldn't be worth the paper it would be written on.
If I ran the world Mohammed's murderous Islamic religion would be regarded with the same revulsion and horror that Hitler's Naziism, Mussolini's Fascism, and Stalin's communism so richly deserved.
A number of adages come to mind, among them:
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.
A wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Trust but verify.
It would be nice to have a “dialogue of civilizations”. OK. We have a civilization. It’s known as Judeo-Christian. Too bad the others are not civilized. You can’t have a dialogue with savage barbarians.
Are muslims reproducing like rabbits? In the 1990’s the accepted number of muslims was 1 billion. Now this article says 1.5 billion. This is mathematically imposible.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.