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KUALA LUMPUR: The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC)
Monday urged stakeholders in the West and the Muslim world to
undertake an open and critical dialogue with a realistic approach to
address the root causes of misunderstandings and conflicts.
This was one of the proposals made by OIC
Secretary-General Ekmeledin Ihsanoglu at the Third International
Conference on the Muslim and the West that opened here on Monday.
The Muslim-West dialogue should involve
political leaders with strong commitment and be carried out from a
mindset of mutual respect and understanding with a view to build
partnership, he said at the gathering organized by the Malaysian
government.
Quality and fair education based on shared
values and principles of peace, human rights, tolerance, etc. should
be promoted, including the revision of the curricula and the
textbooks, Ihsanoglu said.
“To this end, national legislation and
international normative standards or instruments should also be
promoted to guard against the defamation of other’s values and
faiths particularly in school curricula,” he said.
Ihsanoglu also told international organizations
to identify, document and analyze best practice approaches at
various levels to support dialogue among cultures and civilizations.
Joint projects of broadcasts, newspapers,
magazines and websites by journalists from different cultural
backgrounds should be encouraged to avoid parochialism and create
conditions for intercultural dialogue, he stressed.
The dialogue has to be taken to the grassroots
and the ordinary people, including youths, he said.
Efforts should also be made to reduce the
digital divide between the two worlds, he added.
The OIC secretary-general spoke highly of
Malaysia’s efforts to hold such an international conference here,
describing it as a concrete action and bold step forward to bridge
the divide between the West and the Muslim world.
-- Xinhua
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