By Xinhua,
Kuala Lumpur : The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Monday urged stakeholders in the West and the Muslim 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 which opened here on Monday.
The Muslim-West dialogue should involve political leaders with strong commitment and be carried out from a mind set 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 text books, 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 urged 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.
More than 100 delegates from various countries, including France, Australia, Pakistan, Norway and Palestine, were present at the conference.
Malaysia initiated the First International Conference on the Muslim and the West in 2006 in a bid to mediate the misunderstandings and conflicts between the West and the Muslim world.