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Interfaith conference yields different opinions

By Claude Salhani MIDDLE EAST TIMES | Tuesday, July 22, 2008

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MADRID — One of the byproducts of the three-day interfaith dialogue conference held in Madrid last week at the initiative of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah was what some observers describe as four conflicting schools of thought -

- the optimists, who believe that eventually everything will fall in order.

- the pessimists, who like the cartoon character Chicken Little, believe that the sky is falling.

- the wishful thinkers - among this category one can include Saudi Arabia - who believe that if they wish for something strong enough to happen, it happens. At least in their mindset.

- and the critics of the Saudi initiative, who regardless of what this conference may have achieved, or will achieve, will only look at the dark side of Arabia.

The optimists are those who tend to congratulate themselves because they were able to gather together some 200 Christians, Jews and assorted Asian religions - Buddhists, Sikhs and Taoists, as well as various branches of Islam, including Sunnis and Shi'ites, two branches of Islam traditionally in conflict with each other.

While Sunni and Shi'ite religious leaders in the Spanish capital were exchanging business cards and hoping for peace, their co-religionists in Beirut and Baghdad were exchanging gunfire and mortar shells. Sunni suicide bombers in Iraq continued to target police recruitment centers, killing mostly young Shi'ites.

It was this sort of violence, triggered by friction between religious groups, that the participants of the Madrid conference hoped they could lay the groundwork for addressing, thus paving the way for a more peaceful future.

Hassan Moussa al-Saffar, a Shi'ite cleric from Saudi Arabia, had nothing but praise for the event, which he said can only help advance the cause of peace.

"It is an invitation of love from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia," said Coptic Orthodox Bishop Pincentti of Egypt. "I am very optimistic about the decisions and the recommendations of this conference."