Interfaith dialogue at the UN

The UN is hosting an interfaith dialogue for peace on the initiative of the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz. Its ostensible purpose is to create better understanding and tolerance among the followers of the three main monotheistic religions, who are engaged in bloody conflicts, and to disassociate the fair name of Islam from the terrorism spawned by these conflicts. But its hidden purpose, sceptics think, is quite the opposite.
They view it as a Western attempt at affirmation of its allegations that there is something fundamentally wrong with the teachings of Islam, which incites its followers to commit mindless violence. Whatever the motivation behind it, the dialogue process presents an opportunity to Muslim interlocutors to put things in proper perspective.
King Abdullah's assertion at the UN conference that religion should not be used "as an instrument to cause misery" and further that the roots of all global crises could be found in the denial of the eternal principle of justice, is a good starting point.
Indeed, extremists among Muslims have caused misery to not only westerners, but their violent reactions to perceived as well as real injustices have brought greater suffering to their fellow Muslims. On the other side, US President George W. Bush may not have used religion as an instrument to wreak terror in Iraq, Palestine, the Lebanon, and Afghanistan; he has not made a secret, however, of his faith being the driving force behind the US policies.
God, he said, tells him to do things he has been doing. The root cause of the violence involving Muslims, it hardly needs saying, is the historic injustice meted out to the Palestinian people by the Jews with the help of Europeans. It was to lead later to a brutal perpetuation of that injustice by the US in furtherance of its own economic and political interests.
The world's most wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden - a product of America's Jehadist adventure against the erstwhile Soviet Union via the Afghan 'Mujahideen' - exploited the plight of Palestinian people to commit the 9/11 atrocity. Those he used to carry out the brutality were consumed with anger over a political injustice, and not hatred for the religion of their victims.
And as various opinion leaders in the West itself have been saying, US's invasion and occupation of Iraq on the false pretext of removing Iraq's non-existent WMDs has only aggravated this sense of being wronged, and helped create legions of suicide bombers and al Qaeda sympathisers where none existed before.
The long war in Afghanistan and its blow-back effect on Pakistan have created their own share of human misery. In short, the present conflicts between the followers of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism have nothing to do with the teachings of these faiths and entirely originate from the usurpation of Muslim peoples' political rights and invasion and occupation of their lands.
These conflicts will persist so long as justice continues to be denied and the use of force is not shunned in favour of dialogue and reconciliation. Leaders of different Muslim countries must use the present dialogue under the UN auspices to make a case for the peaceful resolution of conflicts, whether it is the one raging between Palestinians and Israel, the Lebanese Hizbollah and Israel, or between Pakistan and India.
And, of course, the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan must also end. When that happens, al Qaeda will have no cause to rally people who are willing to court death in trying to kill westerners and fellow Muslims alike to avenge what they view as humiliation and injustices at the hands of the US-led Western governments and those who cooperate with them.
The world will be a much better place if only the leaders gathered at the UN interfaith dialogue were to try and implement the world body's own resolutions, asking it to mediate in helping resolve the various conflicts involving Muslims and adherents of other faiths.