NEW YORK (October 26) - More than 100 religious leaders from 30 nations gathered here this week to denounce terrorism and discuss ways that religion can be used to promote peace rather than bloodshed.
Delegates to the World Conference on Religion and Peace, (Religions for Peace,) also donated $1 million to the United Nations for refugees and pledged additional funds to victims of the September 11 World Trade Center attack. The two-day symposium, titled, "Rejecting Terror, Promoting Peace with Justice: Religions Respond," addressed the root causes of terrorism and proposed solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel played a featured role in the conference as a center for discourse among Muslims and Jews, a root cause of terrorism, and a geographical powder keg for future conflict.
In a statement condemning the September 11 attacks that was circulated in lieu of his presence at the conference, Religions for Peace Moderator Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan condemned all terrorism, but added: "Many Muslims are outraged, as are Christian Arabs, that UN resolutions concerning those parts of Palestine still claimed by the Palestinians, namely the West Bank and Gaza, have not been respectedÉThere is a very real connection between the West's failure to respect legal conventions and those aspects of Muslim behavior that arouse negative Western reactions." In addition, he accused the West of viewing Islam as "unfamiliar" and "threatening." Greetings from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were also circulated.
In a Wednesday afternoon panel discussion called "Conversation for Peace in the Middle East," Rabbi Menachem Froman of Tekoa, who is Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron's envoy for inter-religious affairs, proposed that Jerusalem be declared ex-territorial and become the capital of the world, to be overseen by a committee of Christians, Jews, and Muslims.
The idea that was greeted with enthusiasm by the other religious leaders attending the panel, one of whom recommended that Jerusalem become a capital for all religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.
"It is possible to galvanize the political leaders and to declare Jerusalem the city of God," said Froman.
Froman was originally scheduled to appear on the panel with Sheikh Talal Sidr, the Palestinian Authority minister for youth and sport, with whom he set up a joint council of Jewish and Muslim clerics to work for peace this past April. Sidr was unable to attend due to bureaucratic difficulties in attaining a visitor's visa to the US, said Religions for Peace Secretary-General William Vendley. He was replaced by the chairman of the Islamic Supreme Council of America, Sheikh Muhammad Kabbani.
On behalf of Sheikh Talal and himself, Froman also floated the idea of a "hudna," or armistice between Israel and the Palestinians, as defined by the Sharia, or Islamic law. "The political leaders did not succeed in a cease-fire," he said. He called on Israel's chief rabbinate and the Palestinian Authority's Islamic leadership to solve the conflict.
One political leader present, Ambassador of the Organization of the Islamic Conference to the UN, Mokhtar Lamani, questioned whether peace was possible while some Israelis, including Froman, live on settlements. Froman responded by stating his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
"From my point of view, these two states may be the laboratory for the needed settlement between the West and the East, for the needed attempts to establish coexistence between the two cultures," said Froman.
Kabbani also stressed the need for religious leadership - in particular Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia - to promote peaceful coexistence between religions.
"It's our duty as religious leaders to influence our high authorities in order to be able to solve the conflict," said Kabbani.
He also defined the current problems among Israel and the Palestinians as a clash over Jerusalem. "I think [Palestinian leader Yasser] Arafat would be willing to sign a peace treaty if the problem of Jerusalem is solved," said Kabbani.
Outside the conference room, Jerusalem had already been denoted as the capital of two nations in a Religions of Peace directory on women's groups. Jewish groups based in Jerusalem were listed as being in Israel, while a Muslim group in the same city was listed as being in Palestine.
"In light of September 11, we stand in solid unanimity that terrorism finds no place in any of our religions," said Vendley, the group's secretary-general, just before heading off to a prayer service the delegates held at Ground Zero on Wednesday evening.
Stating that nothing justifies terror, Vendley nonetheless noted that certain societal ills "are not unlinked to the desperation that can lead to horrible acts of violence." He called on religious leaders to help promote peace by preaching tolerance.