"The Islamic world wonders why the international community does not put greater pressure on Israel," the Qatari Emir

DOHA, January 11 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - More than 150 leading American and Muslim world figures are gathering in the Qatari capital, Doha, to discuss the need for "frank diplomacy" and "concrete action" to improve relations between the United States and the Islamic world, strained and volatile since the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Organized by the Washington-based Brookings Institution, the second U.S.-Islamic World Forum which was inaugurated late Saturday, January 10, grouping prominent members from the political, business and academic fields in more than 38 countries, seeks to set up a "new mechanism" for U.S.-Islamic dialogue, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and former U.S. President Bill Clinton inaugurated the forum, kicking off two days of roundtable discussions on divisive issues such as the Iraq war, the Middle East peace process, free trade, America's future role in the Gulf and bridging the gap with Muslims.

Addressing the opening session, the Emir urged the U.S. administration to put an end to the vicious circle of violence in the occupied Palestinian territories and put the peace process back on track by implementing the internationally-backed 'roadmap', which envisages a Palestinian state by 2005.

"The Islamic world wonders why the international community does not put greater pressure on Israel to force a withdrawal from occupied Arab land," said Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

The Qatari Emir also seized the occasion to declare Doha as a permanent headquarters for the forum in cooperation the Brookings Institution.

For his part, prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi criticized the U.S. double-standard policy.

"The Americans describes Islamic thought as extremist, although they themselves have extremists, so why don't they change their extremist religious discourse as they want us to do the same?" Asked Qaradawi.

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke, a forum panelist, warned of failing to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and the United States.

"If we cannot contain and reverse the growing chasm between the West - and especially the United States - and the Islamic world, it will become the underlying structural flaw that will worsen many other problems," he said.

Peter W. Singer, the forum's project director and a National Security Fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the conference is an important step "in bringing together both policy makers and opinion-shapers from the U.S. and across the Islamic world".

Participants include Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher, interim Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, former U.S. S ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrook and Syrian Minister of the Diaspora Butheina Shabaan.

Also attending are the head of the Jamaat-E-Islami Party of Pakistan Qazi Hussein Ahmad, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Labor and Human Rights Lorne Craner and the former information minister of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Abed Rabbo.