DOHA, July 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Muslims, Christian and Jewish participants in the Third Doha Conference for Religious Dialogue have called for promoting dialogue between followers of the different faiths, rejecting any effort to associate any religion with terrorism or using religions for political purposes.

Wrapping up their meetings in Doha Thursday, June 30, participants in the two-day conference endorsed a proposal put forward by Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani to establish an international center in Qatar for religious dialogue.

“The objective is to deepen the reciprocal knowledge among followers of the three religions, consolidate the culture of dialogue and review the historical negative inherited values which constitute a handicap on the way of mutual comprehension between followers of there three religions,” said the conference’s final statement, a copy of which was obtained by IslamOnline.net.

The conference also urged the establishment of academic sections in the Arabic and Islamic universities for comparative religions and the exchange of visits among teachers of the three faiths to deepen the culture of dialogue among followers of the three faiths.

It further pressed for setting up religious cohabitation councils in the Islamic countries to consolidate the spirit of cohabitation, cooperation and achievement of social peace and harmony.

The conference also called for carrying out methodical and serious efforts to remove the negative image on the three faiths and their followers from the media, textbooks and educational curricula.

The religious dialogue conference, opened in Doha on June 29, was shunned by a number of Muslim and Christian religious leaders, including prominent scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, in protest at the participation of Israeli rabbis.

After attending the conference for the first time, Jewish rabbis said the meeting was a success.

"The real success story of the conference is that I as a Jew am speaking in Qatar to Muslims and Christians," said Rabbi Bernard Kanovitch of the Jewish Institution Council in France.

"This is just the beginning of much more things to come," he added, according to Reuters.

The five Jewish delegates from the United States and France attending the meeting also acknowledged the political challenges faced by Jews and Muslims, but stressed that dialogue was the only way forward.

"The more we talk, the better chance we have at overcoming political obstacles ... the only way we can ever reach an agreement is if we talk to one another," said Rabbi Burton Visotzky of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York.

Muslim scholars who attended the two-day meeting said Israel's occupation of the Arab lands made it more difficult to exchange views between Muslims and Jews.

"I think our Jewish colleagues would have been better accepted, and this meeting would have been more fruitful had the problems facing the Palestinians been solved," said Abdel Rahman Abad of Jerusalem-based Muslim Scholars of Palestine.

"We will continue speaking .... but we are facing many problems, our land has been confiscated, we are under occupation and all this is complicating the problems we face," he said.

Aisha Al-Mannai, head of the organizing committee of the religious dialogue conference said Qatar plans to invite Jewish delegates, including Israeli nationals, to future interfaith forums.

"We take steps forward, not back," she said.

The Third Doha Conference for Religious Dialogue was organized by the Faculty of Shari`ah at Qatar University.