COPENHAGEN, March 1, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Though welcoming constructive dialogue and initiatives by Muslim scholars to bridge the Muslim-West divide, Danish Muslim leaders Wednesday, March 1, criticized the government for sidelining minority leaders in a Copenhagen conference next week called by Egyptian preacher Amr Khaled in the wake of the cartoons crisis.

"We all support dialogue, but when it is all-inclusive not selective," Ahmad Tanweer, the spokesman of the Islamic Network, an umbrella group of Muslim professors and students, told IslamOnline.net.

"I don't think such a conference will help defuse the current standoff because it excludes a community key for rendering the gathering a success," he said, referring to the Muslim minority in Denmark.

Ummar Arshad, head of the "Muslims in Dialogue" organization, agreed the conference will not help enhance constructive dialogue.

"We have not received any invitation from the government," Arshad fumed. "Excluding the Muslim community in Denmark will lead nowhere ."

The conference, slated for March 8-10 and funded by the Danish foreign ministry in cooperation with the Danish Institute for International Studies, is an initiative from Khaled to engage in a dialogue with Danish youths and intellectuals.

Denmark welcomed the visit and is planning a series of other initiatives to build bridges with the Muslim world after the row over the cartoons, which were published first by mass-circulation Jyllands Posten and reprinted by several European dailies.

Abu Laban said the Danish government will use Khaled's visit to shine up its badly damaged image in the Muslim world.

Imran Shah, the chairman of the Muslim Youths Organization, said Khaled should meet representatives of the Muslim minority for a balanced and successful dialogue.

"He should talk with us especially those who have been following up the issue from day one," he said. "Our doors are open for all and our organization is ready, however, to cooperate with Khaled anytime."

Angered by the Danish government's lack of response to their protests, Danish Muslim leaders have toured a number of Muslim countries with a 43-page dossier, including the 12 cartoons and three other pictures that had been sent to Muslim e-mails by anonymous people.

The Danish government, in response, said February 8 that it would exclude imams who took part in the tour, accusing them of whipping up anti-Danish anger.

Jorgen Baek Simonsen, a professor and a erudite writer on Islam, said he was surprised to know that Danish Muslim leaders were not invited to the conference.

"If Amr Khaled came and left without meeting with Muslim leaders, the Danish Muslims would feel marginalized," he told IOL.

Simonsen, who will attend the two-day conference, said it is a stupid thing from the government to ignore the Muslim minority.

"Bear in mind that the prime goal of the conference is to shine up the tattered image of Denmark in the Muslim world," he said.

Consumer boycotts of Danish goods in Muslim countries in protest of the publication of the caricatures are costing Denmark's companies millions and have raised fears of long-term damage to trade.

The drawings have also sparked a confrontation between the Muslim world and West over ideals of religious respect and freedom of expression.

Raed Helehl, head of the European Committee for Honoring the Prophet (ECHP) in Denmark, said ignoring Muslim leaders in Denmark will demonize the entire minority.

"Ignoring representatives of the Muslim minority increases their isolation and portrays them as extremists who have no clear vision to deal with the cartoon crisis," he said.

"More and more, the Danish Muslim minority would appear before the Islamic world as failing to acquaint non-Muslims with the prophet which is untrue."

He expressed fears that the conference will then be a "lifejacket" for the government.

"The government, therefore, would neither apologize nor admit its wrong," he said.

Prominent Danish imam and preacher Ahmed Abu Laban agreed that the conference could serve as a "plastic surgery" to the Danish government whose image was badly damaged in the Muslim world after the blasphemous cartoons.

Abu Laban; nevertheless, said the Danish Muslims welcome any initiative by Muslim scholars to defend Islam in the face of the current ferocious campaign and spread tolerance "regardless of whether the role of the Muslim community here is taken into consideration or not."

Ahmad Akari, the ECHP spokesman, said that the Muslim minority has been trying its best to spread true information on Islam long ago.

"The Muslim community, through its organizations and members, has started Da`wah 10 years ago. We have translated around 40s book on Islam and the Prophet," he said.

"To acquaint the Danish with Islam, we organize an open day in a mosque before the advent of the holy fasting month of Ramadan and invite non-Muslims to attend."

Qaradawi Rejects

Sheikh Qaradawi will not attend the two-day conference.

Denmark has invited anew prominent scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), to attend the conference.

"We are looking forward for the participation of Qaradawi in the conference which aims at building trust between Denmark and the Muslim world after the cartoons row," the conference general coordinator told IslamOnline.net Tuesday, February 28, on the sidelines of Alliance of Civilizations conference held in Doha.

"There is 1.4 billion Muslims in the world and they have different views to settle the crisis. I invite the great sheikh to the conference. I am looking forward to meet him," he said.

But Qaradawi has expressed his reservations at the timing of the conference.

He said in an interview with Al-Jazeera satellite channel that that Muslim pressure on the West should continue so that they recognize that "an insult happened to a great nation" and to work to avoid similar incidents in the future.

He reiterated his demand for an apology for the publication from the Danish government and the European Union before holding the conference.