“World Muslim leaders on Friday condemned extremism and terrorism as incompatible with Islam and proposed a high-level international meeting to promote a “dialogue of civilizations” with the Christian world. Leaders of the 57-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference made the “Dakar Declaration” favoring cooperation after a two-day summit in Senegal’s capital.” (Read the story w/ photo at Reuters) — Alternate link here on Reuters.
Believe me I am not an expert on Muslims, but I would like to say my limited exposure to Muslims tends to back this summit up. Let me also say, I do not come to that idea easily. My wife got blown out of her building on 9/11 but survived with nothing worse than a long walk home, but you can imagine my going in position about Muslims after that. A few years later I became a host on a TV show aimed at promoting interfaith discussion between Muslims and other religions and got to know a bit about the Muslim religion and some of the Muslim people. I have to say, based on my experience there is nothing in the teaching that would lead to what we saw on 9/11. And the same goes for the Muslims I met, from the people standpoint. So now I am not surprised at the results of this summit and I am glad it is being brought out.
OK, thanks Geri and keep up the good work. Ed Smith http://www.brightmoment.com