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While interreligious dialogue has contributed to overcoming some human suffering and helped combat fundamentalisms, much more grass-roots participation is needed, especially of women and youth, and concrete cooperation should be its main goal.

Some 130 participants from ten world religions shared this assessment of the current interreligious scene at the beginning of the "Critical moment in interreligious dialogue" conference organized by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva from 7-9 June.

Improving the living conditions of women and children and helping to overcome economic and political exploitation were mentioned by participants as being part of the positive impact of interreligious dialogue over the past few decades. This impact also includes efforts to combat racism, casteism, and HIV/AIDS, and involvement in environmental issues.

Within religious communities themselves, interreligious dialogue has helped to challenge fundamentalisms and divisive ideologies while dispelling fear and opening people up to the rich treasures of all religions. But some important elements are still missing, particularly the participation of women and youth, as well as gender issues.

The main criticism levelled against interreligious dialogue is that it does not really reach the "ordinary people" in religious communities, being mostly restricted to the religious leadership and involving mainly liberal-minded activists. Nonetheless, participants also pointed out, the positive long-term effect of trust-building among religious leaders should not be underestimated.

The whole endeavour should be oriented and lead to concrete cooperation on issues of common concern in specific contexts. Only in this way, participants agreed, is interreligious dialogue worth the effort.

<span style="font-weight: bold; "» Beyond the conversion mentality

Sharing his own assessment of the impact of interreligious dialogue, Professor Dr Wande Abimbola from Nigeria challenged the sincerity and inclusiveness of "the dialogues which the Christian missions have staged so far".

According to Abimbola, who is a priest and Awise Agbaye (spokesperson) of the Yorùbá religion, "rarely have these dialogues included the primal religions of the world, such as the indigenous religions of Africa and the Americas".

A dialogue oriented "to solve the pressing problems of the world" must be "all-inclusive and all-embracing", with all the religions being "accepted at the table on an equal basis," he affirmed.

A prerequisite for interreligious dialogue, according to Dr Heba Raouf Ezzat, a Muslim political scientist from Egypt, is to have left a "conversion mentality" behind.

Religions have the right to invite people to share their beliefs, but not to impose them. This principle applies not only to religions, but also to today's proponents of liberalism and capitalism, who are trying to convert all the nations of the world to their own values.

The challenge is not an alleged "clash of civilizations", but a threat to humanity. "The human dimension, the sense of values and dignity, has to be kept, against the sweeping forces of materialism and capitalism in our world," Ezzat said.

The full text of the speeches and free high resolution photos are available on the conference website:

www.oikoumene.org/interreligious.html