Moslems told to cooperate with the West

Moslems told to cooperate with the West

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Religious Affairs Tarmizi Taher said
Islam and the West need to learn from one another and forge
better cooperation in an effort to create world peace.

"The West needs to learn to understand the spiritual wealth of
Islam while Moslems should learn from the West's advanced
technology," Tarmizi was quoted by Antara as saying at the
opening of a conference on Islam at Leiden University, the
Netherlands, on Tuesday.

The first four-day international conference on "Islam facing
the 21st century" will conclude tomorrow and is being attended by
150 participants from 16 countries, including Morocco's Minister
of Religious Affairs Abdulkadir Dagiri.

The initiative for the conference came from Indonesia, Morocco
and the Netherlands.

The Indonesian delegation to the conference includes prominent
Moslem scholars Aswab Mahasin, Attho Mudzar, Azzyumardi Azra,
Malik Fajar, Nurcholish Madjid, Taufik Abdullah and Zamachsjari
Dhofier.

Speakers include Nasr Abu-Zaid from Egypt, Riffat Hassan from
the Unites States, Ali Kettani from Morocco and Mitsuo Nakamura
from Japan.

Indonesia will be the host of the second conference in 1998
and Morocco that of the third conference in 2000.

In his speech, Tarmizi elaborated on how both the West and
Islam have helped one another. It is undeniable, he said, that
the last two centuries have been a time of glory for the West.

"However, the West's golden age cannot be separated from the
grand Islamic civilization which developed 500 years ago," he
said.

"Wars and violence involving Moslems in many parts of the
world, however, have caused Islamic countries to lag far behind
the West in their development," he said. (31)