ISLAMABAD, Jan 17: The world is moving towards a clash of civilizations owing to persistent political confrontations throughout the globe, therefore an inter-cultural dialogue is the need of the hour to make this planet a safer place to live.

This was the view shared by the speakers at international conference on “Cultural Diversity and Inter Cultural Dialogue”, jointly organised by the Society of Asian Civilizations (SAC), Pakistan, and Unesco, at a local hotel on Friday.

Another understanding shared by the speakers was that the so-called liberal world had launched a propaganda against the Muslim world, holding it responsible for the on-going crisis.

Foreign minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said a confrontation would always take place when the dominating culture did not accept the passive ones.

Same is happening in the today’s world, where the Western culture is not accepting the Eastern one and, as a result, the whole world has been subjected to anarchy.

The minister deplored that the West considered Islam as a religion that promoted terrorism. He said before inter-cultural dialogue, discussions should be held within the cultures to make people live harmoniously within the cultural diversity of a civilization.

Speaking on “Cultural Diversity and Inter-cultural Dialogue: The Islamic Dimensions”, Dr Shariful Mujahid, an eminent scholar, said the first Islamic state was based on pluralism and it was a wrong perception that Islamic Ideology promoted unilateralism.

He said cultural diversity was a universal law. “Even a cursory reading of the Holy Quran shows the fact that the world is diverse in nature”, he said, adding that Islam was a religion based on pluralism.

According to the Muslim scholars, the word “Ummat” means a political unit wherein every body has equal rights regardless of their religious, ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

Mr Mujahid said Muslim societies had practised open-door policies and never subjected their minorities to such a double standard treatment, as was happening in the West.

Dr Anwar siddiqui, former vice-chancellor of the Allama Iqbal Open University, said the conference had been organized with a view to having a platform where people with various backgrounds could exchange their ideas.

Mr Siddiqui, who is also president of SAC, said there was an urgent need for an inter-cultural dialogue, since, with the passage of time, animosity was increasing between the East and the West.

Referring to the addition of five more Muslim countries to the Immigration and Neutralization Service list, he said the rift between Islamic and Christian civilizations would increase.

Dr Ahmad Hasan Dani, founder and life patron of SAC, said, over the last three years, the society had received tremendous response from across the world.

He said co-existence of entire humanity was only possible if statesmen of the present-day world gave intellectuals a chance to do the job.