KARACHI, Dec 6: Poverty and injustices were considered as the main cause of violence and terrorism and the need to correct the distorted image of Islam presented by the Western media was stressed in the inaugural session of the two-day international conference on Tuesday.

The conference on “Different facets of the Islamic Ummah in a Globalized World” has been organized by the Area Study Centre for Europe, Karachi University, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, Karachi.

Dr Gunter Mullack, German ambassador, advocated dialogue between Western and Islamic civilizations and said that Islam was not what it was being projected daily. The projection of the people in the West, especially on television, was distorting the image of Islam. He said that violence, terrorism and abduction were highlighted on the electronic media in the context of Iraq and elsewhere.

The German ambassador stressed the need for repairing the image of Islam. In this context, he welcomed the OIC summit called in Mecca to deliberate on the priorities for the Muslim Ummah in the 21st century in a globalized world. He welcomed the initiative Gen Musharraf had taken for projecting the soft image through his enlightened moderation approach and hoped the summit would go a long way in shaping the future destiny of the Ummah.

He said that it was not wise to consider only one’s own point of view as correct and term others as infidels. However, he regretted that hatred was order of the day in Pakistan and the policy of enlightened moderation had not yet taken its roots. He also referred to the attack on churches and called upon Muslims to indulge in self-criticism about what was happening here and elsewhere.

KU Vice-Chancellor Prof (Dr) Pirzada Qasim referred to the negative image of Islam and Muslims across the world, especially since 9/11. He was of the view that the Western media had not helped matters because they hand not only stereotyped Muslims, but had also not hesitated to vilify the religion and its prophet. He nevertheless recognized the efforts in the west to institutionalize dialogue with Islam. In this context, he appreciated the role of German government. He said that this process would help in removing mutual misgivings and bring Muslim communities living in Europe closer to their European compatriots.

But, he impressed upon the Muslims to indulge in some sort of introspection. He said that Islam upheld peace, harmony, justice, fair-play and tolerance in society and granted civil rights and cultural and religious freedom to non-Muslim communities residing in Muslim countries.

ASCE Director Dr Naveed Ahmad Tahir, in her welcome address, referred to challenges in economic, political and cultural fields and called upon the Muslim scholars to convince the world that Islam was not regressive and repressive religion, but a vibrant, egalitarian and tolerant philosophy which had thrived on “synthesis and plural human values.”

She was of the view that unconditional support to Israel, which was holding on to occupied Palestinian territories and engaged in altering their demographic composition, was one of the factors responsible for the alienation of Muslims from the West. Another factor was the perception that the need to ensure regular oil supply led the West, in particular the US, to prop up regimes that were not based on popular consent.

Dr Petra Raymond, Director Goethe-Institut, said that understanding the equal coexistence of different facets of Islam and their roots in history, tradition and culture of the respective countries represented first step towards tolerance and hoped the conference would go a long way in promoting understanding about each other.