JAKARTA, Feb 23: An international conference of Islamic scholars opened on Monday in Indonesia with bitter attacks from President Megawati Sukarnoputri and a Muslim leader on the invasion of Iraq.
Ms Megawati, in a speech opening the conference, described the occupation of Iraq as exceptional injustice against a Muslim country. "It may be due to coincidence or intention, but an exceptional injustice is apparent in the attitude and actions of big countries toward countries whose majority populations are Muslims," said the president of the world's largest Muslim nation.
"The act of violence undertaken unilaterally against the Republic of Iraq by certain countries, which are now finding it difficult to prove the existence of weapons of mass destruction there, which is the sole justification to launch the biggest military attack at the beginning of the 21st century, is an evident picture of this injustice," she said.
The three-day conference, attended by some 300 delegates from 49 countries, is aimed at promoting dialogue between the Islamic world and the West in the wake of tensions over the US-led "war on terror" - seen by many as targeting Islam.
Ms Megawati was among the first world leaders to express condolences to the United States for the Sept 11, 2001, attacks. But she and her government have sharply criticized its invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
The meeting has been organized by Indonesia's largest religious organization, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), in collaboration with the government. The NU's chairman, Hasyim Muzadi, criticized the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
"An attack against a country under any pretext will only bring untold misery to innocent civilians," Hasyim Muzadi told delegates. "The attackers also stand to lose, at least as far as global opinion is concerned, not to mention if it is launched without the authorization of the United Nations."
The NU claims a following of 40 million Indonesians. The Indonesian president also criticized the French government's decision to ban conspicuous religious symbols, including Islamic headscarves, at government schools, calling the move "injustice in a far smaller feature".
"Whether they realize it or not, those discriminative acts constitute test cases as to whether those big countries are serious in practising the human rights that they have preached to the whole world since the 20th century," she said.
Ms Megawati urged Islamic scholars to disprove a thesis that the world would in future be characterized by religious conflict. "We apparently need to search for similarities among the religious traditions of humankind that are so rich, which we must believe originate from the same God, and turn them into the basis for building a better world," she said.
The president urged Muslims to present a peaceful face of Islam and reaffirmed Indonesia's determination to take tough action against terrorists. "This nation resolutely repudiates and legally prosecutes those perpetrating acts of violence against others, despite their conviction that those are religious acts," she said.
Hasyim Muzadi said the conference was expected to end with a declaration on world peace, the development of science, and the empowerment of the media in the Muslim world. Most conference sessions on Monday were closed to the media. -AFP