Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Speakers at the International Leadership Conference in Kuala Lumpur on October 18 called for a greater understanding between Islam and other Abrahamic faiths. “We share the same two commandments,” said Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf of the Cordoba Initiative. “We are to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Today, everyone is my neighbor. But we are not actually living the commandments.” Rauf, a leader of US/Muslim dialogue, heads a mosque near Ground Zero in New York, and is author of the book What’s Right with Islam.
The Honorable Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, Malaysia’s Prime Minister from 1981 to 2003, agreed that religious and political leaders need to work together much more closely for peace. Denouncing radical interpretations of Islam that seem to call for violence, he said that Islam must be a force for peace. “We must anchor peace on earth,” he said, “and that can only come through faith.”