The Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace, a four-day meeting in the southern Spanish city of Seville has called for an end to incitement and religious hatred. The final congress statement also condemned Iran’s call for Israel’s destruction.

The congress was organized by a Paris-based group called Hommes de Parole. It drew some 250 imams, rabbis and academics from 31 countries. The main aim of the congress was to assemble as many delegates as possible so each would have a better understanding of the other’s religion.

The congress was remarkable for the statement released at the end by the delegates. They said: "We condemn any incitement against a faith or people, let alone any call for their elimination, and we urge authorities to do likewise."

"United Nations of Religious Groups"

Yona Metzger, Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi, felt the congress had been extremely conducive and called for a “United Nations of religious groups.” The congress was remarkable for the mostly friendly atmosphere that prevailed at the conference.

A rabbi from Brussels tried to convince a cleric from Indonesia that he was working hard to bring Jews and Muslims closer together in Belgium. The mufti of Britain offered a cup of coffee to the chief rabbi of Austria. An Al-Jazeera journalist took a picture of the chief rabbi of Israel, and an imam from Gaza tried his English out on a rabbi from London.

However, it wasn’t all plain sailing at the congress and politics and anger did sometimes intrude into the atmosphere. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict could not escape the otherwise politics free conference.

Not all friendly

"Unless we get to the core of the issue, we are pussyfooting around," said Nazlin Umar Rajput, chairwoman of the National Muslim Council of Kenya. "It is a fight over ownership of land."

After abruptly changing the schedule when a session dealing with family issues turned heated, organizers again rushed to calm tempers later in the week.

At one point, Muslim delegates stood up and shouted when a moderator tried to halt a Palestinian professor from the Gaza Strip who said life under Israeli occupation was like being in "a large prison."....

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By Ashley Perry