Madrid hosts colloquy on Muslim minorities' rights
Regional, Religion, 12/14/1998

A three-day colloquy on the rights of Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries opened proceedings here on Saturday.

The colloquy is to work out an action plan to preserve the rights of these minorities.

Addressing the opening session, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), Azeddine Laraki, said more than 350 million Muslims live in non-Muslim countries and these minorities are often "subjected to pressures and are deprived of their rights and public freedoms."

Some of these minorities, the OIC chief said, are "victim of repression, forced exile and land and property usurpation while others are sometimes victim of ethnic cleansing and genocide."

Laraki, who recalled that the OIC has cared since it was incepted about the issues of Muslim minorities without infringing on the sovereignty of the hosting countries, stressed the need to find positive solutions to these minorities' problems based on humanitarian dialogue and understanding so that they enjoy the same rights and fulfil the same duties as the societies they live in.

He said he is convinced that now that the world has become a global village, tolerance, dialogue and understanding would prevail. He urged the Muslim minorities to be "good citizens" in the countries they live in and to circulate a "better image of the Islamic nation and of Islam."

Other participants in the colloquy called for dialogue with the other revealed religions and with the west as this dialogue is necessary and serves the mutual concerns.

One of the participants, Sheikh Mohamed Taskhiri, chairman of the league of Islamic culture and relations, proposed that a Muslim country hosts a colloquy on Christian minorities in the Islamic world, as a token of tolerance and good will for dialogue.

Sheikh Taskhiri who was elected chairman of the colloquy underlined that Islam promotes dialogue and rejects fanaticism.

The decision to hold the colloquy was made by the 8th Islamic summit convened in Tehran, Iran, in December 1997.

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