Islamic-Christian meeting urges dialogue as religious duty

The Islamic-Christian conference was wrapped up yesterday with calls to take dialogue as a religious duty.

According to the final communique, the participants have stressed that dialogue by people of different faiths is urgently needed for reaching understanding.

It also highlighted promoting concepts of mutual respect in societies and the need to enhance cooperation to protect and honor the life of the human beings.

The communique further stressed that good manners, mercy, peace and equality are the main bases for achieving peaceful co-existence among the peoples.

It also highlighted that legitimate marriage is the only guarantee for bringing up responsible generations and building safe communities.

The final statement further underlined respect for the religious and cultural characteristics.

The conference was kicked off on Wednesday by Grand Imam of Al Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi and Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria and Patriarch of Saint Mark Diocese.

The meeting was organized by the International Islamic Forum under Sheikh Hamid el-Rifae and the Middle East Council of Churches under Gergis Saleh.