TEHRAN
(AFP) - Officials and scholars from Iran, Egypt, Greece and Italy
met here Sunday to denounce globalisation at a conference on the
dialogue of ancient civilisations.
Echoing the
"dialgoue of civilisations" that President Mohammad
Khatami has made one of the centrepieces of his cultural and political
platform, the seminar is aimed at promoting peace and also preserving
cultural differences.
"The
cooperation of these nations which represent ancient civilisations
can change the world and open new roads for dialogue," Iranian
parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karubi said in an opening speech.
Karubi, a
close Khatami ally, called for a "universal understanding"
between cultures and said that globalisation should not mean victory
for some cultures at the expense of others.
"Globalisation
must respect equality, respect the beliefs of everyone, and not
play down their differences," he said.
Luciano Violante,
the head of the Chamber of Deputies or Italy's lower house of
parliament, said the international community "has a deep
need for culture to preserve different identities."
He made reference
to the "misunderstandings between European and Islamic cultures"
as well as the "negative" image Islam often has in the
eyes of Europe.
"Muslim
countries look at the West as one entity, without making a distinction
between the Europeans and the North Americans," he said.
Emanuele Severini,
a philosophy professor in Venice, said: "The dialogue between
peoples cannot be based on faiths or religions such as Christianity
or Islam, but on an attitude that Christianity and Islam have
in common, which is philosophical thinking."
The leader
of the Greek delegation to the conference, Vassilios Karasmanis,
spoke of the "differences and similarities between civilisations,
and the creation of a worldwide ethics."
The presence
of the former interim president of Egypt, Sufi Abu Taleb, was
a political fact in itself given that Tehran and Cairo do not
have full diplomatic relations.
He said that
Egypt "acords a great importance to this dialogue,"
adding: "In our modern world, we speak of the clash of civilisations.
But the ancient civilisations from which we descend sought out
what they had in common."
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