ISLAMABAD. Apr 3: Pakistani scholars, speaking at a seminar on Wednesday, called for a dialogue between Muslim and western countries to prevent conflict, reports Reuters.

The calls came from Senate (Upper House) chairman Wasim Sajjad, author Akbar S Ahmed and several other speakers at the seminar on Islam and the West, including US Ambassador to Pakistan William Milam.

Sajjad, who is a member of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, said Muslims and western countries led by the United States needed a dialogue to clear up what he called misconceptions between them.

There are no real conflicts between Islam and the western world but only misconceptions.

which have to be removed through dialogue." he said.

Sajjad said there was a stereo typing of Muslims in western countries and the same was true of Muslims about the west. "We have to realise that the world is shrinking. We have to live with each other. We have to understand each other."

Milam said he did not see that a conflict existed between Islam and the West.

"But I firmly believe that the confrontation — if indeed, there even is a confrontation — is not between Islam and the West but. rather, between liberal democracy in all of its many manifestations on the one hand and. on the other hand, political systems which condone or practice aggression against their neighbours or even against their own

people."

It was an over-simplification to say that Islam was confronting a geographic and political unity of the West. Milam said.

"Let us admit that the world is a bit more complex than our slogans and buzz words sometimes make it out to be." he said.

Author Ahmed said there should be more awareness about Muslims in the West and about the West among Muslims.

He opposed the use of the world fundamentalist by the western media as a description of Orthodox Muslims and said this clouded the impression of Muslims.

By definition every Muslim is a fundamentalist because of his belief in the fundamentals of Islam, he Said.