MADISON, April 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – For two days, an international conference on Islam opens Friday, April 29, in Madison, the United States, with an objective of clearing stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam, highlighting the merciful Islamic tenets and enhancing dialogue and understanding among the different faiths.

Under the theme “Islam and Dialogue”, the International Conference on Islam, held on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, brings together a cohort of senior academics, scholars and researchers from a number of leading US universities to discuss means of consolidating intercultural understanding and shedding more light on the aspects of Islam in American society.

“We need more intercultural, interfaith understanding. In our society we do lack knowledge about Islam and different aspects of it,” said Mustafa Gokcek, a UW-Madison graduate student and one of the conference’s organizers, The Capital Times reported.

Gokcek stressed that one of main goals of the two-day international conference is to show the diversity of the Muslim world and the Islamic cultures.

“We tend to see a monolithic Islamic world. People mostly hear about Islam through terrorist events and suicide bombings,” he stressed.

Participants in the international event include professors and scholars from leading US universities such as UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee, Harvard, Notre Dame, Marquette, Emory, Northwestern, Boston College, Syracuse, Georgetown and Columbia.

The theme of the conference intended to highlight Islam’s openness to dialogue, especially with the different cultures and faiths such as Judaism and Christianity.

A host of topics will be raised in the conference such as dialogue in the Noble Qur’an and Sunnah, dialogue in the history of Islam, current Islamic movements and dialogue, Islam and the West and the Islamic spirituality.

Organizers of the conference are planning to make it an annual event, with the next year’s topic to focus on “Islam and Globalization”.

Gokcek, who is working on a Ph.D. in history, said the international event is one of the largest events in this scope.

“This one is, I think, the first one organized at a university of this size which would be of interest to the whole public, both the campus community and the greater Madison community,” he added.

Within the same context, the third US-Islamic World Forum was held in Doha for three, from April 10, bringing together delegations from 35 countries and more than 150 participants, in an attempt to build bridges between the United States and the Muslim world.

During the event, the participants exchanged views on political, social and academic topics with the aim of bolstering understanding and dialogue between the two sides.

A week later, an international Islamic conference opened in Cairo, with a focus on the universality of Islam as a bridge to the gulf with the other.

The conference brought together delegations from 64 countries including 19 Arab, 12 African, 13 Asian and 14 European countries as well as representatives from five more North and South American countries and Australia.

The international event in the United States also aims at clearing misconceptions on associating Islam with terrorism, Jessica Ozalp, one of the conference’s organizers, told The Capital Times.

“It’s very, very clear that terrorist activity cannot be Islamic in any way. It’s fundamentally opposed by the basic values of Islam. It's forbidden by Islam,” said Ozalp, 24, who was not a Muslim on 9/11 but reverted 2 years ago.

“It’s a great sin to murder a civilian in battle. There is no way you can even harm a tree in your path,” she said.

Ozalp stressed that many people only learned about Islam and Muslims in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, and because the countries “we invaded after that,” referring to Afghanistan and Iraq.

“There’s a widespread lack of even the most basic information about even who we are. People should know that as neighbors we are peaceful people.”