What Is Wrong with the Muslim World?

Clamor from the left and right for moderate voices of Islam to speak up and transform the faith from the inside received a resounding response in the form of a productive dialogue and the rock-star power of the 14th Dalai Lama this weekend.

His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama broke his regular schedule -- normally planned seven years in advance -- to accept an invitation from the global Muslim community to discuss how to mitigate religious intolerance and promote understanding and -- above all else -- compassion among Muslims and peoples of all faiths.

"Nowadays, to some people, the Muslim tradition appears different, more militant," the 70-year-old Dalai Lama said at the weekend "Gathering of Hearts" conference, which aimed to bring Muslims and Buddhists together. "I feel that's wrong. Muslims, like any of the major traditions, have the same message, the same practice. That is a practice of compassion," he asserted.

The conference took place during one of the most religiously significant weekends of the year -- the Prophet's Birthday, Easter and Passover. It was also a week full of open sores.

The release of the chilling recordings of the hijacked plane on 9/11, the continued polarization on immigration, the ongoing inaction regarding the victims of the Gulf Coast, growing tension between the United States and Iran -- all set the backdrop for this momentous dialogue.

The Dalai Lama was joined by close to 100 world-renowned scholars, teachers, and leaders from 30 countries of Christian, Hindu, Jewish and other faiths who met their Muslim and Buddhist counterparts and took part in the landmark discussion.

Leaders -- who included Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, founder of the Zaytuna Institute; Imam Mehdi Khorasani, head of the Islamic Society of California; and Dr. Sayyid M. Sayeed, secretary general of the Islamic Society of North America -- are all respected members of the Muslim community in the United States and could be characterized as progressive in their attempts to reach out to Buddhists when traditionally Muslims do not.

Surprisingly absent was the undersecretary U.S. ambassador to the Muslim world, George W. Bush's personal friend, Karen Hughes. Her presence at this year's Islamic Society of North America was hailed at the time as an important step in improving the image of America in the Muslim world by reaching out to Muslims in the United States

His Holiness often used humor to make serious topics palatable. In the general session this was his style. Within the first five minutes of his talk, he mentioned the suicide bombers and 9/11. So much for keeping things simple, yet as complex as the issues are.

Mayssa Sultan, an American Muslim acupuncturist and founder of Integrative Clinics International, which brings Eastern and Western medical practitioners to clinics around the globe agreed, "It is fundamentally important that religious leaders across the globe are able to reach a place of understanding with people whose belief system, at the essence, is not that different," she said, "but through politics of their governments have been forced to war and to view one another as opposites, when the essence of their messages is the same -- one of faith and compassion."

There were other reasons for moderate Muslims to bring the most prominent Buddhist in the world.

"Buddhism gets the best press of any religion in the world," said Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, founder of the Zaytuna Insititute in Hayward, Calif. "Islam gets the worst press, because it is associated with war and belligerence."

The Zaytuna Institute has gained an international reputation for its dedication to the revival of traditional study methods and sciences of Islam.

Prior to the general session the Dalai Lama met behind closed doors with spiritual leaders and took time to take pictures with the army of volunteers and staff that helped pull the event together. Over 600 participants of these sessions were draped around the shoulders with thin, white scarves embossed with lotus flowers -- a symbol of rebirth.