Bigotry at interfaith conference

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Iran's Ayatollah Sadiki Roshed declined to meet with representatives of Israel at the second Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions in Kazakhstan's capital city of Astana.

The conference, which ended Wednesday with a decision to reconvene in the same location in 2009, brought together a succession of Moslem, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist and other religious leaders from 29 countries who conveyed messages of inter-religious harmony during the two-day parley.

An Arabic speaking reporter from Haaretz approached the ayatollah and shook his hand, but once he introduced himself as an Israeli, the Iranian leader walked away.

An Egyptian journalist at the conference told The Jerusalem Post that the Iranian delegate took offense at the fact that the Jewish delegates used the event to "talk politics and accuse Moslems."

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