Common World: Progress through Diversity Summit

At an international summit held in Astana, Kazakhstan, foreign ministers of more than 50 international countries joined together with Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss intolerance and religious and ethnic misunderstanding throughout the world. The location was chosen by reason that Kazakhstan, within the relatively short time frame since its independence, has been able to obtain interfaith and cross-cultural accord within its territory of more than 130 ethnic groups that practice different religions. With hopes of addressing the rising tensions between the Muslim world and the West, the ministers discussed international relations, modernization, education, economic cooperation and mutual adaptation of cultures in order to further develop understanding between the Muslim and Western worlds. Nazarbayev stated, “It is imperative to stave off the division of the world along civilisational, cultural and religious lines and unite in the face of common threats to humanity.” He continued by saying that no global problem could be solved without the engagement of the Islamic world, which accounts for one-fourth of the world population. With the next summit meeting scheduled for 2009, this forum hopes to become an effective international mechanism of promoting peace and tolerance on a global scale through diversity.