A conference of religious leaders from 63 Muslim countries condemned here today the terrorist attacks carried out by militants and insisted that their religion stood for tolerance.
The delegates, in a final statement, expressed "deep concern over and strong condemnation of the terrorist operations which have struck Arab and Islamic countries, especially Saudi Arabia".
The Cairo conference, chaired by Egypt's religious affairs minister, Hamdi Zaqzouq, also condemned "the savage actions of the Israeli Government against the Palestinian people, the assassination of Palestinian leaders and the construction of the (West Bank) barrier".
On Iraq, they expressed outrage at "the state of anarchy on the security level".
Islam is "a religion of tolerance", they stressed, calling on the Western media "to stop drawing a link between terrorism and jihad", or Muslim holy war.