KEY POINTS:
International religious leaders meeting at Waitangi have called for an "Axis of Equality" between nations of all religions to replace the divisive concept of an "Axis of Evil".
The 150 leaders at an Asia-Pacific Interfaith Dialogue meeting adopted a report noting that "many apparently 'civilisational' or religious clashes
are fundamentally political and driven by longstanding grievances and perceived injustices" - not religion as such.
The report proposed "an Axis of Equality to address growing global imbalances". Dr Zainal Abidin Bagir of Indonesia's Gadjah Mada University, who presented a paper on interfaith action for peace and security, said genuine interfaith dialogue that was true to the "prophetic calling" of many religions would often be "subversive" of the status quo.
"In some cases it may seriously challenge what the Buddhist scholar David Loy calls 'religion of the market'," he said.
He said the US invasion of Iraq, inspired by President George W. Bush's description of Saddam Hussein's Iraq, neighbouring Iran and North Korea as an "Axis of Evil", played into the hands of Muslim fundamentalists in countries such as Indonesia.
"When you want to promote democracy, for example, and you see that America promotes democracy by force, that is not helpful," he said.
"The American invasion of Iraq justifies their conspiracy theory that has been circulated around the fundamentalist groups that they [Western nations] are all against us [Muslims].
"Afghanistan, Iraq, now Iran. I think it would be a disaster if the US goes into Iran."
The three-day meeting yesterday ignored a letter delivered by Destiny Church Bishop Brian Tamaki at the opening day on Tuesday, which asserted that New Zealand was still a "Christian nation".
New Zealand delegation leader Manuka Henare said the delegation had not yet decided whether to pass the letter on to the full conference. Auckland Anglican Bishop Richard Randerson said the letter did not address the meeting's main goal of improving understanding between religions to reduce tension.
"The two agendas didn't quite meet," he said.
"They had a concern for our Christian heritage. We all here have a concern for Christian heritage, for every religion's heritage, it's that mutual affirmation. Then I think it's the different heritages working together in a common cause to build justice, peace and inclusive communities, so we don't get injustice and violence."
Rehanna Ali of the Islamic Women's Council said women also met separately to push for more representation.
Women make up only 19 per cent of the delegates.