World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2007

The Shifting Power Equation

24-28 January, Davos, Switzerland

Creating dialogue in a multicultural world

Faced with a world in which multiculturalism and modernism have created many new challenges, Annual Meeting participants sought to identify common areas between cultures that could promote dialogue. “Bloody conflict gets the attention of the world but there are more positive developments going on,” noted David Rosen, President, International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Relations.
Mohammad Khatami, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran (1997-2005), warned that the world had paid a heavy price for extremist acts and that Western society, although benefiting from some great scholars, “needed its politicians to show understanding, not arrogance.”
The media has a role to play in creating multicultural dialogue. The recent riots in France, portrayed by the media as religious in nature, were in fact caused by social and economic problems, according to Jean-Francois Copé, Minister of Budget and State Reform of France.