A two-day conference entitled \"Russia and the Islamic World\" opened in Kazan on August 31 with calls for a \"multipolar world\" and \"partnership,\" RFE/RL\'s Tatar-Bashkir Service reported. Delegates from 15 members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and from Russia, which has observer status in that body, attended the conference. About 20 million of Russia\'s 142 million people are of Islamic heritage. Tatarstan\'s President Mintimer Shaimiyev told the conference that \"the world has divided into Christians, Jews, and Muslims. There is a gap that may become an abyss. The world can be united only by new values, and they cannot be purely liberal. But neither can [these values] be traditionally Islamic.\" In a reference to Iraq, he added that \"values cannot be imposed by force.\" For his part, Council of Muftis of Russia Chairman Ravil Gainutdin argued that \"for the overwhelming majority of Muslims in the whole world, it is a priority to seek a way toward a multipolar world, a way of unity in the international community through the mutual enrichment of religious and ethnic cultures.\" Delegates attending the Kazan conference passed a declaration on August 31 that called for, among other things, \"partnership between various cultures and religions, each being a unique contribution to world history.\" The declaration also warned against \"Islamophobia,\" which will \"help nobody.\" The text also called for \"swift and peaceful settlement of conflicts, which will help...defeat terrorism.\" The participants agreed that \"educational institutions must include the history of religions in their programs.\" Also at the conference, Russian Middle East expert and former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov told delegates that \"nobody is trying to justify those who carry out terrorist acts against civilians [in Israel]. But can one turn a blind eye to the terrorism of the other side when whole districts in Lebanese towns are cruelly destroyed by Israeli bombardments?\" He also noted that \"the Middle East conflict has never had a religious nature. Whether somebody wants to admit it or not, this is a confrontation not between two religions, but between two [forms of] nationalism.\" (RFE/RL)