Around the Grand Mosque in Makkah people's opinions of the Inter-faith dialogue have varied as to the effectiveness and the outcome of the dialogue. Ahmed Qoura, an Albanian performing Umrah said he had heard of a gathering of Muslim scholars close to the Mosque. “I expected that it would be about dialogue, but until now I have no idea about its goals or who it is directed to,” Quora said. Quora added that Muslims need to be more unified to face the challenges facing the Islamic world. Anwar Mohammed, an Egyptian traveling to Makkah with his 60-year-old mother, said that the Muslim World League always positively boosts cooperation between Muslim countries. “Having meetings between Muslim scholars is a good way to get Shiites and Sunnis to sit together with the greater good in mind,” Mohammed said. Mohammed hopes that this dialogue will send a clear message to Western people about the mercy and tolerance of Islam. A UAE citizen Mohammed Al-Dhaheri said he was not fully aware of the conference and its purpose but he thought “nothing bad would come out of it.” “They won't come up with anything that can contradict with the interests of Muslims,” Al-Dhaheri said. “The real problem is that we ourselves fight each other. This in-fighting has made us lag behind the rest of the world,” he said. “The Westerners have excelled in many fields because they have focused on the improvement of the living standards of their people. But, we, Muslims, are still arguing over things which would only slow down any real growth,” he said. He said he hopes that the meeting will focus on the critical issues facing Muslims today. __
