This event was guided by His Holiness the Dalai Lama as an opportunity to examine and celebrate the focal understanding that all world religions and faith traditions are devoted to common teachings and insights. The panel participants and 500 invited guests were drawn from a diversity of religious communities.

The Dalai Lama joined many of the nation's Muslim scholars and leaders in trying to promote a better understanding of Islam, which he believes has been wrongly demonized in America.

"Nowadays, to some people, the Muslim tradition appears different, more militant," the Dalai Lama said. "I feel that's wrong. Muslims, like any of the major traditions, have the same message, the same practice. That is a practice of compassion."

The Dalai Lama also met privately with Muslim leaders, urging them to promote respect for other faiths within their own communities across the nation. Sheikh Hamza Yusuf, a popular voice for Muslims in America, said the world's major religions are struggling with modernity, but none more so than Islam. He said the challenges before the world demand that people of all faiths reach out to others.

"The essence of pain and suffering in this world is ignorance," said Yusuf, co-founder of the Islamic Zaytuna Institute. "We can no longer ignore each other as faith-based communities."

The gathering was organized by a volunteer group of individuals, and several organizations, concerned that religion has become more of a political tool than a spiritual practice. It was held April 15, 2006 at the Intercontinental Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. The event was to focus wholly on the commonality that unites us, resisting political discussion and delivering a united message with one voice.

The afternoon Interfaith Panel Dialogue, headed by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, was the highlight of the gathering. He joined in the interfaith dialogue with Muslims and other faiths to foster mutual understanding and to celebrate the possibility of all people uniting their voices to express a comon goal: a world without religious violence, respectful of diversity. His Holiness was listening to and acknowledging the Muslim faith and all other faiths in their core commonality, focusing on tolerance, respect, dignity, harmony and compassion.

Participants in the conference included:

Robert Thurman: holds first endowed chair in Indo-tibetan Buddhist Studies in America at Columbia University.

the Very Reverend Alan Jones: Dean of Grace Cathedral; Professor of Ascetical Theology; Director and Founder of the Center for Christian Spirituality.

Huston Smith: University of California at Berkley and Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, Syracuse University.

James S. Cutsinger: Professor of Theology and Religious Thought, University of South Carolina; noted writer on the sophia perennis and the perennialist school; authority on the theology and spirituality of the Christian East.

Maryam Ishaq Al-Khalifa Sharief: PhD student at Al-Azhar University, Cairo; B.A. in religious studies and history (Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism) from the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University; M.A. in Philosophy in Medieval Arabic Thought from Oxford University.

Hamza Yusuf: founder of the Zaytuna Institute, which has gained an international reputation for presenting a classical picture of Islam in the West, and which is dedicated to the revival of traditional study methods and the sciences of Islam.

Rabbi Jack Bemporad: Director of Center for Interreligious Understanding; at the center of many of the negotiations improving the relationship between Christians and Jews.

Swami Prabuddhananda: Senior monk with the Ramakrishna Order; in charge of the Vedanta Society of Northern California.

Tekaroniamekan Jake Swamp: Sub-chief for the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation; representative on the Grand Council of the Iroquois Confederacy.

Ewert H. Cousins: Professor Emeritus at Fordham University; Co-convener for the Commission on World Spirituality and Consultant to the Pontifical council on Interreligious Dialogue; presenter to the Parliament of World's Religions in Chicago 1993, Capetown 1999, and Barcelona 2004.