It's a case of 'running around in circles' and 'passing the buck' as far as one organiser of the cancelled Building Bridges conference in Kuala Lumpur is concerned.

Professor Emeritus Dr Osman Bakar claimed today that the authorities are passing the buck on the cancellation of the Muslim-Christian inter-faith conference with nobody willing to take responsibility for the debacle.

Academician Osman, appointed by the office of the Archbishop of Canterbury to be among the prime movers in Malaysia of the annual conference, said in his search for answers behind the cancellation he has been passed from one office to another.

"I feel sad because I've been trying to contact several people in the government to get first-hand sources what it is really and why it has been cancelled, but I've not been able to get a clear picture of why the government has cancelled it," said Osman when contacted today.

Directed to Ikim

"Nobody really wants to take responsibility over this and to explain why this has been cancelled," added Osman, who is attached with the Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation.

Osman, who has participated in the Building Bridges conferences since it was initiated in the wake of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the US, said he contacted the office of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as soon as he got wind of the cancellation.

He was then directed to Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Abdullah Mohd Zin, and was told that the minister had discussed with the premier and they both agreed that the event should not take place.

He was told, however, to refer to the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (Ikim) for further details, as Ikim was directed to pick up the matter with the Archbishop's Office in the UK.

Even then, however, Ikim was only willing to say they had been tasked with conveying the news of the conference's cancellation but was not involved in the decision, said Osman.

"I can only suspect that there are some people who do not support the idea of the seminar. This is what saddens me, because this conference is a good thing (for inter-faith understanding)," he said.

Osman, internationally respected as a scholar on Islamic thought and civilisation, said he doesn't believe the cancellation was - as portrayed by the British Times newspaper that first reported the cancellation - due to tensions arising from several inter-religious cases currently in the courts.

He also said there was no possibility of sensitive issues being raised during the discussions - which are not open to the public.

Seminar not open to all

The conference deliberations are rather abstract in nature and focus on such issues as humanity, the environment, ethnic and cultural pluralism and plural identity and the contribution of the Bible and Quran to such discussions, he said.

"Building Bridges is not an open seminar where any Tom and Harry can raise any issues that they like. The organisers are very aware of the sensitive issues," said Osman.

The prime minister himself seems to have supported the dialogue between Christian and Muslim scholars taking place in Malaysia when the idea was first mooted to him, said Osman.

"There must have been some other people, I suppose, who have come to know about the program and feel that it should not have been held," said Osman.

Meanwhile, Council of Churches of Malaysia's general secretary Dr Hermen Shastri said he regretted the double standards suggested by the conference cancellation.

"There has been so many conferences by Muslims held in this country from the most liberal to the most radical and nobody say anything about them," he added.

Bishop of the Anglican Church in West Malaysia Canon Ng Moon Hing also expressed his disappointment over the seminar cancellation.

Minister Abdullah Mohd Zin, who also heads the Department of Islamic Development, and Ikim director-general Syed Taufiq Al-Attas could not be immediately reached for comments.