BRUSSELS, Belgium: Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan said the real challenges facing the Arab - Muslim world are not the Shiite-Sunni issue or Arab versus Ajam (Persian) but backwardness, corruption and failure of governments to solve the problems.

He was speaking at a seminar on "The Protection of the Holy Sites," in Brussels Saturday afternoon.

A large number of scholars, clerics and thinkers from Europe and -Arab Muslim world attended the one-day seminar organized by the Kufa Academy which is based in the Netherlands.

Hassan, President Emiretus of the World Conference of Religions for Peace, speaking in Arabic, said it is time to look into our Islamic affairs not from Arab or Iranian perspective but from a Muslim perspective.

Addressing the topic "protection of the holy sites of Islam in the age of the new world," Prince Hassan pointed to the destruction of Islamic holy sites in Iraq, and noted that billions of dollars of Iraqi money are lying in US banks.

Why this money is not being used to repair the mosques, Hussainyehs and Islamic institutions in Iraq, asked Hassan, the uncle of the current King Abdullah II of Jordan.

He stressed that the religious authority in Iraq is the most powerful and influential authority.

Mohammad Said at-Touraihi, director of the Kufa Academy, said as Muslims "we are concerned about holy place whether these are in Medina, Makkah, al-Quds or Najaf."

"At the human level we are also concerned about other cities with religious sanctities such as Varanasi in India, the Vatican and other cities."

Deploring the condition of Islamic holy sites, at-Touraihi said "nowadays the current state of religious symbols and holy places in the Islamic world are in the worst state recorded in history." He said the holy places in Palestine and Iraq are under occupation and also the holy places in Hejaz including the monument of the holy prophet, his noble family and his companions have been subjected to destruction and bad management."

"The Islamic ummah is in need of clear guarantees about the credibility of the administering of religious affairs of these holy places, clear guarantees that prevent those people from making decisive decisions on individual basis," he said.

He urged the delegates at the seminar to come up with ideas on how to protect holy sites from irresponsible actions of ignorant and extremist groups.

Professor Van Koningsveld, chairman of Islamic studies, Leiden University, the Netherlands spoke on the "tomb of the prophet in Medina, attitudes and discussion around a religious symbol of Islam." Speaking in classical Arabic, the Dutch professor referred to the polemical caricatures and racist arrogance against the prophet in the western world during the middle ages.

"Unfortunately the dominant western image of Islam today is almost exclusively coined by Salafism," he said. The Dutch professor criticized the "rigid reformist policies of some countries, like Saudi-Arabia," saying they do give the slightest freedom of expressions of a different religious orientations, neither by Saudi citizens nor by the million of pilgrims visiting the holy places every year."

Scholars from Belgium, the UK, Iraq and Saudi Arabia also made brief speeches at the seminar.