Setting a curious tone, Harrison Owen, a cowboy-hatted American, took the microphone to request that the gathering of 150 imams and rabbis dressed in assorted robes, turbans, kippas or black headgear write questions on a large piece of paper, the better to discuss how to work together for peace.
A small sprinkling of women was attending the forum, which opened on Sunday and is designed to foster greater understanding between Muslims and Jews, but most of the audience was male as Owen urged participants to set their own debating parameters.
Some were immediately unimpressed and left the room but others knuckled down to the task, save for short breaks affording an opportunity to visit one of two prayer rooms.
Notes of discord soon emerged at the meeting organized by the Hommes de Parole (Men of their Word) peace foundation based in Paris.
Israel's Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, who on Monday urged the "moderate [Muslim] majority" to speak out against extremism, quickly came in for criticism from the imam of Gaza, Imad Al Falouji.
Metzger "was the first to talk politics in evoking Palestinian operations - but not Palestinian problems", Falouji asserted.
"Today in Gaza we are short of food. Can I separate myself off from this reality?" the imam asked.
Other Gaza representatives opened their contribution by saying that the Israeli occupation was what concerned them and their fellows in the Palestinian territories.
Rabbis responded by saying that they believed that politics should be kept out of religious debate.
Former Marseille mufti Soheib Bencheikh insisted on a critical reading of sacred texts and denounced the idea of UN mediation in the Prophet Mohammed cartoons affair, which sparked Muslim fury after various world media reprinted cartoons of the Prophet that originally appeared in a Danish newspaper.
Abdel Aziz Othman Altwaijiri, general director of ISESCO, the cultural branch of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, took a different tack in saying that he would like UN involvement on such issues.
"What is poisoning the debates is the feeling that people have never had the opportunity to express themselves," said David Meyer, rabbi in the English city of Brighton, saying that opposition to dialogue often festered beneath the surface.
"What counts is that religious leaders summon up the courage to say what has to be said to their own community.
"When I invite the imam of Brighton to my synagogue, half of my community looks aghast," Meyer explained.
Nonetheless, organizers welcomed greater Muslim participation than at last year's inaugural congress and messages of support from Morocco's King Mohammed VI and Jordan's Prince Hassan Bin Talal.
Several Jewish orthodox rabbis also attended.
A casualty of the meeting, meanwhile, was a flamenco show replete with female dance troupe that was canceled to avoid any potential offending of congress participants' sensibilities.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse
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