He has since been promoting the agenda at both local and international forums. The three-day conference gathers 50 speakers from various fields and 350 delegates from more than 70 countries. Among the speakers are former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Islamic Development Bank president Dr Ahmad Mohamed Ali Al Madani. Others include Dr Maurits S. Berger, Professor of Islam in the Contemporary West, Sultan of Oman Chair of Oriental Studies at Leiden University; Prof Ayatollah Sheikh Mahdi Hadavi Tehrani, founder and president of Porch of Wisdom Cultural Institution; and Ian D. Edge, the co-director of the Centre for Islamic and Middle Eastern Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

At the conference yesterday, Najib also announced three new Malaysian initiatives to jumpstart the global movement of moderates which he championed. They are the setting up of Wasatiyyah Institute under the Prime Minister’s Office, the Global Movement of Moderates Foundation and a chair at Universiti Malaya. He said it was time for the masses to stand up and say to the extremists “with a single breath a firm and resounding no”. He said people could not rid the world of extreme views by force, but rather through persuasion, negotiation and cooperation. “These must be our weapons in the face of enmity and malice.”

    "Everyone has a choice to make between animosity and suspicion, on one hand, from the tensions in Africa, the Arab Spring, or the harsh words uttered in the Americas which could have consequences worldwide, he said.
  "In today's world of the information superhighway, such conflicts travel quickly, and no one has a monopoly on truth."

    While talk of extremism and extremist acts conjure up terrible images of murder, mayhem and human suffering, extremism wasn't  always violent, he said.  The most non-violent events were the global financial crisis.When compared to the  violent images beamed around the world in the wake of Sept 11, 2001, pictures taken outside Lehman Brothers on another September morning  years later were much more ordinary,  he said.

  "Without a single bullet fired, the extremes and excesses of Wall Street would in a matter of days take the world as we know it to the brink."  Najib said the eurozone was still  in crisis. Millions had lost their jobs, their homes and their security, he added. And in addition to the human cost,  US$14 trillion (RM43.8 trillion) had been spent on the rescue plan, which is  10 times the toal cost of the wars in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

  He said moderation could solve not only the problem of violent extremism, but could guide people through the global economic crisis.  Najib said people should look into how to create a truly moderate global economy that worked in the interests of the many, not the few, and how nations could devise a system that delivered fairness for "the 99 per cent", not just those at the top.  "Quite simply, we can no longer allow the workings of the markets to be value-free or value-neutral. Markets, we all know, are the only route to rising global prosperity and sustained, stable growth.

  "But we must do away with the unjust, unfair outcomes they can produce when left unchecked, and with the kind of reckless economic practices that brought our global financial system to its knees."  However, Najib said people should also ask how acts of extremism by a  minority of Muslims could come to be seen as a  reflection of  Islam.  He said such views could not be left unchallenged and it was not enough to say that the solution to extremism was simply for more Muslims to speak up or speak out. "We need to hear from moderates of all religions in all countries and from all walks of life, and when we do, the prize of peace is there for all to see." 

Malaysia, he said, had long been synonymous not with extremism, but with moderation, tolerance, inclusiveness and  acceptance. In a predominantly Muslim country with  communities of Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Taoists and Sikhs, everyone knew well the "dignity of difference", he added.

  "We have many ethnic groups, many religions, but we  strive to be a harmonious and  united nation predicated on the values of moderation and the spirit of 1Malaysia. "We know that we are best and strongest when we embrace our differences rather than just put up with them."