Although the moderator, Pr Abdoul Aziz Kebe, right at the outset, recognized the potentially controversial nature of the topic, he was quick to underscore that the two religions, as actually all religions, are very similar since "they carry the same message, the same revelation, taken from the same source and destined to the same recipient, that is mankind". This set the tone and mood of the panel as the first speaker, his Excellency Saliou Kandji, former Senegalese ambassador and a widely acclaimed specialist of Islam, stated that the holy Kuran, which combines the message of the Prophet with the messages of earlier divine envoys and makes overtures to the entire humankind, is obviously a universal call to dialogue and understanding. Quoting amply from the holy Book, M. Kandji documented the fact that all men and women are divine creatures and as such, they are all equal before the Creator. He also explained that God made himself manifest to the various human communities under various names and with various messengers simply because He wanted to be understood and obeyed by all men through their own languages and their own people. He concluded by insisting on one cardinal teaching of Islam: "mutual respect and consideration" should govern human relations regardless of racial, ethnic or religious differences. For Father Jacques Seck of the Senegalese Catholic Church everything in God and Jesus spells dialogue and mutual understanding since in the beginning of it all there was the Word and words are meant for human speech and speaking implies exchanging with the view to reaching understanding and concord. He also explained that the Holy Kuran has been shaped by one word from Allah to his Prophet Muhammad: "Ikhrah"(meaning in Arabic: "read and recite") and that is how the Prophet, though his holy Book, started a dialogue with the rest of mankind.