Religious tolerance and peaceful communities were the focus of a conference held at the Thompson Conference Center Sunday.

John L. Esposito, director of the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, spoke on the importance of dialogue rather than conflict.

"It is incumbent upon Muslim leaders and everybody Muslim to make themselves more visible in the community and speak out to grab back the momentum away from the extremists," Esposito said.

He said the followers of Orthodox Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths are peaceful, and violence takes place when military extremists take on those faiths in the name of a holy war. He said the community must stand up against this "theology of hate."

"We have to promote more in our societies - those of us who are followers and those who are good willed people - that Muslims are us," he said. "We need to realize that all are challenged to adopt modern notions of pluralism and tolerance."

Zeki Saritoprak, a visiting professor from John Carroll University, spoke about the peaceful teachings and history of the religion of Islam and its connections with other faiths.

"The Qur'an teaches humanity to be compassionate not aggressive," Saritoprak said, adding that it's unfair to focus on aspects of the Qur'an that speak of holy war because that only constitutes a minority of the religious text's content.