Contents

Political Responsibility and Social Justice,

Pillars for Alliance among peoples

Dr. Cherif Abderrahman Jah(*)

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Honourable delegates of the various Islamic countries,

Members of ISESCO,

Dear friends,

First of all, I would like to express my gratefulness to you for having taken the initiative of organizing this most important event, the “International Symposium on Human Cultures and Civilizations: from Dialogue to Alliance” and for having invited me to take part in it, in my quality of President of the FUNDACION DE CULTURA ISLAMICA (Foundation of Islamic Culture) which is a Spanish NGO working in the cultural field.

In view of the current social, cultural and political circumstances that our planet is witnessing, we cannot afford to disregard experiences and ideas of any kind, likely to improve this situation.

All along our experience as a foundation, we have strived to open the way for dialogue between Muslim and Western societies. To achieve this goal, we bring the very essence of Islamic culture and civilization to the attention of the Western world, through multiple cultural activities, in order to pinpoint elements that contribute to bringing us together and foil stereotyped visions which divide us.

Most of our current efforts are pertaining to education, since we consider that young peoples’ training constitutes a sure guarantee of a future that is more open to dialogue and more respectful.

This is why the Foundation of Islamic Culture has initiated several educational projects and teachers’ trainings. I cannot now, for lack of time, give you details on these projects’ content, but their outcome has already made known the interest aroused by the Islamic culture within the Spanish society.

On a different order of ideas, we organized in 1991 a meeting in Paris, at the UNESCO Headquarters, with the cooperation of the Committee for Education and Culture of the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council, a symposium under the theme “Contribution of Islamic civilization to European culture”.

As its title shows, this symposium was the first Euro-Islamic institutional project at this level, for the achievement of an understanding and, thus, a dialogue between Islamic civilization and Western civilisation worlds. It was, in a way, a forerunner to the ambitious project of “Alliance of Civilizations” now fostered by the United Nations Organisation and promoted by our president, Mr Rodriguez Zapatero and by the government of Turkey.

During this symposium on the contribution of the Islamic civilisation to European culture, the 1116 (1991) Recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was approved. As all Recommendations passed by this Institution, it is not binding, but still defines the universal bases for mutual understanding which may lead to a dialogue between both parties.

In the explanatory memorandum, attention is to be drawn, among other things, to paragraphs 6, 7, 8, and 10 which bear a precursor nature, since the memorandum goes back to 15 years ago.

Let me quote these paragraphs :

6- Islam has suffered and is still suffering from the distorted image attributed to as an example, hostile or oriental stereotypes, while there is very little awareness in Europe either of the importance of Islam's past contribution or of Islam's potentially positive role in European society today. Historical errors, educational eclecticism and the over-simplified approach of the media are responsible for this situation.

7- The main consequence of such twisting of reality, to which many contemporary Muslims have contributed through their own lack of critical intellectual examination or due to their intolerance, is that Islam is too often perceived in Europe as incompatible with the principles which are at the basis of the modern European society (which is essentially secular and democratic) and with European ethics (human rights and freedom of expression).

8- While this incompatibility, as between Islamic fundamentalism and the cultural and ethical principles which the Council of Europe upholds, for example in regard to the treatment of women and respect for freedom of expression, certainly does exist, it is not representative of Islam as a whole. It must be recognised that intolerance and distrust unfortunately exist on both sides, the Islamic and non-Islamic one.

10- In addition, co-operation with the Islamic world should be granted more interest [ ....… ]. Further co-operation should be sought with non-governmental institutions and organisations in this field, such as the Western Institute for Islamic Culture in Madrid, the Paris Institute for the Arab World and similar institutions.

Following these crucial and highly relevant thoughts within the current circumstances, a set of specific proposals on education, information, culture, administration and multilateral cooperation were listed to make of this rapprochement between Europe and Islamic world, originally defined in the Recommendation, a reality.

Our foundation not only initiated, for the first time, the idea of a Euro-Islamic dialogue - alliance, within the European forums, but also strived, in view of the numerous reluctances that the term “Islamic” among others, arouses, for the adoption of this recommendation. Unfortunately, we must admit, however, that very few support us in our struggle, we had to work on a solitary basis and even put up with the opposition of some sectors.

It is also worth mentioning that the proposals listed in recommendation 1162 (1991) were a mere statement of intent and none of them were implemented by the concerned countries.

It goes without saying that NGOs, similar to the foundation I preside, can not accomplish much, if their efforts to implement these measures for rapprochement and alliance are not strengthened by concrete actions taken by government officials in different countries.

Those who , like us, are dedicated to education and cooperation are perfectly aware that, very often, the more or less success of our results depends on “political guidelines of the moment”.

Even though one of the objectives of Alliance of Civilization is the mobilization of the society, I would like to believe that, the General Assembly of the UN and governments who were quite receptive to the proposal, will not fail to seize the opportunity in order to effectively involve in this project the real protagonists, that is to say the civil society.

To sum up what I have stated, we could say that difficulties facing the implementation of these measures are due to the fact that the analysis made by the alliance partners, lack the following components :

1- Political responsibilities acquired during several centuries both in Western and Eastern worlds;

2- A real reflection pertaining to the practice of power based on social injustice.

In other words, we need to accept in principle the fact that the various hostile reaction trends towards one another, including within the civil society, are not generated spontaneously. They are not the fruit of disagreement between different beliefs or cultures as some claim in a reductionist, simplistic and dangerous way. They are, on the contrary, due to a lack of political responsibility that gave birth to colonialism since the XIX century and a policy that benefited exclusively to the colonizing powers, in order to meet their own interests, and which have nothing to do with the nowadays claimed notions of democracy, solidarity or human rights.

On the other hand, Islamic world’s leaders, right after the collapse of the Ottoman empire, did not either try to involve society in shaping its own future, expressing its opinions, nor choosing its political representatives during direct election through ballot box voting, in accordance with a fully developed social process and far from imposing any external pattern. In brief, they did not spur society to learn and practice fundamental concepts of democracy which were already underpinned in Islam at its early age, thus providing proof of its emblematic egalitarian nature, pioneer in the whole histories of all governments.

Conforming Muslim idiosyncrasies to external institutions patterns is, of course, not the point. What matters really is to use the wide richness of the implicit values of our civilization which could provide civil society, in the Islamic world, with a structure that can serve as a basis for its development.

Even if we all agree that fanaticism leading to violence can never be justified, we should be aware that, in order to defeat terrorism, we have to keep in mind and fully understand the underlying causes of this dreadful phenomenon, which translates into a source of hatred and despair, channelled by fanatics and representing a cultural hotbed for all kind of extremisms.

Analysing, without fear and with a great deal of courage, the underlying causes of these problems is the only way to avoid unproductive talk as well as wild imaginings on Us and the Others.

East ? West ? Culture ? Civilization ? Multi-culturalism or Cross-culturalism ? These are big issues on which we seem never to reach a consensus, though they needlessly keep us company in our entire journey toward dialogue.

This is why we should apply ourselves to work very simply and in all humility, clinging to tangible and transcendent facts and avoiding entelechies.

All things considered, the conclusion of this presentation calls upon us to pay heed to these be-all universal values the Islam stands for. But still, an Islam that is socially fair, balanced and offering peaceful coexistence between different religions and cultures, while making the most of them. An Islam respectful of traditions but, at the same time, modern, where democracy and a fair redistribution of wealth, as well as an economic, social and cultural development that is at the level of superpowers, are possible. An Islam where women can recover the place they were granted at the beginning, when they were considered as an active component of the OUMMA, essential and irreplaceable.

An Islamic society that, after all is said and done, commits itself to endeavouring in a responsible manner, toward achieving this goal, day on day out, nurturing a positive and genuine spirit.

I am convinced that this project, which is at the heart of our debate today, will allow us to lay the foundations for cooperation and understanding between future generations. But more than that, we should, as individuals, be able to internalize the alliance, by showing the example through action and a sense of responsibility and truth.

That is the key idea of our Foundation, the cornerstone of any dialogue between peoples and cultures. We have already implemented such an idea with great deal of efforts, through all activities we have carried on during these twenty years of existence. We are convinced today, more than ever, that these efforts will not have been in vain.

Thank you for your attention.

(*) President of the Foundation of Islamic Culture, Madrid.

Publications of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

-ISESCO- 1428H/2007 A.D