Contents

Address by

Dr. Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri

Director General of the Islamic

Educational, Scientific and Cultural

Organization - ISESCO

Praise be to Allah alone, and peace and prayers be upon

His Messenger, his family and companions.

Excellency Mr. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, President of the Republic of Tunisia,

Excellency Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, former Malaysian Prime Minister,

Excellency Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference,

Excellency Secretary General of the League of Arab States,

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Assalamu alaikum warahmatu Allah wabarakatuh,

I am honoured to express to your Excellency President, at the outset of my address, my sincerest thanks and appreciation for having kindly accepted that the international symposium on “Human Civilizations and Cultures: from Dialogue to Alliance” be convened in and hosted by the Tunisian Republic, under your high patronage.

I would like to welcome his Excellency Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia, who has extended meritorious services and made great endeavours in the service of the Islamic Ummah, through the promotion of joint Islamic action and dissemination of the values of dialogue and coexistence among human cultures and civilizations. It is also my pleasure to welcome H.E. the Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, and H.E the Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Dr. Amre Moussa. I avail myself of this opportunity to laud the sincere efforts they make to develop the mechanisms of joint Arab Islamic action and enhance the contribution of the Islamic world to the areas of dialogue among cultures and civilizations. I am pleased to welcome as well their Excellencies the Ministers, scholars, intellectuals, academics and heads of international and regional organizations taking part in this symposium to discuss and examine ways and mechanisms to set up an action programme and practical initiatives that are likely to promote dialogue and alliance among civilizations.

Excellency President,

The convening of this international symposium in this Arab Islamic country, boasting an old-age civilization, is a true expression of the human significance and rich meanings bespeaking the prominent status of the Tunisian Republic, a crossroad where many civilizations have melted and interacted. This country has been throughout history- and particularly during the glorious Islamic times- teeming with scientists, scholars, intellectuals, philosophers, historians, poets who enriched the Islamic civilization and contributed to the making and prosperity of the universal civilization. And being deeply-rooted in the human civilization, Tunisia can rightfully take pride in its civilizational capital forged by Carthage, Kayraouan and Zitouna University. In this regard, you have, Excellency President, confirmed the specificities of this asset, bolstered its gains and defined the ways to exploit it in the benefit of the modern state. It has been commended and appreciated by the UN and OIC systems. UNESCO chose indeed Tunis as a regional capital of Arab culture for the year 1997, while ISESCO chose Kayraouan as a capital of Islamic culture for the year 2009.

Excellency President,

In a short time, your country managed to achieve, under your leadership, an outstanding evolution in many fields, most importantly in education, culture, science, information and communication technologies. These fields, being pointers of any civilizational development, have allowed Tunisia to gain an advanced position among the most rapidly developing countries in the world. Thanks to the reforms and achievements covering all spheres of life and receiving world acclaim, Tunisia has turned out into a pioneering actor in social, economic, developmental, educational, cultural, knowledge-related and sport fields. The choice of Tunisia to host the World Summit on the Information Society in November 2005 is in itself an eloquent expression of the trust put by the international community in the potential and capacities of this Arab Muslim country.

Thanks to the judicious leadership of your Excellency, the Arab Islamic identity of the Tunisian people has been entrenched further. Tunisia has become one of the pioneering countries in the launching of major global initiatives and securing international support thereto, as well as in the promotion of the areas of joint Islamic action, the support for the causes of the Islamic Ummah and their advocacy in all international, Islamic and regional forums with clear-sightedness and wisdom. You have succeeded, through the initiative of the 26-26 Fund, in enhancing solidarity and compassion among the Tunisian people and fighting the marginalization of rural areas. This initiative has earned the praise of the international community at large, manifest through the approval by the UN of your Excellency’s initiative to establish “the World Solidarity Fund to Fight Poverty and Promote Social and Human Development”.

Excellency President,

You were among the first world leaders to draw attention to the danger posed by terrorism, devise an international code of behaviour to fight it and call for an anti-terrorism international stand through the adoption of social, educational, cultural, political and legal measures. Time and events have confirmed the sincerity of your orientations and the depth of your vision to deal with this phenomenon. Actually, Western countries, who once offered a safe haven to the most leading terrorist figures under the pretext of upholding the principles of human rights, have revealed how fake was their claim to cling to such ideals and values when their interests came under attack.

Excellency President,

When the UN General Assembly issued in 1998 a resolution proclaiming the year 2001 as the United Nations Year of Dialogue among Civilizations, upon an Islamic initiative, there were positive indications then that the world was going to enter a period of stability and prosperity and that the international community would start a new phase of human civilization by the beginning of the third millennium, wherein would prevail new principles regulating international relations on the basis of dialogue and coexistence, in their extensive dimensions. And when the UN General Assembly supported in 2004 the initiative of the Spanish Prime Minister, Mr. José Luis Zapatero, regarding the alliance of civilizations, the impact of the 11th September continued to revebrate and negatively affect the international and regional efforts devoted to promote dialogue among civilizations. These events created a new atmosphere that favoured the call for the clash of civilizations, hostility against the Islamic religion, civilization and culture. They contributed as well to the propagation of Islamophobia in the world, most particularly in the West. As a result, initiatives of peace and dialogue among cultures and civilizations, in its different forms and standards, did wane.

Under such new circumstances, the Islamic world championed this initiative aimed at fostering alliance of civilizations. In this respect, you, Excellency President, were one of the first Islamic leaders to support it through a concrete initiative. In fact, when I had the honour to meet you in the Presidential Palace, on 25 March 2005, you proposed to me the idea of holding an international symposium on the alliance of civilizations, to be attended by a distinguished host of decision-makers, intellectuals and scholars from around the world, who take interest in and advocate the issues of inter-civilizational dialogue.

Accordingly, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, who takes pride in the constant support it receives from your Excellency, brings once again another of your leading initiatives in the field of dialogue among civilizations into effect, and is holding this symposium in your blessed country and under your high patronage. It is yet regrettable that while we call for dialogue and engage earnestly in the broadening of its scope, there are still some parties who stir up animosity and hatred, profaning the sanctities of Muslims and slandering their Prophet (PBUH), as recently happened in Denmark and Norway. Such immoral deeds that go contrary to the rules of the international law and the teachings of divine religions require that all good-intentioned parties combine their efforts to promote dialogue among civilizations and cultures and disseminate the values of tolerance, coexistence and mutual respect, the ultimate objective being to face these aggressive acts and denounce their perpetrators, because such mischiefs engender rancour, racism, hatred and offence against the religious and cultural specificities, source of pride to all peoples of the world. ISESCO was the first to condemn the slander of the Prophet (PBUH) which was inimical to all Muslims of the world. I even called in a press interview I gave in Cairo two months ago to show more resolve on dealing with anyone who profanes and slanders the sanctities of Muslims.

The Makkah Declaration of the Third Extraordinary OIC Summit Conference, held in Makkah Al-Mukarrama last December, at the invitation and under the patronage of your brother the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, may Allah preserve him, confirms that the Islamic civilization is an integral part of the universal civilization resting on the values of dialogue, moderation, justice, kindness and tolerance. The Declaration further confirms that Islam rejects extremism, fanaticism and violence. The leaders of Islamic world expressed in the same Declaration their deep concern and indignation over the growing phenomenon of Islamophobia around the world as a form of racism and discrimination that must be fought with resolve and with all available means.

Excellency President,

On behalf of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, I have the honour to award your Excellency ISESCO Gold Shield in the Field of the Promotion of Dialogue among Civilizations. This is the first time that the Organization gives this award, in recognition of your quality as one of the leaders of Arab Islamic joint action, and in appreciation of the tremendous achievements you have accomplished to your country and Ummah, notably in the area of the promotion of inter-civilizational dialogue at the international and global level. This award represents, at the same time, an expression of gratitude for your incessant care about ISESCO and personal keenness to help it discharge its lofty mission and implement its strategies and action plans, including the programme for the promotion of dialogue among civilizations, which was adopted by the Ninth Islamic Summit.

Congratulations then to the Tunisian people for this futuristic choice, for your visionary leadership as well as for these deserved tribute and appreciation. May Allah perpetuate peace, stability and prosperity in the Republic of Tunisia, and preserve it as an inexhaustible source of goodness for the benefit of the Islamic Ummah and humanity at large.

“And say: Work; so Allah will see your work and (so will) His Apostle and the believers”. Allah the Almighty has spoken the truth.

Wassalamu alaikum warahmatu Allah wabarakatuh.

Publications of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

-ISESCO- 1428H/2007 A.D