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Dialogue: an Edifying Force and an Engine of Development
Many and diverse are the views and opinions expressed today on the issues of dialogue among civilizations, cultures and revealed religions, and numerous are the theses and concepts circulating on the international intellectual and cultural arena on all matters pertaining to dialogue at its various levels. The result of this diversity and abundance is a generous yield of theories, theses, concepts and definitions that came to consolidate the international concept of dialogue and confirm humanity’s need for it and opening up wide horizons for the utilisation of this dialogue to solve international problems and assuage the atmosphere of conflict by removing the factors of tension and the causes of trouble that abound in contemporary human societies.
The diversity of these visions and theses on dialogue and its issues in recent times constitute in itself an enrichment of the concept of dialogue, a revival of the leitmotif of dialogue as heralded in all divine religions and advocated by all human cultures, and which has served, since the dawn of time and to date, as a foundation for the successive historical civilisations.
It is therefore not extraordinary that the dialogue of civilizations as a concept should spring, at this specific conjuncture, and before the third millennium start set in, from the Islamic world and not from the West that took the initiative of laying down the rules of modern international law by formulating the United Nations Charter in 1945, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, and the host of other international declarations, pacts, covenants and conventions that served as the basis and paved the way for the emergence of modern international relations that serve human interests and consolidate the principles of understanding, co-existence and co-operation among the members of the international family.
The call for engaging dialogue among civilizations, made namely by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and not from any other international or regional organization, was a true expression and a highly significant indicator of the trust that the Islamic world places in the act of dialogue with all its concepts, meanings and components, in a way that confirms beyond the shadow of doubt that dialogue has been an authentic principle of Islamic civilization throughout its far-reaching history.
This civilizational specificity, unique to the Islamic world, found its expression in the contribution of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, represented by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, to the United Nations Year for Dialogue Among Civilizations, proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization. This contribution took the form of five international symposia on the topic of dialogue among civilizations. Three of these symposia, held under the patronage of three heads of state of Islamic countries, were organized in Rabat, Tunis and Damascus, while the remaining two were held in Europe, in Berlin and the Principality of Liechtenstein. This qualitative contribution to the International Year for Dialogue Among Civilizations was further heightened by the publication of the " White Book on Dialogue among Civilizations ", in Arabic, English and French and in two editions that only a few months separated owing to the success of this book.
The trust that the Islamic world places in the idea of dialogue springs from the Islamic faith that proscribes race or ethnicity-based discrimination, and from faith in the one and only God, the eternal Creator, the merciful and the compassionate, the origin of all the universe, of man and of all creatures, the One whose other divine names include the ‘peace’, He who created men into peoples and tribes so that they come to know each other, as well from belief in the oneness of the origin of all men. Allah says : "O mankind! We have created you male and female and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! The noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is knower, Aware"(1)
Dialogue is an Islamic concept and the call to dialogue is an Islamic stance. The Islamic world is therefore more conscientious about dialogue among civilizations than all others, not out of weakness or a feeling of defeat vis-à-vis other civilizations, particularly western ones, but out of a desire to preserve the supreme human interests, propelled in this drive by its creed and faith, and its keenness to discharge its mission as the Ummah that Allah made into a witness nation on all humanity.
If the new international conjuncture has triggered deep-seated changes at all levels, political, intellectual and cultural alike, and has channelled general interests at the international level towards new courses, the yield of the International Year for Dialogue among Civilizations has confirmed the trust placed in the concept of dialogue and proved that there could be no alternative for dialogue as a way of breaking the cycle of frantic conflict that threatens the stability of the world and looms over international peace and security, but further escalation of conflict at its various levels and the kindling of the fires of trouble and crisis in various parts of the world.
The consensus that was achieved on the need to persevere in dialogue among civilizations in a bid to save the world from the calamities of conflict and the crises resulting from the clash of civilizations and to ensure that the efforts of the international community do not come to an end with the lapsing of the United Nations Year for Dialogue among Civilizations, confirms even further the vital importance of establishing a universal cultural and civilizational order that would be based on the rules of international law, inspired from the essence of divine religions and their teachings, and established on the human principles produced by interactive and interrelated civilizations and cultures that have spontaneously engaged in dialogue throughout the history of men. Thus, the international community would resort to the rule of law and not to that of the fist and would seek, under all conditions, to achieve justice, peace and legitimacy, and not tyranny, injustice and war. Its members would truly co-exist with each other in an atmosphere of mutual respect and safe from any form of ethnic discrimination, cultural superiority or civilizational conflict.
Select thinkers, scholars, intellectuals, public opinion leaders and decision-makers in the world concur in considering dialogue the option of the wise, the path of the rational, and in unanimously adopting the absolute conviction that dialogue among civilizations is a powerful edifying force and a driving engine for development, and that dialogue must not remain limited to the intellectual, cultural, historical and general knowledge arenas, but should be a firm principle among of international policy principles, and a well-established thrust that guides the course of international relations at all levels. Dialogue must be a confirmed and undeniable necessity to which all parties and adversaries resort to solve their differences, smother the spark of crises before they break out, and resolve the conflicts that emerge when hostility prevails and dialogue is absent.
The call to dialogue among civilizations will remain an exercise of futility and have no bearing on international reality unless, in the current historical conjuncture, the whole world elects as its foundations justice, peace, the respect of international laws and the submission of all powers with richer resources and stronger capacities to international legitimacy, under the umbrella of the United Nations.
No matter how momentous the challenges that face the concept of dialogue among civilizations, logic and historical experience show that dialogue among civilizations will ascend to a higher status because it is Allah’s wish for His creation, and there is no better alternative to the wish of the Almighty.
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