Future Prospects of Muslim-Western Dialogue

 Dr. Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri

Impact of internal factors on the consolidation of dialogue :

Considering the meagre yield of dialogue with the West, it can be fairly said that this dialogue has not yet gone beyond the starting point, not to say that it has failed. However, we have to be courageous enough to recognize that one of the reasons of the deadlock of dialogue is our own weakness, the dispersion of our efforts and the scant coordination of the actions we undertake in this connection. Add to this the climate of internecine conflict prevailing in the Islamic World as a result of the ebb of Islamic solidarity and its failure to achieve its noble goals, namely to cement the ranks of the entire Muslim Ummah, strengthen its identity and inject in Muslims the power and ability to affirm their presence on the international scene. The reason for our weakness lies in our failure to fulfill the requirements of Islamic solidarity with all its dimensions and goals. But the more we buttress the internal edifice of the entire Islamic world, join ranks, coordinate efforts, achieve mutual interests and respect one another in the ethical, political and constitutional sense of respect, the more cohesive we will grow because we will then have the components of self-assertion, not self-imposing, in order to convince all parties that we are a wise nation which knows its course, controls its fate and is master of the means likely to help it achieve its goals.

Should these requirements be fulfilled, the West will change the position it adopts vis-à-vis its dialogue with us as Muslims.

It will change its outlook on us and will reckon with us in the way we deserve before engaging in dialogue on whichever level.

No matter how diverse its backgrounds and trends may be, the West looks at us yet from a unidimensional perspective, based on our current situation as a Muslim Ummah and our material status as an Islamic world. This perception is admittedly reflected in the way the West deals with us on all levels.

To be honest and true to ourselves, we have to concede that the general situation of the Islamic world at present does not suggest that we are a powerful nation on a par with the other nations although we aspire to reach such a status through the worthy efforts exerted to achieve the progress of the Islamic world and its prosperity in various fields.

The activation of internal factors is vital as it provides the driving force for proceeding towards the attainment of the goals set forth. From this perspective, before engaging in the dialogue of Muslims with the West, we must ascertain not only the existence of will and interest but also the motivation emanating from the self and the incentive factors proceeding from the environment and society at large. The future of our dialogue with the West is, therefore, contingent upon the real progress that we will have achieved in the political, economic, cultural and intellectual domains.

Given the above, our dialogue with the West will always remain closely linked to our internal conditions and our political and economic situation; it will depend on the extent of our material power and direct influence. However, this does not mean that we will have to put an end to the efforts we are exerting with a view to laying down the bridges of rapprochement and intercourse with the West, and wait till we meet the standard of progress which entitles us to be peer of the West. Rather, this means that we should strive to pool our efforts in a complementary way and coordinate our positions in a way to proceed along parallel lines towards the targets we set for ourselves.

We must endeavour now and then to convince the West that we deserve to enter into dialogue with it on all levels and that we are a nation upholding full coexistence and cooperation with all nations and peoples on the premise that coexistence, cooperation and tolerance are qualities deep-rooted in our principles and the immutable values marking our civilization.

We think that the adoption of this forward-looking approach is likely to lead to the development, enrichment and consolidation of dialogue with the West in a way to raise it to such standards as would achieve our interests and safeguard our sovereignty, civilizational identity and intellectual independence, which cannot be dissolved into the cultures not consistent with our civilization and identity, but does not indulge for that matter into isolation or ostracism, for it is an act of planned receptiveness and interaction with others on sturdy bases and in accordance with firm principles.

Dialogue with the West cannot remain restricted to one domain, but should extend to broader vistas. Dialogue has to move to universities and research centres. We should contribute to setting up chairs of Islamic studies in the ancient Western universities, in addition to laying bridges of cooperation between our universities and the Western ones, exchanging experiences, know-how and findings of academic research in various branches of science and knowledge, and establishing sturdy foundations for this cooperation. This is one type of cooperation which must be optimized. We should also enable our information institutions to cooperate with their Western counterparts in accordance with professional standards and allow our businessmen to invest in the Western information field. Additional cultural centres must be set up in the West to serve as channels for our dialogue with the relevant parties. All these means would be efficient and influential in our dialogue with the West, provided that these efforts keep abreast of other efforts in the political and economic fields so that our efforts be integrated and our dialogue with the West be fruitful.