Table de matières

‮Redressing stereotypes for promoting

values of dialogue and culture of peace

Mrs. Attiya Mahmud*

Mr. Chairman,

Director General of ISESCO,

Honourable moderator,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This plenary's topic “challenging stereotypes and promoting interfaith dialogue” is the main challenge that confronts our societies, in particular the intelligentsia. In the present international environment misunderstanding between religions and civilisations is rather dangerously poised, as elegantly pointed by Dr. Anwar. This was also rightly restricted to societies not religions by His Excellency President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali yesterday. I take the liberty of reading a passage from His Excellency's inaugural statement, “Any observer of the events taking place in the East as well as in the West, which shock the human conscience with their violence and awfulness, will soon realize the degree of gravity reached by intensifying hatred and hostility among humans. In fact, the feeling of fear and mistrust generated by September 11th, 2001 events have caused the relations between the Arab and Islamic societies and the European and American societies to fall with in a circle of suspicion and misunderstanding” (unquote).

We will be doing a great injustice to ourselves and our future generations if we continue to portray Judaism, Christianity and Islam at odds to each other. There could be nothing farthest from the truth than this. The practices of the adherents of these religions may be a matter of discussion, but there can be no doubt that mercy, compassion, understanding and forgiveness are common to all religions. It would be absolutely inappropriate to declare an individual's struggle for power and fame as ordained by a religion. There could be a standard list of political and economic causes leading one nation to fight the other, which might have nothing to do with the teaching of the great religions. Hence, my first recommendation is that acts of adherent of a religion must be separated from the teachings of the religions.

Secondly, we come across clear concepts in Islam which could provide a basis for inter-faith dialogue. I would like to read a translation of verse 136 of second chapter of the Holy Quran “Al-Baqara” (quote) [We believe in God, and in that which has been bestowed from on high upon us, and that which has been bestowed upon Abraham and Ismail and Isaac and Jacobs and their descendants, and that which has been vouchsafed to Moses and Jesus, and that which has been vouchsafed to all the (other) prophets by their sustainer; we make no distinction between any of them. And it is unto Him that we surrender ourselves] (unqote).

All great religions have commonalities which can provide a basis for mutual understanding. These should be identified and widely propagated. This will not only promote understanding among religions but will also question the basis of fanatic interpretations of the Books across the divide.

Third and the most important aspect of the debate is defamation of religions. We have heard and read arguments by many western interlocutors that Islamophobia and defamation of Islam are not legalistically tenable nomenc-latures and hence the priority issue is to find the right terminology to address the problem.

Many in the Islamic world are disturbed by the growing phenomena of Islamophobia and the persistent instances of religious intolerance. There is a need to see this issue in a larger perspective, than merely through the narrow prism of the freedom of expression debate.

This phenomena has the potential of disrupting peace within and among states. It is important to recognize that the hostility and discrimination against Islam is not a simple case of discrimination or intolerance. It is an attitude. It is a complex pattern of abhorrence to an ideology. Many in the Western media portray Islam as a monolithic block, static and unresponsive to change. A number of studies suggest that between 2001 and 2005, there were around 175 groups who claimed responsibility for various terrorist acts. While 110 of them were associated with leftist ideology, only 43 claimed their actions were motivated by religion. On another front, the culprits and killers of Oklahoma, Columbia and Virginia Tech were never linked to a religion. This was in spite of the fact that killer of 32 young students of Virginia Tech shared his inspiration, which with regrets, I quote, “I die like Jesus Christ to inspire generation of the weak and defenceless”.

There is thus no other way to address these issues than through discussion and dialogue, but most importantly through action. In this regard we will like to express our appreciation for many initiatives aimed at bridging inter-civilizational misunderstanding. I would like to mention the Alliance of Civilizations, in particular the Plan of Action proposed by high representative of the United Nations Secretary General, Mr. Jorge Sampaio former Portugese President. Our President General Musharaf has also spoken of a strategy of “Enlightened Moderation”, which seeks to resolve underlying causes of extremism and terrorism by encouraging a dialogue between Muslim themselves to shun extremism and adopt true Islamic values of tolerance and peaceful co-existence and calls upon the Western countries to help resolve the political issues which often become the fodder for the extremist and provide them a political platform to propagate their ideologies.

In the end, I would like to express our appreciation for the efforts of the Tunisian Government to promote interfaith harmony through the establishment of “Tunis Peace Forum” and the “Center for Studies and Research on Inter-civilisational Dialogue and comparative religions”.

I thank you Mr. President.

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(*) Director General, Ministry of foreign affairs (Pakistan).

Publications de l'Organisation Islamique pour l'Éducation, les Sciences et la Culture

-‬ISESCO‭- ‬1429H/2008