A Muslim Centrist Platform for Democracy in the Arab World
Remarks by Mustapha Tlili, Director of Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West
January 28, 2004 at the New School University in New York
Your Royal Highness, Senator Bob Kerrey, Prof. Steven Rockefeller, Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,
Thinking about the Arab world today rarely fails to fill me with a deep sense of tragedy. Economic, social, and cultural stagnation, authoritarianism, absence of freedom of expression, of participatory governance, of rule of law--the list goes on. The temptation to succumb to despair lurks in the minds of all those among us who are concerned for the future of a people who once, and for centuries, drove history, and today are one of its least potent actors.
Few voices, however, authorize hope more than your voice, Your Royal Highness. You stand out as a mind that truly illuminates this sad landscape. Your vision, nurtured by a deep adherence to reason, tolerance, human rights, and the search for peace, has challenged the people of the region in a way that few other Arab leaders have. To the Arab people, you say day after day, with utmost clarity, that they are capable of finding in themselves the moral and intellectual resources to lift them from the dismal condition that has been theirs for the last few hundred years. You challenge them to reclaim their intellectual and civilizational heritage, and to do so not to restore the past, but to build a modern Arab future in sync with today's world.
I am honored, Your Royal Highness, on behalf of Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West, to sponsor your presence here among us today. You symbolize what the program, launched at New School University in the wake of the terrible events of September 11, 2001, is all about: an appeal to the best in us, that is -- reason, tolerance, and our shared humanity, whether we are Christians, Jews, Muslims; Americans, Europeans, or Arabs. In you, I have always found a source of encouragement, inspiration, and common goals. I thank you for accepting our invitation.
This event would not have been possible without the deep belief in the same vision held by the two eminent persons sharing this podium with me and Your Royal Highness--Prof. Steven Rockefeller, Chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and my friend and colleague Bob Kerrey, President of this great university.
Senator Kerrey, a member of the Advisory Board of Dialogues, did not hesitate to extend to me his full backing when I first met with him to propose the establishment of the program, only a few days after September 11. I also recall that he was one of those rare sane voices in those troubled times that, in defense of the Muslim world, stood up to the knights of hatred, intolerance, and darkness.
Out of the conviction that the future of America and the Muslim world are -- in so many ways -- inseparable, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, thanks to the enlightened perspective of its staff and board, in particular Stephen Heintz, its President, and Prof. Steven Rockefeller, its Chair, has likewise supported Dialogues from the very beginning. I thank them most sincerely and it is my pleasure to give the floor to Prof. Rockefeller.
Back to the top.Pats Event ...
Iran and the Middle East: How to Shape a Security Regime Acceptable to All Regional Actors
Panel discussion at New York University on Wednesday, March. 26, 2008 6:30—8:30 pm
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