“Prime Minister of Malaysia says: Islam is not about killing civilians….and the West is not about Global hegemony”
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat February 11, 2006
Kuala Lumpur
By Mina al-Oraibi
Advocates of dialogue among the Islamic and Western Civilizations from the Eastern and Western hemispheres met yesterday in Malaysia to take part in a conference held to discuss the issue of “Who Speaks for Islam? And Who Speaks for the West?”, amidst the firestorm unleashed by the cartoons that deepened the divide between the Islamic and Western worlds. Participants insisted that there is no clash between the Islamic and western civilizations, adding that active dialogue between them continues. They pointed to the disequilibrium inherent in the discussion of the two civilizations, one “Islamic”, the other “western”. While the first refers to a religious identity, the second represents a geographic region. This issue was one of many other challenges facing over 50 political, academic and media personalities who sought to spell out some of the prevailing perceptions about the two civilizations. Discussions were expected to continue today under the co-sponsorship of the Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Malaysia, and New York University’s Dialogues: Islamic World-US-West.
The Malaysian Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who delivered a comprehensive and straightforward statement, inaugurated the conference. He spoke of the “Western face” that Muslims see, one where “the hegemony of the centers of power in the West is most visible”. Badawi believes that “the Noble Quran speaks for Islam”, and that those who “endeavor to live according to the universal values and principles of the Quran are the true spokespersons of Islam”. He was convinced that “those who deliberately kill non-combatants and the innocent… those who oppress and exploit others… do not speak on behalf of Islam”. Mr. Badawi referred to the “perspective of Islamic civilization” whose teachings the Malaysian government applies, and which exemplifies the principles to which Muslims adhere based on the following pillars: faith and piety in Allah, a just and trustworthy government, and a free and independent people. The Prime Minister of Malaysia went on to say that those who invade someone else’s land, who cause innocent children, women and men to be killed…who attempt to establish global hegemony” cannot claim to be the defenders of Western civilization. It is worth mentioning here that Al-Sharq al-Awsat daily was the only Arab journal participating in the work of the conference, together with the French Le Monde, the Austrian Di Kronenzeitung and the American New York Times.
Among the participants in the conference were some imminent personalities in the field of dialogue among civilizations, including the former Iranian President Mohammad Khatemi and the grand Mufti of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Secretary General of the League of Arab States Mr. Amre Mousa, and the Secretary General of Organization of the Islamic Conference Mr. Akmaluddin Ihsan Uglu, were unable to participate in the work of the conference, due to their commitments in the Middle East, and to recent developments in the Islamic-European relations in the wake of the protests against the publication in European newspapers of the cartoons that were offensive to Islam.
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