Dar Al-Hayat (http://english.daralhayat.com)
The Difficult Road to Dialogue, 17 November 2008
by Elias Harfoush
If there is a step to be worth looking at, in order to go bring the world back to its the state before September 11, it is the continuous call for dialogue addressed by King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, which was crowned by the latest inter-religious conference, held at the UN General Assembly.
The dialogue that took place recently in New York was aimed at countering Osama bin Laden's project, which is based on dividing the world into two camps and imposing his narrow views, regarding the eternal enmity between Muslims and followers of other religions (especially Christianity and Judaism). The tribune of this international gathering witnessed speeches that would have not been thought of ten years before. Is any more evidence needed to show the extent of the change the world has undergone ever since that black day in the WTC twin towers, for which many - especially Muslims - have strived to lessen extremist Takifiri thoughts that seriously harmed the image of Islam?
Reactions to bin Laden's actions were not better than the crime he committed. The US president used the term "crusade" against "the Al Qaeda invasion". This was not a mere slip of the tongue by a president who was never known for his sagacious statements. It represented, instead, the return to the worst times of bloodshed caused by years of Western invasions of Muslim lands, based on religious slogans. Such statements were used to escalate confrontation with the (Christian) West based on religious slogans as well. All this comes in light of a "culture" entitled "the clash of civilizations" that affected even the most knowledgeable writers in the West. It was not difficult for observers of strict comments - whether made by some writers from our region or by "colleagues" of theirs who were expressing, in Western media, the ideas of extremist Christianity - that the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and even the confrontation with Iran on its nuclear file, are nothing more than symptoms of a more serious disease, i.e. the presumed confrontation between the Muslim and Christian worlds.
It was easy for these negative images to prevail in many phases throughout the history of inter-religion relations, especially during the eras of Islamic rule, whether in our region (Omayyads and Abbasides) or in other regions, such as in Andalusia, where coexistence during seven centuries is a model we strive to emulate nowadays.
Setbacks in the culture of dialogue did not solely come from the puritan parties on both the Christian and Islamic sides. We would be ignoring the truth if we did not mention how the establishment of the "Jewish State" and its violation of Palestinian land harmed the relation between a religion, in whose name a State is performing these actions, and Muslims who constitute the majority of the people who were displaced from their land. Moreover, the West in its majority - particularly the United States - defended almost constantly the Israeli aggressions and prevented their international condemning. This was a significant factor in the deterioration of the Christian Islamic relations, which affected at times Christians in the Arab world.
Despite the importance of King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's call, it cannot go through if the followers of the different religions do not realize the importance of basing relations on the prevention of injustice, especially the injustice suffered by the Palestinian people.
It is no coincidence that the man sponsoring today the inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue is the same man who called some years before for a just solution to the conflict with Israel, which later became an initiative adopted by all Arabs. Without this solution, and without the West's forthright support to justice, it will still be difficult to separate religion from politics, and open a wider space for inter-religious dialogue.
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