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In the name of Allah,
The All-Merciful, The Ever-Merciful.
We
are still filming Life Makers 4 from
London. I would
like to thank everybody for their participations and tell you that all the ideas
proposed have been translated and will be sent to the officials in the
conference as a contribution from the Life Makers’ youth.
Today’s Training: Learning to be open-minded
Today’s contest is new and is about reading, ideas and the
10 thousand-book project, as well as the Common Word Conference.
The ‘Common Word’ is a large edifice for
proposing ideas by international figures; Muslims, Christians, politicians and
religious scholars both from the East and West.
Which is more important: to implement projects or to
develop basic ideas and learning them first? Getting new ideas is a must because
a key to teamwork success is to be open-minded. Conflict
in a team results from one-sided thinking.
A part of the
training in phase 4 is to listen to various ideas and learn new methods even if
we do not accept them all. We must learn
the process of selecting ideas and discussing them.
This does not mean that we accept all the
ideas, as this would dissolve our own personality, but to reject all ideas other
than our own, on the other hand, leads us to
intransigence and
narrow-mindedness.
The ethics of
being open-minded:
Today we will listen
to the ideas of the participants in the “Common Word” and watch them answer
questions. This can be practical training
on how to accept others’ ideas and respect them even when we disagree with them.
Those who want a deeper understanding can
check www.amrkhaled.net.
The contest this time
is for one week and it is about the 10 thousand-book project. The winner will be
nominated to participate in “Al-Mujaddidoun” program.
The greatest creation
of Allah is the human mind. Renaissance
starts with an idea. The mind should be
used to cause events, not materialism. Communism
revolved around one line “a product should be equally distributed among people
and not monopolized by some”. Regardless
of the idea being right or wrong, it was basically a line.
Islam too, is built around one line; the
oneness of God; “There is no God but Allah”.
Ideas come from
persons who in turn make things. We
cannot reverse this process. The Noble Qur’an is full of ayahs
that indicate that Islam, which has brought a new great civilization, directs us
to use our minds.
This conference
teaches us to have open-mindedness ethics. A
wise Muslim is open-minded, and our Prophet (SAWS) has
encouraged us to seek good ideas wherever they are.
We have learned this in the
Battle
of the Trench where the idea of the trench came from Persia.
The Square of
various ideas:
The square in front
of the Parliament has several statues and monuments of great leaders and events.
The idea of the square is that it
represents various persons with various ideas and issues.
The first
figure: Dr. Ali Jum’ah:
Dr. Jum’ah is a
graduate of al-Azhar, a professor and lecturer in many countries and, in
addition, he participates in Islamic research and judicial complexes.
His many travels gave him the huge
ability to deal with various ideas. His
central idea is in the word ‘revelation’. He
thinks that all the hardship the Muslims are facing is because they did not
follow the revelation. He even tackled
the idea of co-existence with others from the point of view of the revelation.
The second
figure: Dr. Anwar Ibrahim:
Dr. Ibrahim was the
former Deputy Minister of Malaysia.
He started with Mr. Mahatir to establish
the idea of a modern Malaysia.
His most important achievement was to
protect Malaysia during the
stock market crash in Asia.
Dr. Ibrahim thinks
that the success of an economy is two folds: the first is co-existence among the
various communities living in a single country which would result in
understanding, and the second is to upgrade education.
He thinks that this is true Islam
and what it calls for. We cannot ignore
the fact that he has the experience that transformed Malaysia from a simple country of
the third world to a country among the emerging Asian tigers in the field of
economy.
He was jailed for
four or five years but when he came out of prison he continued his activity by
allocating a substantial amount of the Malaysian budget for education, and
attracted foreign investors to invest in
Malaysia
to revive the economy. His most important
book is “The Malaysian Experience”.
The third
figure: the Vatican
Pope:
He became Pope in
2006 following the death of his predecessor; Pope John.
Pope John had believed in dialogue and thought that a respectful dialogue
is a must between the Vatican and all
the other religious leaders.
The new Pope believed in the clash of civilizations, and that Muslims were a
basic part of that clash. The Pope was
quoted as saying that the Muslims are the origin of violence.
This caused strong reactions and hence
came the “Common Word” initiative when Muslims visited the Vatican and met
with the Pope. This resulted in a shift
in the Pope’s statements. We must have
the ability to analyze, understand, absorb and sift.
The fourth figure: Dr. Esposito
Dr. Esposito has studied Islam for a long time.
He is the president of the “Common Word”
Conference, and the head of the Department of Islamic Studies in George Town University.
He is one of the famous orientalists in
the world. His most famous book is “The
Islamic Threat: Myth or Reality?”. His
basic idea in life is neutrality, objectiveness and non-bias.
He was attacked viciously by the Jews in America due to
his attitude towards Islam and Muslims. When
the book of “Clash of Civilizations” was issued, he was among the first to
object to it.
The fifth figure: Tony Blair
He was the head of the British Parliament for ten years.
Tony Blair believed that change must come
first from the inside if the condition of the party and Britain was to
change. He became Prime Minister for five
times but he later resigned for political reasons.
His basic idea is that Britain is the cradle of various cultures, and London is the capital of
acceptance of various ideas, nationalities, and religions.
His political memoirs are his most famous
writings.
Tony Blaire’s answer to one of the questions:
Q: To what extent can you achieve any
results with dialogue when conflict is not resolved?
A: You cannot actually separate
out the religious dimension from the conflict. I
think that the essence of this whole process of the Common Word is to
come together, to understand each other better and
respect each other but then to translate that into action.
The sixth figure: Dr.
Mustafa the Grand Mufti of Bosnia
He has studied in al-Azhar and he
is fluent in three languages. He was the
assistant of Ali Izzat during the war on
Bosnia. His
most famous book is “Choosing between War and Peace”.
He has another book entitled, “Islam and the West”.
His ideology is to keep the Islamic
identity of Muslims in Europe without alienating Europe.
He has a famous saying, “No to collective
dissolution and no to collective suicide.”
The Mufti’s reply to one of
the questions:
Q: How are we to reconcile these two worlds (militarism and
politics), and how do we inject spirituality into politics if this is possible?
A: The Common Word is our attempt
to get from the state of complains to the state of dream.
I would like you to understand that we,
Muslims, are serious about the “Common Word”; we are
serious about dialogue, because for us dialogue is not a political game.
It is a question of existence, and we
believe that we have right to exist in this world.
So please join me in that and then we are together to bring
spirituality into politics as much as we can.
The seventh figure: the
Former Prime Minister of Norway
He was the Prime Minister of
Norway from 1997 to 2000, and then from 2001 to 2005.
He is one the most famous political
figures in Europe.
His main idea is not to judge others
before analyzing their attitudes in the light of their own terms of reference.
He has very different stands from other
European leaders especially regarding the Palestinian issue.
He was severely attacked because of that.
The former prime minister’s
reply to one of the questions:
Q: Do you think the magazine
editor was right or wrong when he published the cartoons? Was he right or wrong
when he apologized? And would you comment on the role of the Norwegian
government that it played in that crisis? Thank you.
A: That question really goes to
the core of the necessity of dialogue. In
Norway we have many years of dialogue between Christians and Muslims, also
formalized in the council for all our relations and life stands in
Norway, so when this cartoon was printed, Christian
and Muslim leaders came together immediately and came out with a common
statement, which calmed down the tensions in Norway and as a part of that, the
editor apologized for what he did.
If you want my personal view, we have the freedom of expression in our
democracies but we don’t have to use it at all times in every situation; we
don’t need to misuse it.
Conclusion:
You can now log on to
www.amrkhaled.net where you will find a
test of ten questions to enter the contest. We
would choose the best ten then the best five who would lead the forum this week.
The aim of the contest is to choose the
best book in the 10 thousand-book project.
Peace and Allah's mercy and
blessings be upon you!
Translated
by: The English Convoy – Dar al-Tarjama
AmrKhaled.net ©
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