Unlearned lessons
The Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs' annual conference featured a great many recommendations concerning the need for a stronger, better-equipped Islamic world. Jailan Halawi reports
The 15th annual conference of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs -- a four-day affair that took place in Cairo last week -- focused on the challenges facing the Islamic world. The conference was attended by delegates from various Islamic organisations, the Arab League, and ministers of Islamic affairs and religious endowments from 55 countries including Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait, Brussels, Lebanon, Libya, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Palestine, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
Being held against the backdrop of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of Iraq, the conference featured several high-profile calls regarding the necessity of defending Muslim countries from similar sorts of outside aggression. The consensus seemed to be that the only way this might take place would be via the resolution of the internal challenges facing the nations of the Muslim world.
A speech by President Hosni Mubarak -- delivered by Prime Minister Atef Ebeid -- urged Muslims to re-evaluate their positions in order to find the best way of confronting, and thus overcoming, such challenges. Muslims worldwide had to "learn lessons" from what happened in Iraq, and adopt new strategies. "Unless they succeed in unifying their ranks," he warned, Muslim countries will be "targetted" -- one after the other.
According to Mubarak, the Islamic world lacks neither the human nor the material resources needed for this task. The question, however, was how "we use these resources to overcome the obstacles, face the current crisis and move towards a real renaissance".
Mubarak lamented the fact that Muslim nations had recently been subject to "rash accusations of support for terrorism, possession of weapons of mass destruction, as well as contempt for democracy and allegations of human rights violations".
The "challenge of modernisation" -- political, economic and social -- was the foremost test, Mubarak said. "Awareness of the contemporary new world order and its influence on Islamic nations is crucial," he said, stressing that the only way to empower the Islamic world was via "a strong economic union". Furthermore, the Muslim world needed to rise above the differences that "weaken" and harm its interests.
Delegates were in agreement that fighting illiteracy and improving methods of scientific research were stepping stones on the road towards restoring the Muslim world's glorious history, and its effective role in world affairs.
Other conference delegates highlighted the importance of encouraging dialogue among civilisations, cultures and religions in a bid to promote world peace. Recommendations regarding the revision of educational curricula in Islamic countries -- as a way of maintaining their Islamic identities -- were also made. Several delegates recommended that Islamic states needed to respect the tenets of democracy, with an emphasis on "the integrity of elections and a multi-party system".
The conference also urged that an Arab- Islamic court of justice be formed to peacefully resolve disputes among Arab-Islamic countries, with a stress on the belief that "unless the Muslim world conquers its internal conflicts, it will never be able to face external challenges." In a bid to fight those external challenges, discussions about the necessity of establishing a force to defend Islamic countries from aggression also took place.
The conference was harsh in its condemnation of the Anglo-American occupation of Iraq, describing it as "illegal" and "immoral", and urging that the United Nations be put in charge of running the country in the interim period instead of the US and the UK, as a way of "ensuring the Iraqi people's right to self-determination". The statement asked for a "withdrawal, as soon as possible, from Iraq".
Delegates were also united in their denunciation of Israeli attacks against the Palestinian people.
The conference was not, however, devoid of controversy. Al-Azhar's Grand Imam, Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi's harsh assessment of the current status of the Muslim world caused a stir within the conference itself, and resulted in press condemnations of what was called a "vulgar" description of Muslim nations.
Broadcast on Egyptian television, the speech featured characteristically mild- natured Tantawi pounding the table with his fist while describing the Muslim world as a "ragtag nation" dominated by "demagoguery and hypocrisy".
Tantawi used the ousted Saddam Hussein regime as an example, saying the Iraqi leader had "attacked Kuwait while the Arabs failed to utter a word of truth".
The comment generated criticism of Tantawi, and resulted in a subsequent statement being released by Al-Azhar claiming that the speech had been misinterpreted and taken out of context. "Some newspapers have said the Grand Imam described the Muslim nation in an inappropriate manner," the statement said. "The truth is that he was talking about Saddam Hussein's ousted regime, which killed innocent people, harmed its neighbour, and defamed the image of Muslims and Islam."
According to the statement, Tantawi's comments were not meant for Islamic nations in general, but referred specifically to Saddam Hussein's regime and those who courted it. "It is impossible that any Muslim -- let alone the Grand Imam -- would describe the [Muslim] nation, which has been praised by God, in an insulting manner which defames or underestimates it, no matter what the reason," the statement said.
