In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

May Allah's Peace and Blessing be upon you!

 

Your Eminence, 

Distinguished fellow panel members, 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

 

In the name of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and the Muslim Council of Elders (MCE), I would like to welcome you to Egypt. All of Egypt welcome you and feels the utmost pleasure for hosting such an important conference. This conference comes under exceptional circumstances and at a difficult time not only for our region, but also for the whole world. This is especially true amid the wars that have broken out in the Arab and Muslim world without any reasonable causes acceptable for humankind in the 21st century.

It is appalling and equally sad and painful that religion is depicted in such miserable circumstances to be the main reason behind these wars. It is being depicted to people that religion was the key motive behind the terrorist attacks perpetrated against the World Trade Center, the Bataclan theater, the subway stations, and the killing of innocent lives in Niece city and other many cities in the East and the West. We feel very sorry for such terrifying scenes of terrorist attacks that are taking place on an increasing scale. It hurts us more that along with such growing wave of terrorism, extremism is growing while any sound understanding of the reality of divine religions or wisdom behind the prophet's missions is diminishing. Moreover, there is a big conflict between this sound understanding of religions and the falsified interpretations that undermine the correct religious practices and make the sacred texts a tool misused by a few number of criminals. Indeed, religious texts have turned away to be like a gun hired by whoever offers the highest price among arms dealers, war brokers, and theorists of new colonialism.

If you contemplate the condition of such misled groups that have deviated from the right path of religion, you will notice that whenever they try to come together under the banner of Islam, they start to accuse each other of treachery and disbelief. That leads you to realize that they have nothing to do with religion and that they just exploit the name of Islam to involve it in such bloodshed under contradictory pretexts.

Another fact that can help us identify the falsehood of such bloody calls is that those extremists are not really concerned with correcting the religion which they claim to have been deformed, out of their so-claimed intellectual renewal and legal reasoning. It is rather thirst for bloodshed, killing innocent people, and destroying human achievements that they are after, once they have an opportunity to do that.

Until very recently, such misguided extremist groups were too weak and few to cause any danger or harm to the image of the Muslims. However, today they have become very close to mobilizing the whole world against our righteous religion. We can take as one example the phenomenon of Islamophobia in the northern and southern states in the West. The Muslim people are suffering from the consequences of such a phenomenon.

We are not here today to investigate the phenomenon of Islamophobia, or terrorism that feeds it and promotes the feelings of hatred and enmity against Islam and the Muslim. It is not our question now to find whether terrorism is a local or international strategy, plotted maliciously against the Muslims with support from those who pretend to be defending the human rights. An equal malicious support is generously provided by those who claim to be catering for the global peace, coexistence, liberty, equality, and the other claims stated in the international covenants that we very well remember.

I believe that investigating such issues should be our primary concern for which forums should be organized and religious men, intellectuals, and the free people in our world should seek to reveal to the whole world. In so doing, they will identify those responsible for the nonstop bloodshed and people killed every minute to please those who sponsor such claims.

The fair-minded person who looks at the phenomenon of Islamophobia will easily realize the illogical paradox and the double-standard policy on the part of the international community towards Islam on the one hand and towards Christianity and Judaism on the other. This is the status quo, albeit all the three religions face the same accusation of being the source of religious violence and terrorism. The West never cared for the waves of Christian and Jewish fanaticism without making any objection to their practices. However, when it comes to Islam, the West has done everything to hold it accountable while leveling endless accusations against it and thus marring its image.

Yes, the most terrible violent acts in the history of Christianity and Judaism were easily tolerated by the West where religion was said to have nothing to do with terrorism. Examples of such violent acts include the bombings carried out by Michael Bray of Women's health clinics, the bomb attack that targeted Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city by Timothy McVeigh, and the hate speech by David Koresh and the subsequent violent acts in Texas, not to mention the religious conflicts in Northern Ireland and the fact that many religious institutions were involved in raping and killing more than two hundred and fifty thousand Muslims in Bosnia.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

Allah knows that I do not mean by such lengthy introduction to call to the memories the painful scenes of such terrorist acts or to promote conflict among the human beings. This has never been the message of Divine religions, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the East, known for its tolerance, or the civilized West. However, I just want to say that if the religious institutions in the East and the West fail to stand together against Islamophobia, it will target both Christianity and Judaism sooner or later. We will regret it at a time when regret will be of no avail. The common saying, "what goes around comes around" will then prove very true. Indeed, the world has witnessed a rise in the number of the conspirers against religion, atheists and those who promotes the belief in the death of Allah, the advocates of physicalism who are brought forth by Nazism and communism. On the other hand, there are those who call for the legalization of illicit drugs, the destruction of the fabric of family lifestyle, the application of social sex system, and the right to abortion. Other groups now encourage carrying out male and female transformation surgeries and seek to replace national identities with globalization to remove any differences between peoples and eliminate their cultures. Thus, they erase their cultural, religious, and historical characteristics to serve their own purposes. Such evil calls are now developing and the EU authorities are being asked to carry them out. Unfortunately, these calls are gaining more strength and their advocates will attack the Divine religions since they depict religion as the sole source of wars. They say that Christianity gave birth to the Crusades and that Islam is now giving rise to terrorism and bloodshed, insisting that the only solution is to totally eliminate religion from the whole world. They are the same people who turn a deaf ear to the deaths caused by civil wars waged by atheists and pro-globalization fanatics during the second half of the 20th century. Religion had nothing to do with such wars and a pupil in his early school days can prove the fact that the number of the victims of the wars waged in the name of religion since the pre-common era to the present is hardly a tenth of the number of those killed in the wars launched by the advocates of the social schools. Records of history report that millions of innocent lives were killed, tortured, or exiled in response to false prophecies none of which has ever come true.

 

Great knowledgeable gathering, 

I think you agree with me that the mere defense of the Divine religions against the accusations of terrorism is no longer enough in the light of the enormous challenges we have to face. It is time to take a further step by providing practical ethical models from the religions to address such volatile reality. In my opinion, such a step requires making some necessary arrangements, on the top of which is the removal of any suspicions or tensions among the religious leaders. That is because if peace could not be achieved between the religious leaders in the first place, they will never be able to carry it out to the common people. Such a step can be achieved through our getting to know each other and to have cooperation and integration among us. The religion of Islam, which I am proud to adopt as my religion, calls our attention to this fact in the following Qur᾿ānic verse, memorized by both Muslims and Christians alike, in which Allah Almighty says, “Humankind, surely We have created you of a male and a female, and made you races and tribes so that you may get to know each other. Surely the most honorable among you in the sight of Allah are the most pious; surely Allah is All Knowing, All Cognizant” (Qur᾿ān, 49:13)

Islam also stresses a very natural human right, namely the right to freedom and living without any pressures, especially in terms of one's belief and religious affiliation; Allah says:

- “There is no compulsion in religion.” (Qur᾿ān, 2:256)

- “Had your Lord so willed, those on earth would have all believed. Would you then compel people in order that they may become believers?” (Qur᾿ān, 10:99) 

- “Your duty [Prophet Muḩammad] is nothing except the proclamation of the Message.” (Qur᾿ān, 42:48)

Likewise, among the instructions included in Prophet Muḩammad's letter to the people of Yemen is as follows, “Whoever dislikes Islam among the Jews or Christians should not be compelled to abandon his religion.” This is just one example of the many Islamic authentic texts that establish the right to freedom for all people.

As Al-Azhar calls for the adoption of 'citizenship' to replace the concept of 'minority', it does so on the basis of a constitutional principle applied by the Prophet of Islam (pbuh) to the first Muslim community in history, namely the Muslim state of Medina. The Prophet (pbuh) considered all the Muslim, Christians, and Jewish residents in Medina equal citizens in terms of their responsibilities and rights. The Islamic heritage has passed to us this role-model Prophetic document that fully recognizes the constitutional rights in a way that has never been known in the written human history.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

I may have taken too much time to deliver my speech. Indeed, your keen attention has tempted me to speak out all the concerns and pains I have written down on this manuscript. 

In conclusion, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to H.E. Mr. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, for his patronage of this conference, "Freedom, Citizenship, Diversity, and Integration". I highly value his sincere efforts in calling for the promotion of peaceful coexistence, freedom, and citizenship. I also extend my thanks to our honorable guests as well as our brothers and sisters and the organizing committee for the hard work they have done in the preparation of this event. I hope it will meet your expectations and I apologize to our local and international guests for any non-deliberate shortcomings on our part in terms of serving you in the best possible manner.