RIYADH, 19 March — The dialogue of civilizations should take into account the root cause of friction between Islamic and other societies. This is possible through greater inter-action to identify issues of mutual concern and combating trends toward cultural chauvinism.
This was one of the arguments advanced on the second day of the international symposium on "Islam and the dialogues of civilizations" held at King Abdul Aziz Public Library here yesterday.
Delegates from Western countries hailed the dialogue as a good beginning to clear the misunderstanding between Islamic and other cultures and hoped that it would pave the way for future interaction between them at a different venue. The next symposium will be held in a European country next year. Faisal Al-Muammar, deputy of the National Guard for Education and Cultural Affairs and supervisor general of the King Abdul Aziz Public Library, said the date and venue of the inter-faith dialogue would be announced later.
In his presentation on "Contemporary civilization and the search for alternatives", Dr. Fahmi Jadaan, a Jordanian writer, observed that the starting point of the dialogue between Islam and other faiths should seek to delve into the real causes behind the growing anti-Western sentiments in the Arab and Islamic region.
He said the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli onslaught against Palestinians, together with the blind American support for Israel, had created resentment against the US and its allies. Dr. Fahmi called for intensified efforts to address the fundamental problems that had resulted in escalating violence and untold miseries for the Palestinians.
One way to do this is to increase Islamic-Christian dialogue and attempt to reach a common understanding on the issues at stake. This would help to purge minds of the canker of suspicion and hostility between the two peoples. He also called for combating cultural chauvinism in the West that seeks to impose its own brand on oriental societies through overt and covert means.
Renowned Islamic scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi in his lecture, "Civilizations: Conflict or Dialogue", put forward his view that Islamic expansion promoted a cross-fertilization of ideas between Muslim and other cultures. Through this cultural mix evolved a new ethos that preserved the cultural strands of a heterogeneous society in an Islamic environment.
He said Islam spread mainly by appealing to the minds of its converts. Dr. Badawi drove home the point with the popular saying:" If the Romans conquered the Greeks with the sword, the Greeks conquered the Romans with thought and wisdom." Thus, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 had an uplifting effect. It sowed the seeds of cultural renaissance in the West.
Speaking on the Arab contribution to Spain during 400-600 AD, Dr. Abdullah ibn Ibrahim Al Askar, professor of history at the College of Arts, King Saud University, Riyadh, cited the intellectual role of Arabs in Andalusia during that period. Thanks to their efforts, schools, libraries and centers of learning flourished in Andalusia, where one of the libraries had a collection of at least 400,000 volumes — a record at that time. The Arabs also encouraged interaction among Muslim scholars, Christian priests and Jewish rabbis — known as the monotheism-tripartite debate.
"Those arguments were philosophical in nature, and evolved around debates on the status of Jesus as deity or a human being, in addition to other issues related to the philosophy of religion, whether in Islam or Christianity, or arguments between their followers. These debates continued to the middle of the ninth century."
Dr. Anwar Abdul Malik, consultant at the Ahram Center for Modern Civilization Studies in Cairo, underlined the spirit of justice that Islam advocates. He said Islam played an important role in the cultural renaissance in the East by encouraging the arts and other intellectual pursuits. Arif Hussain, Indian diplomat and civil servant, said Islamic culture in India sprang from an intermingling of different cultures, blending both an Islamic and Indian aspect.
Fr. Thomas Michel, secretary for Interreligious Dialogue, Society of Jesus, Rome, said inter-faith dialogue should not be conducted only at the level of elite but also be extended lower down the social rungs of the ladder. He also advocated a "dialogue of values. Textbook lectures are not enough. We have to get together to know each other better. I can read dozens of books and still harbor prejudices against Islam. But my attitude could change if I meet Muslims and interact with them."
