RIYADH, 18 February 2007 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday called upon Arabs and Muslims to strengthen unity and cautioned them against forces that try to create division among them.
“Disunity will not bring anything good. But you know there are forces that create division between brothers,” the king said while receiving Saudi and foreign intellectuals, men of letters and journalists who are taking part in the weeklong National Heritage and Culture Festival at Janadriya as guests of the National Guard.
“I wish you every success in your mission and efforts for the welfare of humanity,” Abdullah told the gathering, which included Intelligence Chief Prince Muqrin and Prince Miteb ibn Abdullah, assistant deputy commander of the National Guard and deputy chairman of the festival’s organizing committee.
He urged Muslim and non-Muslim intellectuals to uphold human values. “The whole world is looking for humaneness,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the king as saying. “Anybody who works for his faith, nation and moral values will never be a loser,” the king said.
Dr. Muhammad Al-Salmawi, who spoke on behalf of the guests, commended King Abdullah’s efforts to reconcile feuding Palestinian factions by inviting their leaders to Makkah. “We look forward to Arabs achieving greater unity during their next summit in the Kingdom,” he added.
Speakers at an international seminar on Friday night organized as part of the festival pointed fingers at the United States for nurturing a culture of hatred toward Islam and Muslims. Mufti of Lebanon Dr. Muhammad Ali Al-Juzo, Dr. Jaafar Idrees, former chancellor of American Open University, and Ali Al-Namlah, former minister of social affairs, spoke at the seminar titled “Culture of Hatred: Radicalism, Domination, Clash of Civilizations.”
The mufti said radicalism, a product of racism, enclosure and religious hatred, was noticeable everywhere, but it was prominent in the West. “Despite the scientific advancement in America it still looks at others with snobbishness and conceit,” he said.
Al-Juzo said that racism and radicalism had continued in the West. “They have not been able to free themselves from racism since the Crusades,” he said.
He said America was seeking to impose its own agenda on other countries in the region through domination and cited the example of the invasion of Iraq, which President George W. Bush dubbed “Operation Freedom.”
“The invasion of Iraq was part of a big lie. It was accused of having weapons of mass destruction and was invaded. And all of this happened so Israel could feel secure and not threatened,” he added.
America, he said, was causing another tragedy in the region by taking sides in the Sunni-Shiite conflict by supporting one side against the other. He said that the president’s speeches reflected his prejudice toward Islam. “What their culture of hatred reveals to us today is only a fraction of what lies inside. Today we face a new Western colonization,” he added.
Dr. Jaafar Idrees said that America’s war was a cultural war. He said that currently in the West a wave of radicalism has risen where people are calling for laws to be established to prevent hatred. “This is idiocy. You cannot love and not hate at the same time. You cannot love God and not hate Satan, or love the truth and not hate falsehood,” he said.
“The matter is not about total love or total hate, but what it is exactly what you love and what you hate,” he explained. Part of Islam’s message in the world is to teach its followers what it is that they should love and what they should hate.
He said the Qur’an differentiated between hatred and hostility. He said Islam’s tolerant message is not to attack others who do not believe in its message, but to call them to the right path.
The problem, he noted, was not in hatred itself but when hatred turns into armed battles. “The real danger is when a superpower builds its policies on a religious belief which allows it to conquer other countries,” he said.
— Additional input by P.K. Abdul Ghafour
