The expanded European Union of today has in its folds millions of indigenous Muslims who constitute a considerable principal demographic, intellectual and cultural component of Europe dating from the 8th and the 15th centuries. The 800 years of Muslim culture in Spain and in other parts of Europe have enriched Western culture and made vital contribution in many fields of human endeavor — in science, astronomy, mathematics, algebra (itself an Arabic word), law, history, medicine, pharmacology, optics, agriculture, architecture, theology, music, etc.
When we consider the geographic dimension and demographic reality, we find that Europe’s boundaries from the 14th to the 21st century include parts of the Muslim world, particularly in its southern and eastern regions. Demographically, many Muslims in Europe such as Albanians, Bosnians, Pomaks, Torbich, Romans, and the Turks are actually ethnicities of indigenous European origin. Besides, the millions of Muslims who have emigrated to Europe, the US and other Western countries over the past decades and who have become an integral component of Western societies, are proud of their Western identity. Then, why this gap that should have never been allowed to be created in the first place?
The gap has been built over time by preconceived attitudes, misperceptions, misgivings, prejudices and ignorance and above all, the failure to recognize its perilous implications. It requires a strong and determined collective political will to address the challenge.
The first and foremost action for us would be to determine our priorities and to bring focus of the international community to the core of the issue, which is accepting the reality of the peaceful coexistence in diversity. The bridge that we envisage must be laid on strong foundations of a committed political will not only to talk, but also to listen and to agree on a solution. In this task, all the stakeholders would have to come out of the confines of preconceived mindsets and to interact constructively and frankly toward a set target.
We must have the strength to take a hard look at ourselves to determine our strengths and accept our weaknesses. At the same time, we must not stoop low to judge the other as a lesser partner, nor should we try to impinge on the values and beliefs that may not conform to those of our own. We must demonstrate our courage and determination to isolate those who stand in the way of our efforts of bridging the gap by resorting to incitement, defamation or denigration of religious sentiments.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference has been an active player in the process of bridging the gap between the West and the Muslim world. The OIC today is the second largest international organization outside the United Nations. We can justly take pride that our organization has been a pioneer in bringing the concept of “Dialogue Among Civilizations” into the agenda of the international relations as early as 1998 at the UN General Assembly. Since then, we have remained firm and committed in our outreach to the West for meaningful dialogue among civilizations.
In recent years, we have expanded the scope and mandate of our activities in taking the task of building bridges with the West beyond rhetoric. The visionary Ten-Year Program of Action that was adopted by the 3rd Extraordinary Summit of the OIC in Makkah in 2005 provides a road map for reconciliation and healing through promoting dialogue and mutual respect and condemning and rejecting extremism and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.
Since the adoption of the Ten-Year Program of Action, the OIC took the lead to engage with our partners and stakeholders in the West in a constructive dialogue to remove misgivings about Islam and raise awareness of the dangers of a growing trend of Islamophobia. We made it a point to regularly interact with the political leadership and opinion-makers in the West and tried to draw them toward a meeting of minds. I believe that we were able to make some progress by developing a close working relationship based on mutual trust with the European Union and its associated institutions as well as with the US government. We have also given our unstinted support to the UN High Representative of the Alliance of Civilizations. We have also interacted extensively with the Western civil society. In all our interactions, I have made it clear that the Muslim world should not be perceived as an adversary but a partner in peace. We underscored the point that our objective was not to preach but to communicate; to understand and to be understood. We emphasized that the commonalities between Islam and the Christian traditions and culture of the West far outweigh the differences and that these commonalities are the foundations that will hold us together and not set us apart. In this, I have on several occasions called for a historical reconciliation between the Muslims and the Christians similar to what has been achieved between Christianity and Judaism. I firmly believe that this is an achievable target and would go a long way in bridging the gap between the two worlds that we are speaking about.
Then there is the scourge of Islamophobia, which is perhaps the biggest impediment that is keeping alive the gap between the West and the Muslim world. A marginal group of individuals and organizations are actively involved in targeting Muslims and Islam in a campaign of hate and discrimination. Of late, this trend is on the rise. The hate-mongers have resorted to incite passion and unrest by inflammatory and incendiary remarks and publications against symbols that are sacred to Muslims. The most recent incidents in the campaign of Islamophobia are the reprinting of the cartoons and the film “Fitna” denigrating Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Holy Qur’an. This is not to say that I am absolving those few in the Muslim world who are involved in preaching intolerance. But the technological advancement and the ownership of the media, being almost entirely in Western possession, make this unholy competition almost totally lopsided. The repeated acts of incitement and insult do not augur well for the international community. The perpetrators of hatred may be limited in their number but their outreach is long and widespread in fanning anger and distrust between the West and the Muslim world.
We are encouraged to see, however, that an awareness of the dangers of Islamophobia is gradually setting in the West. The condemnations by many Western leaders and governments of Islamophobic acts such as “Fitna” are positive confidence building measures that lead us to believe that all is not lost and that the gap can be closed in time. But mere condemnation or distancing from the acts of the perpetrators of Islamophobia will not resolve the issue as long as they remain free to carry on with their campaign of incitement and provocation on the plea of freedom of expression.
— Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu is secretary-general of the Jeddah-based Organization of the Islamic Conference.
