PARIS, 1 July 2003 — When, 25 years ago, a new organization was created in Paris, going by the name of “Islam and the West” and working to reach a better understanding and a closer rapprochement between the two worlds, international reaction was marked, on the whole, by indifference and skepticism.
When this organization launched its first campaign by initiating efforts to correct the image of Islam in history textbooks, interest was sparked off and sustained by several publishers in the realization of this ambitious program of revision, which subsequently proved to be one of the most useful reforms of European history textbooks.
Our organization had very early on recognized that the improvement of relations between Islam and the West called first of all for the promotion of the image of Islam in the Western countries.
Today, when the Saudi authorities are pushing through the urgent need to “foster a moderate image of Islam”, we can only rejoice at such resolve. That is because, today, each of us is well aware that if there is a deterioration in the image of Islam in Western countries — particularly in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001 — then that deterioration plays right into the allegation of a “clash of civilizations” and fuels arguments for confrontation between Islam and the West. The most formidable enemy of a rapprochement between these two worlds therefore has always been and will continue to be ignorance.
Ignorance of Islamic values in Western countries is far from being uprooted despite the latest cutting-edge information and communication technologies and despite the laudable efforts of international Muslim and non-Muslim organizations, which for more than 20 years have been fighting for a fairer perspective of the Islamic civilization.
The commendable efforts of the media to understand — as long as these efforts are not blocked by hostile forces — still fall short of the mark in that they tend to focus on a critique of the Islamic world, or miss the mark altogether by arguing for an increasingly systematic assimilation between Islam and an alleged Islamism, between Islam and extremism.
In his speech to the Jordanian Parliament, on Oct. 24, 1996, French President Chirac reminded the community of the moral values of Islam and the West, specifically common because they remain universal and render artificial any borders between Islam and the West. They are the values professed by Abraham that are as much a part of Judaism as they are of Christianity and certainly Islam.
These values may seem subject in Islam and the West to the pressures of social, economic and political facts and the assaults of modernity. Yet the vigor of true values has progressed or regressed depending on the exigencies of the respective societies of these two civilizations.
Nevertheless, peoples’ hearts and minds in these two human communities remain devoutly attached to such fundamental values as the sanctity of the human being, a sense of the sacred, solidarity, the family, tolerance and especially the sense of community that is such an integral part of a Muslim’s life as it was indeed the living spirit of Christians in the Middle Ages who called it “the community well-being”.
For many Westerners Islam and extremism are but one whereas if there is one sacred imperative in Islam, it has to be “the just middle;” that is the way of moderation, moderateness and mediation.
It is this image which must be promoted in all urgency through an appropriate international pedagogy to be applied at a global scale. International public opinion cannot become awake in the passivity and acquiescence to media conditioning. It must awaken to fulfill aspirations for a closer rapprochement that is crucial for the preservation of peace in the world.
Today, the silent majority of Muslims seems to have reached this moment of awareness. Calls for tolerance, appeals for moderation, the organization of opposition, prevention and eradication of terrorism in Muslim nations are positive steps and signs signaling awareness of the dangers of any confrontation between Islam and the West.
Authentic Islam has so many assets to offer to the West that still has difficulties understanding it. When for example a global economy comes face to face with the economy of developing countries that are anxious to preserve their identity, we often fail to appreciate that Islamic economy offers, through its humanism and specific ethical code, a possible model that can mediate between rival interests which are not seen as irrevocably divergent.
We must all work to deepen these efforts to achieve a closer rapprochement between Islam and the West and to develop the appropriate means to foster that rapprochement. Such means do in fact exist. Our organization “Islam and the West” is aware of their existence and with Allah’s help and the support of other organizations, it can bring them into play.
— Dr. Francis Lamand is president of “Islam and the West”.
