Below are extracts from the Al-Jazeera TV interview with Abd al-HAmid al-Ansari. The programme can be viewed on the MEMRI website. Go to www.memri.org and view Special Despatch 1813, dated 16 January 2008 Islam must respect diversity of opinion and culture….. Al-Ansari: “…. In my opinion the people who try to impose a single religion, a single culture, a single political regime, oppose the will of Allah. Allah created human beings, and the Koran says: ‘but they will not cease to differ' until Judgment Day….. Why did Allah create human beings different from one another? The development of the world, the enrichment of life, and the progress of man and society can only take place where there is such diversity….” We lose because of the incitement and the preachers of hatred….. Al-Ansari: “….When we follow those who preach hatred, confrontation and conflict, we are the ones who end up losing. We do not have the power or the means for a confrontation. This means that our sons will turn into bombs. If we incite them against others, this means that instead of building our society, and establishing a culture of dialogue within the society, we use the religious pulpit and satellite TV for incitement. Of course the people who incite get away with it, and are never held accountable, but my son is the one who will pay the price. That is the problem, and unfortunately the law does not punish those who incite. It punishes my son, the perpetrator…..” Conspiracy theories do not benefit us in any way…. Al-Ansari: “The people who say that America and the West are the enemy, and who focus on conspiracy theories, want to create an imaginary enemy. We will not benefit from this in any way….” We busy ourselves exaggerating the defects of others Al-Ansari: “When I talk about a culture of dialogue I mean a culture that deals with its own defects and flaws more than with the flaws of others. What is happening today, as far as the culture of dialogue is concerned, is that we are busy following and exaggerating the defects of others. If somebody in the West disparages the Prophet or the religion of Islam, or says something abominable, we immediately blow this out of proportion, and this makes the preachers of hatred happy. They say to us: didn't we tell you that the West was hostile, and that it was constantly conspiring against us? But the truth is that there are many ‘wests', and America does not consist of a single sect or single opinion….” How can we teach our children to hate the scientists who discovered Insulin, or who are working to cure malaria? Al-Ansari then comments on how a Saudi woman wrote to a local journalist that her 8 year old daughter was taught in her Saudi school, in a class on monotheism, that the first way to disavow polytheists is to hate them. He says: “The mother wrote in her letter: do they expect me to hate the Jewish scientist who discovered insulin, which I use to treat my mother? Am I supposed to teach my daughter that she should hate Edison, who invented the light bulb, which lights up the Islamic world? Should I hate the scientist who discovered the cure for malaria? Should I teach my daughter to hate people merely because their religion is different? Why do we turn religion into a religion of hatred of those who differ from us….?” Beyond Images comments
Additional Beyond Images resources See our briefing: Rejecting Militant Islam and Accepting Israel: Muslim women Speak Out - Briefing 173, May 2006. See generally MEMRI: www.memri.org |
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