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Govts Must Support Inter-Cultural And Inter-Civilisation Dialogues

From Leslean Arshad

TOKYO, May 22 (Bernama) — Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called on governments to support inter-cultural and inter-civilisation dialogues to generate greater understanding, especially between those of the West and the world of Islam.

He said a successful dialogue between cultures and civilisations had now become another important pre-condition for achieving the global goals of peace, security and prosperity.

He said the dialogue between cultures and civilisations should take place at all levels of the international society, such as between scholars, writers, activists, academics, journalists, non-governmental organisations and must have the the support of governments.

The support of governments was crucial for such inter-cultural or inter-civilisation dialogues to succeed because the root cause of conflict between cultures and civilisations was not religious but political and strategic in nature, he said.

“There is no possibility of creating a true alliance of civilisations except with the involvement of governments, ideally through multilateral processes of inter-governmental deliberation such as at the United Nations,” he said in his address on “Bridging The Gap Between Cultures and Civilisations” at Meiji University here Tuesday.

Earlier, Abdullah was conferred an honorary doctorate by the university which was established in 1881 and ranks among the top-notch universities in Japan.

He also witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between the university and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Abdullah said the discord which had divided cultures and civilisations might have gone beyond disputes between the leadership of governments to the hearts and minds of their population and it might not be possible to achieve consensus except by way of persuasion.

However, he said, the role of governments remained critical because governments have the power of enforcement.

He also said that the dialogue could not be effective unless common goals and values were established and the governments of the world should provide guarantees that these goals and values would endure.

Abdullah said Malaysia believed that a dialogue which could effectively bridge the gap between cultures and civilisations was a discourse based on the multilateral process.

“A genuine commitment to multilateralism by all members of the United Nations, especially by the big powers, will send a strong signal to all governments that the purposes and principles enshrined in the charter of the United Nations shall form the basis of the conduct of relations between nations.

“Such a commitment will also provide the foundation for a true international partnership for establishing the goal of global peace and for achieving international economic and social development,” he said.

He said Malaysia was fully supportive of various efforts at international level which were designed to generate greater understanding between cultures and civilisations, especially between those of the west and the world of Islam.

He said the real and present danger to international peace, which has the greatest potential of affecting most directly the lives of people everywhere, was the growing schism between the Christian west and the Islamic world.

He said evidence could not be found in history which point to religion as the cause of the current conflict or the rise of hostility between Western and Muslim societies.

“I believe the explanation is to be found in more recent times, which is the repeated use of force or other machinations by the powerful over the weak to secure political, strategic or territorial gains.”

Abdullah said it had become common place to characterise anything Islamic as being antithesis to everything Western and therefore prejudicial to Western interest.

He said much of the prejudices against Islam in the West stemmed from a lack of understanding of the true nature of Islam as a religion professed by at least 1.4 billion people in the world.

Westerners meanwhile tended to view other people and other cultures only from the perspective of Western benchmarks and philosophies.

Abdullah said the dialogue was essential to expose and establish the fact that Islam was a religion which espoused universalism, not exclusivism, and did not make a distinction between any race or culture.

He said Islam Hadhari was not a new religion and not a new sect or mahzab school of thought but simply an exposition of the true nature of Islam.

At the international level, he said, Malaysia offered Islam Hadhari as Malaysia’s contribution towards a better understanding of Islam by all concerned, both Muslim and non-Muslim societies and peoples.

“Islam Hadhari is a demonstration that the teaching of Islam can be used to develop contemporary models of governance and social change that are based on the needs and aspirations of ordinary Muslims. It is a call to apply the deepest wisdom of Islam to find solutions to present-day problems,” he said.

— BERNAMA