Jordan Times
Sunday, August 22, 2004
AMMAN — HRH Crown Prince Hamzah on Saturday urged Muslim scholars to address their nation's woes and defend it against relentless campaigns seeking to defame Islam.
Crown Prince Hamzah told the Al al Bayt Foundation for Islamic Thought's 13th General Conference that “the nation is under successive pressures and challenges that show no sign of abating,” adding that Muslim scholars must stand up to these challenges.
Highlighting efforts by Muslim scholars to defend Islam, Prince Hamzah, the higher president of the foundation, said fierce campaigns try to depict Islam as a breeder of extremism and terrorism.
“You have deployed your knowledge and deep insight to refute these accusations and allegations. You displayed the true essence of Islam and its human dimension. You provided clear answers to all the questions raised,” the Prince told more than 90 scholars gathering in Amman for the three-day meeting.
The Muslim nation should resort to sound education and wisely manipulated media to help face the current challenges, he said, explaining that well-planned education based on constants of the nation is “the only way to revive the universal message of Islam.”
“The educational process in Muslim countries should produce self-confident individuals equipped with spiritual and knowledge requirements that enable to be partners in the human civilisation, while at the same time maintain their cultural and religious identities well-preserved.”
Deputising for His Majesty King Abdullah to inaugurate the event, the Crown Prince acknowledged the great influence of media on people, but said it can help Muslims communicate better with the world and save their cultural identity from fading away.
“The lack of sound ways to bring up the generations and sound steering of the youth... led a few people to take the path to extremism. Though limited in scope, this phenomenon has been cited by outsiders with certain agendas to depict Islam as an institution that breeds extremists and terrorists. But the truth is that Islam and the Muslims do reject and condemn these exceptional cases, which are against their true religion,” Prince Hamzah said.
Regardless of any excuses and drives behind extremism, he stressed, “no one has the right to take the life of an innocent peaceful human being on the basis of incorrect and out-of-context interpretations” of the teachings of Islam.
Meanwhile, Ibrahim Shabbouh, director of the foundation, briefed the gathering on the organisation's achievements.
He in particular underlined a comprehensive online plan on tafsir (exegesis of the Holy Koran). What is different about the project is that it displays how the revealed verses of the Koran are explained throughout the Islamic history by scholars belonging to eight mazhabs (schools of Islamic jurisprudence), according to Shabbouh.
The foundation is also working on an online index for Islamic old scripts. By browsing the planned site, researchers would be able to locate any Islamic document, which are scattered in the various museums of the world. Shabbouh added that the foundation has also printed two volumes of a book on Islamic economy, in which the authors trace all aspects of such economy throughout the Islamic history. The scholars, representing 40 Arab, Muslim and other countries, plan to explain that Islam is a faith of democracy and has potential to promote pluralism and freedom, coexisting with modern democracies in the West.
Discussions revolve around three topics: Islamic rule and the concept of “shura,” democracy in its modern sense and case studies of shura and democracy across history.
Participants include key clerics and academics specialised in Islamic thought, including Sheikh Youssef Qardawi and Murad Hoffman, the former German ambassador to Morocco who converted to Islam, Secretary of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation Abdul Aziz Tweijri and Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference Eklemeddin Ihsanoglu.
The Crown Prince presented Al Istiqlal Medal of the First Order and other medals to several members of the foundation in recognition of their roles in Islamic thought.
He also presented certificate of membership to new members of the foundation.
The Al al Bayt Foundation was established in 1980 as an international, non-governmental charitable foundation comprising a membership of 70-100 of the world's top Islamic scholars and clerics.