Dear Editor,
The founding of the Global Movement of Moderates was initially primarily focused on Islam and the West as per the PM’s speeches to the UN, Commonwealth, Oxford U Islam Centre etc.
I thus find it puzzling in his opening address that the PM roped in the financial market as well. Might as well include extreme science (Nuclear Weapons), extreme corruption(TI ranking), extreme cleansing (no churches, temples in Saudi Arabia), extreme crimes (apostasy). How about extreme sports? The conference has thus lost its focus and meandered into a minefield of extremes. No wonder a participant found it “mind-boggling”.
True, violence and extremism are committed by people of all faiths. The reality is over 90 per cent are committed by Muslims on others and fellow Muslims.
Dialogues, understanding, tolerance, mutual respect, “acceptance of the other as an equal; these are the fundamental prerequisites for a meaningful dialogue” ( Raja Muda Perak). These words were bandied around here and in many like conferences around the world. The most important word “missing” is reciprocity. You can convert to any religion in the West and build mosques and temples but you will need a presidential decree to even repair a church in Egypt!
The Raja Muda was quoted as saying the Palestinian issue is a political one. I disagree. It is first and foremost and from the beginning a religious issue. Not land, not settlements. How so? Well if the Israeli Jews, Zionists, were to convert to Islam the problem will immediately disappear!
Moderation itself is subjective relative to time and context. In possession of Mao’s Little Red Book in the 60s would have put you in jail. Today it is a collector’s item! Conversely the “Allah” controversy was a non -issue but considered extreme by some now.
To be truly effective the GMM must act — no more wordy dialogues. And dialogues must be between them and the Muslim World. Dialogue with them on the meaning of understanding, tolerance, respect and reciprocity. A good start would be to implement faithfully the UN’s Declaration on Human Rights, all nations being members. Dialogue with them to stop the supremacist rhetoric “Islam will rule the world”; stop the syndrome “Israel is a cancerous tumour and must be excised from the Arab body”; stop the conspiracy theory “the Jews rule the world” (China the coming superpower, Jewish?); the daily insults from Arab media (infidels, the Jews are descended from apes and pigs); falsifying history (Jesus was a Palestinian, He was the first shahid).
This conference reminds me of one by USM Decolonising of the Mind last year when participants never missed an opportunity to do some West-bashing however slim the linkages.The only difference was this conference was at an extreme cost.
To really gauge the effectiveness of this inaugural GMM may I suggest the next conference and the secretariat be held and headquartered somewhere near the epicentre like Baghdad, Gaza City or Cairo?
It’s only words
PJ
Catholic Herald
