الإسلام والغرب: نحو عالم أفضل

Islam and the West… for a better world @

However simplistic this formula might seem, it does exercise a certain kind of fascination. Lacking an adequate conceptual framework to cope with the chaotic flow of bad news after the horrific events of September 11th, 2001, more and more people seem inclined to such simplistic reductions. Indeed, nothing seems easier for the masses than a hasty pigeonholing of Islam and the West to answer the question of "what went wrong?" The thesis of two fundamentally different blocks of civilization condemned to perpetual conflict and war of attrition has a strong appeal to those seeking for an answer to the traditional question: Why do others hate us? If the organizers of the forum chose to speak about Islam and the West, it is not in the spirit of antagonizing further the relation between them, but in line with a deeply rooted conviction of Aljazeera Centre for Studies that what Islam and the West have in common is more than what divides them. The Holy Koran, the basic scripture of Islam, says: God's aim is unambiguous in creating human beings: they were created in male and female, and in different tribes and nations so that they may know each other. In Arabic, the verb "to know" shares the same etymological root as the verb "to recognize," which implies that knowing the "other" has as a prerequisite "recognizing" him and acknowledging his right to life. This applies also to Western languages. In French the link is obvious between "connaître" and "reconnaître;" or in German between "kennen" and "anerkennen." Indeed, nothing is more unreasonable than a wholesale condemnation of Western civilization as a demonic monolithic block. For, despite its evident aspects of political and economic hegemony, Western civilization remains a space of diversity. Throughout Western history, men O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is Knower, Aware. (Al-Hujurat)

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