The Meaning of Dialogue (al-hiwar) between Civilisations Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3
When we say dialogue or clash, we mean Muslims, their deen and their
civilisation on one side; and Christians and their religion and the
Capitalists and their civilisation, on the other side. It is a malicious
attempt that the leaders and intellectuals of the Capitalist civilisation
differentiate between Islam and its followers i.e. between Islam and
Muslims. So they claim that Islam is great but Muslims are backward
and some of them are terrorists. They are liars in their view, for if Islam
was really great in their view, then they would have embraced it. However
they attempt to delude the naïve from amongst Muslims, attempting to
reduce the rancour against them when they strike a Muslim people, or
when they attempt to spread the concepts of their civilisation among
Muslims. They know that the Islamic ‘aqeedah still remains in the souls of
Muslims and it is strong in the majority of them. So if they openly
declare their enmity to Islam, they will stir up Muslims and provoke
them. Thus they use these deceptive sentences as a weapon to
anaesthetise Muslims and to deceive them. Some Muslims would swallow
this bait and accept dialogue by the meaning presented by Christians
and Capitalists or promoted by their agent intellectuals. They concentrate
in the definition of this dialogue upon three matters: The first is equality
between religions and civilisations in the dialogue without superiority
or preference of a religion or civilisation over another. The second is that
the limit of the dialogue is restricted to mere knowledge of the other's
opinions without addressing its refutation or invalidation. The third is
creating an alternative civilisation through the method of arriving at the
common denominators between the two religions and two civilisations.
This is the meaning of dialogue in their view, and its benefit as they
claim is: "Productive interaction between cultural peculiarities, to form
an alternative superior civilisation, that invites to accept the other on
the same footing" (Dr. Milad Hana in a cultural debate held in Cairo on
Monday, 2/4/2001). And: "Every time civilisations seek to find what is
common between them and what is human, they advance, flourish; and
peace would spread" (Dr. Jafar Abdussalam, the Secretary-General of
the Conference of Islamic Universities). One of them went to the extent
of saying that: "Islam is a deen of interaction and a deen of development,
and not like what is said that it is a deen of obscurity and a deen of
isolation. On the contrary, the golden age of Islam and Muslims waswhen the Islamic civilisation interacted with other civilisations in the
world, and when Islam spread in the world, took from and had a room
for all the legacies and other human civilisations and gave them from its
legacy and civilisation. This was the golden age of the Islamic State." (Dr.
Qasim Jafar spoke, in a study circle on 'The First War of the Century',
on Al-Jazeera channel, under the heading: 'Are the American explosions
an incentive for dialogue or the clash of civilisations?' on 29/9/2001).
He said: "It is upon us as Arabs and Muslims to abstain from this
problem…it is upon us to possess sufficient confidence in ourselves, in
our civilisation, and in our history and legacy, so as to burst forth in the
world from the position of equality, and not the position of the follower
(tabi')…" (The above-mentioned study circle of Al-Jazeera channel).
Another said: "The Islamic civilisation was based upon the common
denominator between world civilisations so it accepted the other and
interacted with it in taking and giving (Amru Abdulkarim, a political
scientist - IslamOnline.net). Another person attempted to use as evidence
for the dialogue of civilisations the aayaat of the Noble Qur'an so he
said: "And our Book, the Glorious Qur'an, emphasises upon the manner
of dialogue with the others, dialogue with polytheists (mushrikeen):
'If one of the polytheists seeks your protection, grant him protection until he hears
the word of Allah' [TMQ At-Tauba: 6],
Dialogue with disbelievers (kafireen):
'Say: O you disbelievers' [TMQ Al-Kafirun: 1],
Dialogue with the current
and official religions in the world:
'O People of the Book, come to a just word between us and you: That we worship none but Allah, that we associate nothing with Him, nor some of us take others as
lords' [TMQ Al-Imran: 64], >>>>>>>>> PAGE 2