Muslim world and West have a lot in common, says PM

Monday June 9, 2008 MYT 4:27:16 PM

By IZATUN SHARI

KUALA LUMPUR: There is a need to reframe the discourse on the divide between the Muslim world and the West given the fact that both sides have a lot in common, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.

The Prime Minister said there was a need to establish recognition that the Muslim world and the West were not total strangers but, in fact, parties, which do not share a historical, existential and philosophical worldview.

"If we can accomplish this, we would have taken an important step in closing the gap," Abdullah said Monday in his keynote address at the third "International Conference on the Muslim World and the West: Bridging the Gap" at the Shangri-La Hotel here.

He said there were more commonalities among the three great monotheistic religions of Islam, Christianity and Judaism than among any other world religions because they shared traditions and values, in spite of their differences.

"We should therefore nurture these common grounds in the interest of a common agenda of peace, rather than quibble and magnify these differences to serve some other political or strategic agendas."

He said the Islamic world and the West must work to regain mutual trust, respect, understanding and cooperation that were important for world peace and security.

In order to move forward, he said both sides must listen with an open mind and an equally open heart.

"We must stand together with a firm commitment to establish a culture of tolerance and harmony in order to better promote the wellbeing of humankind, notwithstanding the differences or dissimilarities that exist between us as communities."

He noted that the divide between the Muslim world and the West originated in the hearts and minds of humans.

"It is geo-politics and the cynical manipulation of religious creed or secular ideology that trigger these conflicts and which bring about this divide.

He said that if the feelings, attitudes and perceptions that each side had of the other were altered, the gap would close to a very significant degree.

He pointed out that the negative attitudes and perceptions among Westerners and Muslims, which created and sustained the divide, were actions of a few bigoted players on both sides.

"They have been created and fuelled by several defining political events, and abetted by certain socio-economic and religious factors.

"For example, when the Soviet Union imploded in 1989, a number of influential Western thinkers decided that Islam was their next existential enemy after Communism. Thus began the shaping of some of the negative western attitude and actions towards the Muslim ummah (people)."

Abdullah also expressed Malaysia's intention to work closely with the United Nations and the Alliance of Civilisations (AoC), as part of the worldwide effort undertaken by the AoC to create understanding between and among civilisations of the world.

"As a member of the group of friends of the AoC, Malaysia's own efforts in this regard will complement those of the Alliance and will be part of the AoC's global programmes of action. We want to be contributing to the global efforts - to be a spoke within the overarching wheel of the UN-supported AoC."

He said Malaysia's effort would be a regional one that would be reinforcing and sustaining those of the AoC in what might well be a long-term global undertaking.

Established in 2005 at the initiative of the Spanish and Turkish governments under the auspices of the UN, the alliance is supported by a group of friends - a community of over 85 member countries and international organisations and bodies to build a bridge among a diversity of culture and communities but not inclusively between Muslim and Western societies.

"Malaysia believes that success in this endeavour requires the cooperation of governments working in partnership with the private or business sector, the religious sector, and civil society, and that this work has to be carried out in both the Western and Muslim countries."

Abdullah said the effort required a comprehensive and dynamic approach, with each sector supporting and reinforcing, in a spirit of cooperation and competition for the common good of all sectors.

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