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CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE An
Open Letter to the Prime Minister Tony
Blair How
to strengthen peace and understanding
through education 
Dear
Mr. Blair,
We all know that the negative stereotyping
of Arabs and Muslims dates back to the
Middle Ages in Europe, when the expansion
of a dynamic successful Islam into Europe
led European leaders to discredit
culturally and politically the Arab
Islamic culture, in an effort to check its
advance in continental Europe. Over recent
decades, this image of Islamic
civilisation and Arab people, already
tarnished by cultural stereotyping, has
further deteriorated.
Today, almost every person in the West has
a negative view of Arabs and their
cultural heritage. This stems from a
profound ignorance about the contribution
Islamic Civilisation has made to the
development of the West over the last 600
years, and the great contributions that
Islamic thinkers, scholars and scientists
have made to man’s knowledge of himself
and the universe. This also explains the
failure on the part of the West to
acknowledge these contributions, when it
teaches history to its children.
This ignorance of the influence of Islam
over the centuries on European
civilisation and everyday life has meant
that throughout the West, Islam has
suffered and is still suffering from
misrepresentation and hatred. Hostile or
oriental stereotypes abound wherever there
is little awareness by Europeans or
Americans of Islam’s past contributions,
or of Islam’s potentially positive role
in Western society today. Historical
errors, educational eclecticism and an
over simplified approach by the media are
responsible for this situation.
Stereotyping has existed in one form or
another in almost all societies; yet,
today it has become more pervasive, as
information becomes global. We
live in information driven world that is
swamped by mass-produced images, nearly
all of which are intended to serve a
political or commercial purpose
One
way to combat this stereotyping and
vilification of an entire culture and
people is to include in the curricula of
the West’s education systems lessons,
courses, and awareness programmes on the
contributions of Arab/Islamic civilisation
to human development and its relationship
to the growth of western culture. May
I suggest that Western educators,
scholars, politicians, opinion formers and
governments should actively promote a more
multicultural view of Western history and
development, and encourage a deeper
understanding and sympathy for Arab
culture. I believe that this is the only
way to combat the current wave of
vilification and hatred towards Arabs and
Muslims.
Islam is often perceived by the West as
being incompatible with the essentially
secular and democratic principles that are
the basis of Western society, and its
ethics that uphold human rights and
freedom of expression. This view has been
reinforced lately by the devastating
attacks on America by what are called
‘Islamic fundamentalists’ that abhor
the West and all that it contains. They
are not representative of Islam as a
whole, or of its people. Within the
teaching of Islam there is the same
respect for human rights, equality,
freedom of expression and peace that
Western ethics are based on.
Perhaps if teaching modules on the
contributions made by Islamic
civilization, such as the introduction of
algebra and zero to the West, were
added to the school curricula, it would
show the interactions between Arab Islamic
culture and European culture, and their
interactions particularly during the
medieval period.
Western children would learn just
how much European Culture owes to Islamic
scholars, scientist, writers, doctors,
historians, explorers and mathematicians,
such as Al Ghazzali, Al Kindi, Ibn Sina,
Ibn Rushd, Ibn Khaldun and
thousands of other Islamic intellectuals.
They would also learn how the Abbasid and
Umayyad Caliphates encouraged learning and
knowledge. Had it not been for this quest
for knowledge, much of what the West knows
of Greek ideas, science and philosophy
would have been lost. It was the
translation of Greek texts into Arabic,
and their entering into medieval Europe
through the Arab caliphate in Spain, that
gave rise to the renaissance in Europe.
As it can be seen, Arabs and their faith,
Islam, produced eras of great learning and
toleration; for many centuries they were
the intellectual leaders of the world to
whom all others looked for their ideas.
This too, was at a time in European
history, described as the ‘Dark Ages’
by historians, when ignorance and
intolerance held sway over much of the
European continent.
I would ask you as the Leader of your
Nation to consider what is best for us
all. I ask you to help us change the
attitudes towards our people and faith, by
allowing knowledge to bring peace and
toleration to our troubled world.
It
is only by understanding others and their
beliefs, that we will be able to
administer justice fairly to all and
abolish bigotry and hatred.
So, as we enter the New Year, may I
request, that as part of your future plans
for school curricula in England,
consideration could be given to adding
teaching units on Islamic civilisation and Arabic culture to those topics already taught in
history, the sciences, and comparative
religion. After all, there is now a
sizable minority of British citizens who
are Muslims. To add such lessons to the
curricula may go a long way to easing some
of the tensions that have seen fighting
between the ethnic communities in Britain
this year, by instilling a sense of pride
in one, and a better understanding in the
other.
Yours
sincerely,
KHALAF
AL HABTOOR
Chairman,Al Habtoor Group,
Dubai, United
Arab Emirates
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