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CHAIRMAN'S MESSAGE An
Open Letter to Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi 
Dear
Mr. Berlusconi,
As
Chairman of the Al Habtoor Group of
Companies, who has been a member of the
country’s National Council, a former
member of the Board of Directors of the
Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry,
Chairman of the Commercial Bank of Dubai
and a citizen of the United Arab Emirates,
I feel it is my duty to reply to your
recent remarks, broadcasted on Italian
Television, after your talks with the
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and
the Russian President Vladimir Putin on
the crisis set off by the events of 11th
September. They have left me in despair. Your outrageous remarks on
western civilisation and Islam were not
only a slur on the Arab civilisation but
on Islam itself.
As a former member of Harvard
University’s John F. Kennedy School of
Government, and until recently the only
non United States members of the world
board of governors of the American based
United Services Organisation and honoury
member of the Arab American Medical
association, I have found that most, if
not all, Europeans and Americans who are
familiar with Arab Islamic Culture came to
admire our civilisation for its
contributions to the development of
humanity. So when you said: “ We must be
aware of the superiority of our (western)
civilisation, a system that has guaranteed
the well being and respect for human
rights and (in contrast with Islamic
countries) respect for religious and
political right, a system that has as its
values, understanding of diversity and
tolerance,,” I was appalled as this
distortion of history.
What is even more worrying is that your
remarks seemed to be supported by Russian
President, Mr. Vladmir Putin, when he is
reportedly to have said that, “Islamic
Fundamentalism is a danger growing like
virus”. And the German Foreign Minister,
Yoschca Fischer, sees Islam as a danger,
because it would lead to the destruction
of Israel. His remark completely ignores
the justice of the Palestinians’
struggle for their homeland.
None of these sentiments would have been
expressed I believe, if President
Bush hadnot foolishly claimed that America
was launching a ‘Crusade Against
Terrorism’, implying that this was a
clash of civilisations putting the West
against Arab and Islamic civilisation
throughout the world.
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In your very damaging remarks Mr.
Berlusconi, you claim western civilisation
to be superior, because it “has at is
core, as its greatest value, freedom,
which is not the heritage of Islamic
culture”; this is an insult to all good
Muslims and to our great cultural
heritage.
What you statement ignores is the process
of history: no one people or race can lay
claim to a “unique civilisation. All
emerging civilisations owe a great deal to
those that have gone before them or are
developing around them.
Thus, to denigrate our culture and society
is to devalue your own. In the case of
“Western Civilisation”, others have
passed on all the values and knowledge it
now espouses and has adapted too it. In
particular, the contributions of
Arab-Islamic Civilisation have been
significant. Without its thinkers,
philosophers, mathematicians, scientists
and doctors, the West would not have the
values or structure it does today.
Not only has Arab Islamic Civilisation
made major contributions to humanity, but
also it has, because of its ingrained
respect for knowledge, translated and
preserved much of the work of the Greeks
and Romans. Had it not done so much for
the philosophy that western civilisation
is based on, it would have been lost
forever in the turmoil of the Middle Ages
in Europe, an age in which few could read
or write and much learning was lost.
So much of what you value in the word came
from the great Arab Islamic civilisations
of the past. The western numbering system
for instance is adapted from Arab
numerals. A whole branch of mathematics,
Algebra, is another significant
contribution that Arab Islamic
civilisations have made to the sum of
human knowledge. Quite apart from this
remarkable achievements, Arab
contributions in Medicine is notable with
books by great Islamic physicians works
such as Avicenna’s
“Al Canoon” and Al Razi’s “Al
Hawi”, were translated from Arabic and
became the standards used by Physicians in
the West for many years up to the 18th
century in Europe.
Islamic Arab societies were among the
first to set up universities and certainly
the first societies to ensure that
literacy was wide spread through a school
system, the like of which would not be
seen in most Western societies until the
late 19th Century. These are
but a few examples of the vast
contribution that Arab Islamic
civilisation has made to the store of
human knowledge.
Branding Islam as a system that enslaves
its adherents, denies human rights, takes
away their human dignity, is intolerant of
others and their religions, and is a
travesty of the truth. I can only conclude
that you have little real knowledge or
understanding of Islam and the Arab
Civilisation. How else can you so
irresponsibly incite hatred by your words?
Or is it that along with President Bush,
you really do believe that they are at war
with Islam.
I find it worrying, that both you and
President Bush believe that Islam promotes
hatred and fanaticism; because Islam’s
foundation is peace. The very name
‘Islam’ comes from the Arabic root
word ‘salaama’ which means
‘peace’. Islam is a religion based
upon achieving peace. By its very
linguistic definition, the nature of Islam
is apparent. It is a religion of peace.
Therefore, any act that is contrary to
peace, such as terrorism, is not
sanctioned by Islam and has no place in
it. They are not Islamic and should never
be thought of as Islamic. Islam guarantees
human rights, freedom of action, and the
right to choose within an organised social
framework, based on justice, truth and
charity.
It is to be added, that its practitioners
see Islam as a continuation of God’s
message. The Kor’an, is in fact a
continuation of both the Christian Bible
and the Jewish Torah with the same
messages of peace, justice and truth that
they teach.
I would like to quote from a recent letter
I received from Sir Mark Sykes whom
Grandfather, Sir Mark Sykes along with
George Picot drew up the Sykes-Picot
agreement of 1916, that has divided the
Middle East in which he says. ”Many
faiths have given much to the world,
particularly in the field of art and
culture, whether it be the Temple of the
Parthenon in Athens, Angkor Wat, St.
Peter’s in Rome, or the Blue Mosque of
Isfahan. Islam is pre-eminent in this
respect, and many Westerners are unaware
that much of their own culture comes form
Islam. Arab scholars revived the old books
and scientific and medical treatises of
the Greeks, and translated from Arabic
into Western tongues and by this route the
learning of the ancient world inspired the
European Renaissance. Arab mathematicians
gave us our numbers, our “ Arabic
numerals”, discovered the concept of
zero; “ Algebra” is an Arabic word.
When the Roman Empire collapsed into the
disintegration of the European Dark Ages,
the University of Fez was the largest in
the world, and Baghdad the richest
city.”
He
continues: “When Salah-uh-Din, one of
the greatest figures of history retook
Jerusalem, the city gates were opened to
him by the Jews, they knew that under
Saladin, they would have more
opportunities and liberties than under the
Christian Crusader knights. In contrast,
when the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem a
century earlier, they waded in blood to
the altar of the Cathedral of St. John and
they killed everyone, including
Christians, who they found taking
sanctuary in the holy building.”
Man seems to be by nature intolerant; but
the Holy Koran recognises the Peoples of
the Book, and particularly in the long
golden age of the Caliphate of Cordoba, a
multi-faith culture that flourished under
Islam. Yes, of course there are intolerant
elements in Islam, which some of us do not
believe reflect the teachings of the
Prophet; but remember the burnings of
heretics in the squares of Spain, the
auto-da-fe, under the Spanish Inquisition,
and the 10,0000 Protestant heretics hanged
every year in the Spanish Netherlands
under the rule of the Spanish governor,the
Duke of Alba.”
This tolerance for others has enabled
faiths to survive and be practised within
Arab Islamic societies. When other states
were condemning faiths that were not
practised by them and through intolerance
were condemning and outlawing their
adherents. Countries governed by Islamic
principle, were, and have over time
provided the freedom to practise their
religions. They have protected and offered
refuge to other religions. This acceptance
and tolerance enabled Arab Islamic
civilisation to flourish, and become
great, precisely because at its core it
values, Truth, justice, human rights and
human dignity.
The modern secular western
capitalism of the type promoted by
European leaders and America is not even
favoured by the Orthodox Christian faiths.
They believe that through promoting the
material aspects of society, Western
governments has eroded the spiritual side
of human life, turning people away from
God and morality.
So, as the
proverb says, put your own house in order
before criticising mine.
Khalaf
Al Habtoor |
