|
Jordan: Prince urges reforms in Muslim thinking
Jordan's Crown Prince Hamzah on Saturday urged reforms in Muslim thinking and criticized Islamic extremism, but said such fanaticism resulted from injustices and oppression being suffered by Muslims.
| "Nobody suffers like we do!" |
Hamzah, a half brother of Jordan's King Abdullah II and heir to the throne, told 80 scholars from 40 countries attending a three-day conference here that the Muslim world was facing "successive pressures and challenges ... (that) extend to every corner of the (Islamic) nation's potential and its sacred shrines." Hamzah did not elaborate on the pressures Muslims were facing, saying only that fanaticism was caused by a "deprivation, oppression and absence of justice" that "provokes hatred."
| It's caused by Koranic interpretation by prestigious clerics who stand to run things if Islam does manage to conquer the world... |
The prince said the extremist Islamic behavior resulting from such pressure is, then, "taken as evidence to convict and blame Muslims on the false assumption that these are characteristics of their morals, principles and even religion."
| If they do it in the name of their religion what the hell are we supposed to think? |
"But the truth is that Islam and the Muslims reject and condemn these exceptional cases as strange to their true religion and as a form of transgression," he said.
| "Not very loudly or often, of course..." |
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, many in the West cited a lack of freedoms and political and social oppression in the Muslim world for encouraging radical Islam and producing people like the 19 al-Qaida Islamic extremists who hijacked passenger planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
| Ummm... Yeah. That makes sense. You're living under political and social oppression, so you find a country where both are minimal and declare war on it. I don't think it was Arabs who invented logic, though I could be mistaken... |
In the Middle East, many Arabs and Muslims blamed Washington's support of Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians and the presence of U.S. forces in the region as catalysts for anti-Western hatred.
| "The fact that American forces were in the area as a result of saving one Arab country from oppression by another is beside the point..." |
Many Islamic states and leaders have condemned acts of terrorism carried out in the name of Islam and supported the U.S.-led war on terror, but at the same time accused Western countries of comparing the entire Muslim world with militant extremists like Osama bin Laden. "Extremism has destroyed, throughout history, remarkable achievements in great civilizations, including our Islamic civilization," he said. "When hatred is dominant and hearts are closed, and when people do not resort to the rulings of Sharia (Islamic law) and reason, the tree of civilization withers away and societies cease to grow." Hamzah also blamed the media for "weakening the Muslim's energy and soul," and suggested that educational reform could remedy extremism and inform the masses of Islam's true meaning. "The road to proper education is rough and formative work requires a pure, protective atmosphere where sprouts are grown in suitable conditions," he said. "This protective atmosphere is provided by the family as well as the entire society."
| I recommend against establishing madrassahs... |
He urged scholars to take steps toward "self actualization" and said the image of Muslims abroad "cannot be rectified unless we address the imbalance we suffer from inside ourselves."| Not sure he should recommend self-actualization to the scholars, since lately that tends to mean making oneself shahid via premature explodulation. |
Hamzah is the president of the board of trustees of the conference host, the Aal al-Bayt Foundation for Islamic Thought, which is dedicated to discussing challenges facing Islam, including extremism, and democracy in the Muslim world.
Posted by: Fred 2004-08-22 |
