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Egyptian Grand Mufti reflects on Obama's Cairo Speech
July 15, 2010
Washington Post "Guest Voices"
Last month marked the first anniversary of President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world in Cairo where he sought "a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect"
However, the hope that greeted President Obama's speech has turned into disappointment as people realized that turning promises into reality is not easy to achieve. While he should be congratulated on his efforts to change the discourse of US policy towards the Muslim world, it is clear that people expect more than simply statements from him.
It is vital to rekindle the new spirit that accompanied President Obama's speech and to discuss together how we can transform it into practical programs that bridge the concept of dialogue with real and affective partnership between East and West.
I believe there are several ways that can help forge a constructive partnership between the Muslim world and the US. The Islam we were taught in our youth is one that calls for peace and mercy. The Prophet Muhammad told us: "Those who show mercy are shown mercy by the All-Merciful. Show mercy to those who are on earth and the One in the heavens will show mercy to you."
Furthermore, the Qur'an teaches us: "O people we have created you from a single male and female and divided you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another." When God says "to know one another" He did not mean in order to kill one another. All religions have forbidden the killing of innocents. Rather we have been ordered to cooperate in a constructive manner.
For over a thousand years ordinary Muslims have worshiped God, engaged in developing their society and the human civilization, and have sought to cultivate good moral character. They have engaged, absorbed and assimilated a multiplicity of civilizations such as the Persians, Indians, Chinese, and Greeks, into our cultural and intellectual life. We benefited from all of them as well as contributing to them.
Such a humanitarian and cosmopolitan worldview does not allow us to consider ourselves as superior to other people. And since our civilization is concerned with humanity, it brings together both the spiritual and the material. We do not hate life nor do we seek to create social imbalance, and anyone who engages in this has gone against the teachings of our religion and what we have been taught as being worthy of good moral character.
The need for dialogue between people of different faiths and cultures is far greater today in view of the problems faced in the relations between peoples and communities. Dialogue stems from the recognition of identities and specificities, avoiding at the same time that their assertion turn into hostility towards others leading to bloody borders among religions and cultures. Dialogue is based upon the respect for religious plurality and cultural diversity. Dialogue is not about trying to defeat others, but about understanding and learning about them.
The Qur'an insists that the world's beauty lies in its racial and religious pluralism, otherwise God would not have created it so (see Qur'an, 10:99 and 5:48).
Sheikh Ali Gomaa is the Grand Mufti of Egypt.