Posted on 06/04/2007 7:24:45 PM PDT by milestogo
Don’t equate Islam with terrorism: Aziz
PM says Islam being widely misunderstood
* Tony Blair endorses Pakistani govt policies
LONDON: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Monday attempts to equate Islam with terrorism must be rejected because Islam spreads the message of humanity, egalitarianism, moderation, tolerance and coexistence.
“There have been some perverse attempts equating Islam with terrorism. We must reject this travesty,” the PM said in a video address at the opening of a conference on Islam and Muslims in the World Today at Lancaster House, central London.
“Terrorism has no religion, colour, race or a country. We should reject stigmatisation and combat the increased phenomena of Islamophobia,” Aziz said. He said efforts to link terrorism with Islam revealed “ignorance or sinister motives” and that such attempts must be thwarted. “Terms like Islamists, Islamic militants, jihadist ideology and jihadists are wrong and insensitive,” he added.
The PM stressed the need for developing a deeper understanding of extremism and terrorism and an acceptable phraseology that accurately captures the phenomena and does not single out any particular creed or community.
He said Islam is today a widely misunderstood and misrepresented religion, adding that the true message of Islam of peace, tolerance and harmony had not been fully appreciated. “Actions of a few should not influence perceptions about Islam and Muslims, the majority of whom are peace loving and responsible citizens across the world,” he added.
The PM favoured interfaith dialogue and inter-civilisation understanding. “Unfortunately, at a time when the world needs harmony some elements are busy sowing the seeds of disharmony,” he said, and added it was “incumbent upon us to ensure that the pernicious theories of clash of civilisations and value systems do not become self-fulfilling prophecies”. “Such theories do not have any intellectual or historical basis. In the 5,000 years of recorded history, clash of interest provided the main impulse for conflict. Cultural differences did not form a battle line,” Aziz said.
“These are very potent and dangerous ideas and must be countered proactively,” he said, adding that this burden should not be on Muslims alone. “This would have to be a common endeavor of the entire humanity.” He said human aspirations and values were common across national and civilisational lines. “Freedom is universally valued and if suppressed has serious consequences. Promoting understanding and dialogue are, therefore, the need of the day,” he said.
“Our agenda must encompass internal and international reforms, particularly political, economical and social reforms,” the PM said. Aziz also stressed the importance of educational reforms. “We need to take a hard look at what is being taught to our youth. Hate and prejudice towards others should have no place in the nurturing of our coming generations. Both the Muslim and non-Muslim worlds must focus on this need.”
In Pakistan, he said, “we are engaged in education reforms across the board. Our attention is particularly focused on mainstreaming the madrassas, which includes curriculum reform and introduction of subjects like science, mathematics and information technology.”
Aziz said mainstreaming of minorities was of crucial importance because today’s societies were poly-ethnic and multi-cultural. “Isolation and marginalisation are destructive forces that affect the unifying fiber of nations and societies.”
“We must learn to celebrate the diversities in our societies. We must do all we can to integrate minorities in our national mainstream,” he added. Aziz, however, maintained the onus of mainstreaming should not be only on minority groups but should equally be the responsibility of the majority.
“To defeat and fight terrorism and extremism, we must comprehend its true nature and its causes, which are invariably political. Some terrorism is local, some is global. The campaign against terrorism whether local or global will not succeed until we pursue a comprehensive and holistic approach combining military, security, political, economic, social and cultural actions,” he added.
The PM said the causes of violence and terrorism in Afghanistan were distinct and shaped by the cold war strategy of enlisting mujahideen and madrassas in a campaign to roll back the Soviet invasion.
He said consideration should also be given to the establishment of an International Centre for the Promotion of Understanding between the three Abrahamic faiths. “Religious scholars of Judaism, Christianity and Islam should interact to identify and highlight the common ground between these three faiths for facilitating cooperation and building harmonious relationships.” Addressing the conference, British Prime Minister Tony Blair supported the policies of the Pakistani government, saying the Pakistani government had undertaken an ambitious and difficult programme of madrassa reform.
Blair stressed the importance of understanding between different faiths. “The principal purpose of this conference is to let the authentic voices of Islam, in their various schools and manifestations, speak for themselves,” he added. agencies
Why not?
Or else they’ll cut your head off.
Because equating a cause with its effect is a philosophical error. ^_^
Don't make Al Qaeda mad by contradicting them so publicly and forcefully. It's not a safe thing to do in that part of the world, Mr. Prime Minister.
I think of Islam as being like Sodom. If there were even a few righteous, then Sodom would not be destroyed.
Alas, there were not sufficient. Still, G-d brought out Lot and his family from the midst of the unrighteous.
So we should try to do the same. Try them to see if we can find enough righteous, and if not, then try to recover as many of the righeous as we can. A Remnant, as mentioned by Jerimiah.
said in a video address at the opening of a conference on Islam and Muslims
ROFLMAO!!!
Great comedy routine!
Insensitive ! ?
That dude has been hitting the hash pipe a bit too much.
“Don’t Equate Islam with Terrorism”
= Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
OK, so can I equate it with genocide and anti-Semitism and anti-Christianity and anti-Democracy and anti-Freedom and anti-Woman?
Don’t equate Islam with terrorism
Ok sure..We don’t see what we see ..Ok , got ya .
“Don’t equate Islam with terrorism: Aziz (Pakistani PM)”
Equate Islam with terrorism: Sir Clean Plate Club (Citizen of the USA)
Of course, any dispassionate observer will recognize that the very existence of Pakistan puts a lie to his claim of Muslim tolerance. If Muslims in the 20th century had been tolerant, the Muslim League would not have been militating for partition from before Indian independence, and Muslims would have stayed in the Congress Party as Ghandi had hoped, and there would be a single large democratic country of India, rather than a largely Hindu democracy and a Muslim dictatorship.
That would be like equating Nazism with Hitler, or, even more accurately, Stalinism with, I dunno, Stalin?
Nope, different philosophical error: equating a part with the whole. North Korean Communism manages to be all of those things, too.
Oh, then how about "islammunist, islamofascist, muzzie, and camel humper", Raghead?
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