Agence de Presse Sénégalaise (Dakar)
30 March 2008
document
Dakar — This the speech made by President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal at the opening ceremony of the 11th summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) held in Dakar (13 - 14 March).
Ashadou An La Ilaha Illa Llah Wa Ashadou Anna Muhammadane Rassouloullah A Ouzou Billahi Mina Ashaytani Arrajimi Bimallahi Arrahmani Arrahimi Assalamou Aleykoum Warakhmatou Lahi Wa Barakatouhou Majesties, Royal Highnesses, Excellencies Heads of state and government, Ministers, Representatives of the people, Ambassadors, Mr. Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Secretary General of the OIC, Mr. Chairperson of the AU Commission, Mr. Secretary General of the League of Arab States, Representatives of international institutions and organizations, General caliphs and religious leaders, Ulemas, scientists, and researchers, Professors and students, Ladies and gentlemen, Dear guests,
Let us thank God the Almighty and Merciful for wanting and allowing by His Single Grace the organization today, 13 March, 2008 corresponding to 6 Rabiul Awwal 1429 of Hegira, of the 11th summit of the Islamic Ummah senior leaders here in Dakar, capital of Senegal, on this African land of Teranga [hospitality].
In fact, this summit is not only that of Senegal, but that of Muslim Africa, the summit of the whole Africa.
Before going further, allow me to thank you all for accepting our invitation and coming to Senegal, in a large number, sometimes from a distance despite your schedules that I know are busy. I see in this massive presence the renewed mark of esteem that you have for my country, Senegal, its authorities, and Africa.
Senegal, the country in charge of hosting this summit, for the second time, realizes the extent of this exceptional privilege it has been given. For this, I must, on my behalf, on behalf of Senegalese women and men, on behalf of all Africans, thank deep from my heart His Majesty King Abdallah ben Abdel Aziz Al Saoud, Servant and Custodian of the two Holy Mosques, for supporting from the beginning and then constantly Senegal's bid to host the 11th summit.
I must also thank my fellow African heads of state and government for spontaneously supporting Senegal and I express my profound gratitude to my fellow leaders of the Ummah, who have made Senegal's bid their own by abstaining from making any other bid.
As we have noted it for several months, the Senegalese women and men have all stood up to give you a warm, exceptional welcome in fervor.
I express my profound gratitude to you, Majesties and Highnesses, Excellencies Heads of state and government, who have brought a significant material and financial contribution to the organization of the summit. You have helped me transform and modernize our capital. Allow me now to congratulate strongly our secretary general, Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, that I have been appreciating for last three years that we have worked together. Though his modesty will suffer from it, I express him before you my most positive appreciation for his commitment, his availability, his sharp intelligence, and his haste in dealing with things. I extend my thanks to all the officials of the OIC general secretariat and all those who, at the national and international levels, have contributed to the achievement of this remarkable work that has been done.
Finally, I would like to turn now to my compatriots, who are living outside and inside the country, who have very early made the summit their own and permanently prayed intensely, in the towns and in the remotest hamlets, individually or together, in the mosques and in public, for the total success of the summit. You have understood that it is our country, Senegal, which has been honored by the choice of our capital as capital of Islam.
I thank also all Muslims in Africa, who have united in fervent prayers, in the mosques and on the occasion of social events, for the Almighty to make the Dakar summit an unprecedented success.
I know that each of our brothers and sisters, children and grandchildren from all areas in Senegal and Africa would have liked to be here on this day to express their gratitude to our illustrious guests and tell them their happiness and pride to welcome you in this African land of Senegal, land of the Islamic Ummah.
I can tell them from now on that our prayers have been widely granted as this Dakar summit has broken all records of participation in the OIC's history with the officially announced presence of 35 heads of state.
I cannot pass such a marvelous coincidence over in silence. The NGOs from the Islamic Ummah member countries have held their first summit in Dakar at the invitation of Dr Cire Ly's Islamic Solidarity Action NGO and the support of Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu. Ayyouhal Ikhwa Wal Ikhwat Marhababane Bi Koum [Welcome] Majesties, Royal Highnesses, Excellencies Heads of state and government,
The renewal of the Islamic Ummah in the 21st century will be done with a revitalized organization provided with institutional capacities and human and financial means commensurate with our ambitions. The OIC charter revision process obeys requirements and by dint of this urgent reform that our organization will meet our expectations efficiently.
On your behalf, I extend the thanks of the Islamic Ummah to the numerous teams, which have been working for a long time, particularly our foreign ministers and our secretary general, to put forward a draft charter taking all suggestions into account and which is normally expected to receive total consensus of the member states in Dakar. However, it is incumbent to us, member heads of state, to finally take the historic decision to put our organization on an upward trajectory to make it keep the torch of the Islamic Ummah enduring and meet our peoples' hopes.
We have tried to overcome the last difficulties then suggested that all new proposals, on which there has not been total consensus, be not eliminated, but their examination be postponed after the Ummah summit, for us to adopt unanimously the charter unreservedly.
I promise to utilize the ways opened by the charter, which, like any fundamental law, provides for revision, to put quickly these questions, if any, under consideration. A document with all these deferred proposals will be possibly sent to all members and the discussion will open. Majesties, Royal Highnesses, Excellencies Heads of state and government, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Almost 39 years ago, our Ummah, following a criminal arson in the Al Aqsa mosque, third holy place of Islam, established the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to face together the challenges, among which criminal intolerance was only one aspect.
Still now, the just and legitimate Palestinian cause, the historical justification of our organization, remains in the heart of our concerns. I wish to repeat vigorously our indefectible support to our brothers and sisters in Palestine. However, I urge all Palestinian political forces to unite first by organizing immediately a congress of the Palestinian people, from the West Bank to Gaza, on the most important thing, in its legitimate fight for the advent of an independent and viable Palestinian state.
I would like to tell our Palestinian brothers and sisters : your unity is the first guarantee of your success and salvation. Unite ! Instead of internecine clashes, discuss among brothers to establish a collegial direction, unifying all your sensibilities for the achievement of your common goals.
Your brothers and sisters of the Islamic Ummah, who have always supported you unequivocally, are still ready to assist you and defend with you the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people on its lands and resources.
Through me, Senegal offers to host your congress if such a proposal suits you.
In the meantime, I ask solemnly the Israeli Government, as occupying power, to immediately stop all illegal activities in the occupied territories, blind suppression inflicted to the Palestinian people and disproportionate reactions.
If by Allah's will my colleagues appoint me as chairperson of our organization, my priority will be the Palestinian issue, with the establishment of a internationally recognized Palestinian state within safe borders and peace between Palestine and Israel will be my priority in the search for global peace in the Middle East. Our will is to reach just and lasting peace between Palestine and Israel. That is my answer to all questions asked to me on this issue and President Shimon Peres, who, several years ago, in the time of Arafat, asked me to accept a mediation between Palestine and Israel and who is now the president of Israel, asks me officially to intervene in favor of peace between the two countries.
I ask all of them, both Israelis and Palestinians, to stop now the acts of violence, wherever they come from, whether they are actions or reactions, and observe a cease-fire to help me make consultations and proposals on a peace process.
I hope that both parties will be clear-sighted enough to seize this exceptional opportunity given to them to reach just and lasting peace. I appeal to the international community to support me in the mission that Israel asks me to carry out and that I have been always accepting naturally for Palestine.
History and reason teach us that all peoples, including definitely that of Palestine, have the right to live in freedom, dignity within safe and internationally recognized borders.
Majesties, Royal Highnesses, Excellencies Heads of state and government, Ladies and Gentlemen, The theme of our summit is : "The Islamic Ummah in the 21st century." There is no more complex topic, but we have no other choice. Its examination will help us tackle the nature and object of our community, its hopes and prospects, as well as its functioning mechanisms. That is why we will point out two of its key components, notably economic, social, and cultural partnership, on the one hand, knowledge sharing within the Ummah, on the other hand.
However, before tackling the theme, I will mention a few of the numerous challenges, which, in the globalization era, concern the Islamic Ummah, the Muslim community in the world. Then, we will look into the components of the theme and finish by making proposals for an innovating funding of development in the Ummah.
CHALLENGES
They are many. The first one is the existential challenge of all Muslims as human beings threatened by the continuous deterioration of the environment resulting from the climate changes due to a large extent to man's action. This deterioration of our planet is visible through the appearances of violent and recurrent phenomena, which had never or seldom occurred in the past : devastating tsunamis, earthquakes in areas, which have never been affected so far, more or less gaping cracks of the earth's crust, violent winds and storms destroying anything in their way and eroding the coasts, spreading droughts in areas of desert, thaw in earth caps that we refuse to imagine the consequences, new diseases, and mutations of microbes and viruses.
The human beings should wonder what they have done to Allah, who seems to withdraw gradually His protection against all these scourges. As I said in my speech at the 24 September 2007 UN Summit devoted to the climate changes and deterioration of our environment, let us start by begging Allah's forgiveness for destroying this beautiful earth that He has put in our care, at the beginning of creation, through our common ancestor, Adam.
I was honored to chair the Round Table IV of the fourth UN Commission on the funding of the fight against the deterioration of environment. While many heads of state and government attended the analysis commissions' meetings, only the French President [Nicholas Sarkozy] came personally to our commission to assert his country's commitment to the funding of the fight against climate degradation. We must now urge all the states in the world to comply with the Kyoto Protocol on the greenhouse gases.
Please allow me to tell you what we are doing in Senegal to protect and improve environment. To meet this challenge, we have, among other things, taken initiatives, including the Great Green Wall, a 50-kilometer wide forest of trees from Dakar to Djibouti, a project proposed by the Community of Saharan Sahelian States [CEN-SAD], which has received the support of the international community, WB, EU, Islamic Development Bank [IDB], and its complement, the strip of rainwater retention basins, which has been already implemented in Senegal.
The African countries near the Sahel intend to replicate these basins all along the Great Green Wall, with the support of the development partners. Senegal has already achieved 300 units. In our countries, where we have three-month rainy seasons, though the quantity of rains is significant, because it is estimated at billions of cubic meters falling from the sky and disappearing either by infiltration into the earth or flowing towards the sea, it has been put forward the idea to collect them into bottom-compacted basins.
The existence of these basins has totally changed overnight the lives of the farmers, who can in the other nine months of the year make their animals drink and practice truck farming.
Then there is the existential challenge facing the Muslims as part of humanity, in which people would at most tolerate us instead of recognizing us as a community united by Islam, fostering values of civilization, which can only contribute to the progress of humanity.
The current challenge we have to meet is to show by the word and action the real face of our religion. The challenge for us is to dialogue with men and women of goodwill from other religions, who are also anxious to live in peace, in the respect of our differences and convictions.
In this connection, we can cite the project of the Alliance of Civilizations initiated by Jose Luis Rodrigues Zapatero, head of the Spanish Government, that I congratulate in passing on his party's victory in the legislative elections, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister of the Republic of Turkey, as well as Senegal's proposal to hold an Islamic-Christian summit.
We are now concerned about the freedom to practice our religion in peace, because, unfortunately, we are witnessing the development of an Islamophoby fed and supported by evil minds, people from all sides and distorting history. However, in addition to these marginal provocations, we must recognize that in general, Western peoples' minds are favorably changing to be more tolerant to Islam. More and more mosques are built in Europe, which was unimaginable only 20 years ago. Therefore let us not lapse into the provocation of a few marginal people, who are lacking in publicity and would like to be known by choosing to insult 1.2 billion human beings. They only deserve our contempt. They do not deserve any answer from us. We must ignore them and continue our march.
It is clear that those who strive to liken Islam to terrorism want actually to give rise to hatred between the peoples and cause reactions of confrontations. However, we will not give them that opportunity.
I know that the authorities of these countries do not share these practices. However, they refer to the freedom of expression, mainstay of their political systems. However, would the freedom of expression be the "freedom to blasphemy ?" The excuse of the freedom of opinion as an attempt to justify the attacks by a few of their baleful minds on the religious feelings of almost one and half billion Muslims is simply unacceptable.
To tell the truth, there is no boundless freedom and all political systems recognize that.
Islam's sublime message sealed for more than 14 centuries in the Holy Koran will remain unchanged until the end of time. God, the Self-Sufficient, is the guarantor of His sacred word according to sura 15 (Al Hijr), verse nine : "Verily We Ourselves have sent down this Exhortation, and most surely We will be its Guardian" We should rather strive to make people understand the marvelous achievements of Islam for social peace like the constitution of Medina, which in 622 defined in a remarkable legal corpus the rights and duties of the Muslims and other religious communities living in the City of Lights.
To end up with it once for all, let us recall the results of an extensive opinion poll among a population representative enough of the Muslim religion in 40 Muslim countries on three continents published on 26 February 2008 by a major Western agency after six years of investigation. It clearly shows that a large majority of the respondents (93 percent) reject the terrorist attacks, whatever the motives and perpetrators may be.
To tell the truth, Islam is a religion of peace. And the Muslims must come to terms with their religion without complex. We neither feel embarrassed nor need to give any justification nor even apologize according to the prescriptions of sura 109, verse 6 : "For you your religion, and for me my religion."
Our summit is also intended to be the summit of culture. That is why I make it my duty to thank all those who have passionately worked to achieve this beautiful exhibition on the Koran and the progress in writing. I cite particularly Beit Al Quran of Bahrain, the World Arab Institute of Paris, and the Research Center for Islamic History, Art, and Culture (Ircica Center) of Istanbul, which holds an exhibition in the Black African Fundamental Institute [IFAN] museum. I recall in passing that before joining the OIC, the secretary general was director of the Ircica. Last but not least, the exhibition of Arabic school textbooks by Senegalese teachers deserves our attention and encouragement. I ask the teachers to continue their efforts to reach all segments of our society.
Economic, social, and cultural partnership
We are currently individually and collectively concerned about the need to develop a partnership process in the economic, social, and cultural areas. The key question for us is to know why the Muslim world, which has such a precious heritage, is considerably lagging behind in the areas of economic and social development, scientific and technological development, despite its huge human potential - more than one-fifth of global population - and its enormous resources.
The paradox of our time is that the Muslim world is rich and the great majority is destitute, while the principles of solidarity, equity, and sharing govern our faith.
To tell the truth, the Islamic Ummah has today the keys of progress and prosperity of its peoples. However, it is obvious that nobody will do for us what we are not ready to do for ourselves. Beyond this Muslim religion that we have in common, we need to reinforce the basis of our unity and build the foundations of our cohesion for the reinforced Ummah to play fully its role in the conduct of businesses in the world.
I must say that I am writing about all these ideas in a book to be published by Michel Lafont, Paris, in June. under the ten-year program of action developed in our third extraordinary session held in Makkah Al Mukarramah, the pursued objective is to contribute to the emergence of concrete economic, social, cultural, scientific relations commensurate with the relations between us.
The Islamic solidarity must not be defined in terms of assistance. We must learn to better know one another to better assess our possibilities of economic exchanges and trade, investment, and partnership within the Ummah.
With the help of our researchers and ulemas, we further need to think about the organization and good use of Islamic finance. The Ummah is part and parcel of the world. We are interacting with partners and institutions, which are not necessarily ruled by the Muslim law.
INNOVATING FUNDING OF DEVELOPMENT AND FIGHT AGAINST POVERTY
Let us now come to investments. We wish that the Arab investments come as largely as possible to Africa, not only in African Muslim countries like Senegal, Morocco, Djibouti, among others, but the whole continent. There is no longer any risk for investments in Africa, which is becoming more democratic. Africa is the continent of the future, with 1.7 billion consumers in 2050. The intensification of education will produce quality executives and a largely educated population.
Therefore I hope that our panels on economic relations discuss these issues. However, I would not finish with this chapter without calling for the cancellation of the OIC African member countries' debts, in accordance with the recommendations of the Mecca summit. We must also give concrete answers to the information issue to give back to Islam and the Muslims their real image of tolerance, altruism, and philanthropy.
Living in a globalization era, in which the behaviors are widely influenced by the dissemination at a global scale of the image, word, and ideas, we must in the fight against Islamophobia and for the promotion of the real image of Islam implement in a concrete way a real information and communication strategy. I wish also that our organization continues in the process developed for a few years in favor of women and young people.
Women, who have acquainted themselves with the Mecca program of action, ask for the implementation of our decisions. You have noted their mobilization in the welcome given by Senegalese people to its Ummah guests. Young people have not been outdone and have come from every corner of Senegal and mobilized in the stadiums to celebrate your stay in our country.
To end up with this chapter, we will not forget the important issue of micro-finance, on which our country has a great and particularly positive experience, with recovery rates of about 100 percent.
KNOWLEDGE SHARING
Islam, religion of peace and justice, glorifies knowledge, the effort of personal reflection, and critical thought. Therefore, it should not be the source of fanaticism and obscurantism.
While the present is enlightened from the past to enlighten the future, it is high time, dear brothers and sisters, to reexamine our history to reveal the substantial contribution that the Ummah has brought to the heritage of humanity.
The doctrines of Al Ghazali and Ibn Rosh have influenced the philosophers in the West, where Ibn Sina's book, "Al Qanoon," had remained for 600 years an authoritative reference in medicine. Algebra and modern mathematics owe their existence to Mohamed Bin Moussa Al Khawarizmi, while Jabir Ibn Haiyan invented modern chemistry.
If the Arabs did not have the genius to invent or spread the "zero", there would have been neither negative numbers nor algebra. Humanity would have not achieved half of its progress !
As early as 860, Fargham wrote his famous treaty of astronomy, concluding that the earth was actually round, while in other climes, that scientifically established certainty was considered in the 13th century as a heresy punished by the Inquisition. I have recently learned that the Turkish university of Yeditepe was built about 400 years before the first Western university built in Bologna [Italy] in the Middle Ages, in 1088. I could multiply these examples of the intellectual and scientific influence of the Islamic world by citing the great places, where the blazing light of knowledge has always shined brightly like Chinguetti, Mauritania, Timbuktu, Mali, the universities of Pire and Koki, Senegal, among so many other poles of excellence in each of our countries.
I am not nostalgic for the past days, but I want to recall that over the ages, Islam, far from being an obstacle to openness and modernity, has always stimulated the search for knowledge and know-how, progress, and prosperity of its peoples and humanity.
I recall in this connection that the Mecca summit had decided to establish an Islamic Center for Scientific Research in Dakar to submit our research programs to our researchers and thus participate in the progress of humanity. We have many quality human resources in Western laboratories. Let us create for them the conditions to serve the Ummah.
I would like also to suggest you while walking in the corridors [of Meridien hotel] to stop to the stand of the Digital Solidarity Fund established by Africans and now supported by all UN member states. You will find there the instruments, which are revolutionizing telemedicine and education by using the whiteboard instead of the current blackboard.
ISSUES OF INNOVATING FUNDING
Majesties, Royal Highnesses, Excellencies Heads of state and government, Ladies and gentlemen, I would like here to put forward a few ideas for the massive mobilization of resources in order to fight against poverty and finance development, in addition to the mobilization of the Zakat [charity]. 1. Mobilization of prohibited interests The ulemas remind us that the Shari'a bans the interest. So what to do of the masses of interests generated by the deposits that Muslim oil-producing countries make in Western banks ?
According to an eminent Turkish legal adviser, academician, these interests should be used to finance social programs, notably the fight against poverty. Such an opinion is also expressed by the fatwas of the Fiqh Academic of Al Azar university in Cairo, that I have read much of its abundant jurisprudence.
For a few weeks, the Western media have kept on reporting on the fear resulting from increasing Arab investments in Western economies and everybody in France and Germany has been holding forth on the need for regulations to limit these investments. Only Great Britain, the nation of Adam Smith and land of economic liberalism, rises up against this trend and proclaims that these investments participate in the country's economic development and therefore are welcome. We must not stand idly and wait for the Western economies to share these funds. We must therefore create the conditions for the Arab funds to be invested in Africa.
I want to make myself clear on the issue of Muslim sovereign funds. To do that, one needs to distinguish the interests served by the Western banks generated by the deposits made by Muslim countries, whose religion condemns the practice of interests, and the investments of funds generally coming from oil.
Concerning precisely the interests prohibited by the Shari'a and served by the Western banks to acknowledge the deposits, estimated at US$500 billion, these countries should not give it to them as a free gift just because they are prohibited. And yet leaving them in the banks means giving them a free gift. I rather suggest the establishment of a commission made up of the representatives of the Fiqh Academies, ulemas from member countries, economists, and financiers from the Ummah countries, to define the mechanisms to gather them into a Development and Poverty Reduction Fund. These amounts, instead of serving only the banks, could very widely solve all our problems of poverty and economic take-off.
If the idea of collecting the interests banned by the Shari'a generated by the deposits is accepted for the development of the member countries, the planned US$10-billion fund could be rather oriented towards the problems of childhood, child and maternal mortality.
2. Resources related to oil price increases
Concerning energy, a question that I have reserved for the end because, it deserves alone to convene a meeting of the ministers with responsibility for this issue to put forward proposals after analysis of the worrying situation of the non oil-producing countries and members of the Islamic Ummah, as a result of the staggering and continuous increase in the barrel price. My proposal consists in obtaining from the OPEC, anytime it increases the oil price, to add two percent to the Oil/Poverty Fund that I have recently initiated. The OPEC will simply act as a go-between as it is the final consumer, who eventually finances the eradication of poverty, I would say his poverty.
And I am happy to note that President Sarkozy once again supports this African proposal. I think that his idea of imposing a tax on the oil super-profits would be akin to mine, which can be analyzed by deducting taxes from the increases or a tax to be reflected on the consumer.
May Allah the Almighty inspire us, guide us, and grant us the reward promised in sura 42 "Ashura" to "Those who consult among them about their businesses." Wa Salaamou Alaykoum Wa Rahmatoulaahi Wa Barakaatouhou.
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