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EXCERPTS FROM HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE EL HASSAN BIN TALAL'S ADDRESS
AT THE
GANDHI, KING, IKEDA COMMUNITY BUILDERS PRIZE CEREMONY
Working for a Sharing of Cultures
This month is a special month for our faiths: the joy of Palm Sunday
for Christians; the birthday of Buddha; the Jewish Passover, and for Muslims
throughout the world, we commemorate the Hijri New Year, and in these
very days, the martyrdom of the grandson of the Holy Prophet Muhammad,
Husayn ibn Ali. Here was a man who, 15 centuries ago, spoke of the need
within mankind to throw off the yoke of oppression when he declared that
it was far nobler to accept annihilation than submit to tyranny.
"If you are indifferent to oppression," he said, "you are
part of the machinery of oppression."
Gandhi developed a method of direct social action, that of Satyagraha,
based upon the principles courage, nonviolence and truth. He believed
that the way people behave is more important than what they achieve. He
promoted nonviolence and civil disobedience as the most appropriate methods
for obtaining political and social goals. If we are to find an interconnectedness
in the deeds of Imam Husayn and the words of Gandhi, the following quote
from Gandhi gives us a clear impression of their proximity of purpose:
"There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest
of all, that is the voice of conscience, even though such obedience may
cost many a bitter tear; and even more, separation from friends, from
family, from the state to which you may belong, from all that you have
held as dear as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being."
I would like to say that possibly the longest distance in the world is
from the mind to the heart, and I quote Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. from
his Strength to Love, 1963:
"Like an unchecked cancer, that corrodes the personality and eats
away its vital unity, hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity.
It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful,
and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. Darkness
cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out
hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies
violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of
destruction. The chain reaction of evil-hate begetting hate, wars producing
more wars-must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of
annihilation."
I, for one, have had the privilege of working for peace in many parts
of the world, and you may find it strange that a series of conferences
we held only a few years ago was entitled, "The Fear of Peace."
For those of us who have had the misfortune of seeing and smelling death,
that we do not want to see or smell again, the title should have been
"The Fear of War," but "Fear of Peace" it was.
We started with the fear of the other: Would it be possible, or conceivable,
to shake hands with an enemy? We moved to fear of the folks back home:
Will we be censured if we shake hands and exchange views? Lastly, we moved
towards a sort of agoraphobia: How do we make our feelings known to the
world that we are committed to peace? It is this ethic of human solidarity
which attracted me to the work and the principles of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
May I say that a global world needs a global ethic and, in the words of
the World Council of Churches and many hundreds of other meetings on this
subject, the subject of improving and deepening conversation between the
adherents of the faiths, we share in the following: the importance of
the empowerment of the poor developing civil society, that is to say:
politics for the people-anthropolitics, governance with a human face.
A Byzantine sophist had on his epitaph in the height of the Byzantine
Empire: "I was touched by the love of the public good, of the common
good." That common good is what we have to find once again. Can we
move to a culture of involvement, to a culture of service-from a culture
of existing to a culture of participation? The cornerstones of such movements
are surely respect for life, a responsibility towards future generations,
the protection of the human habitat and, most of all, in parallel with
the feelings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to move from aquisitivist
to altruism, to recognizing the other, an altruism nurtured by a sense
of mutual interest and a recognition of human dignity and worth.
What did we do about this? What did the community I worked with in the
1980s do about this? The community we started working with was the international
NGO movement. We produced a study of The Independent Commission on International
Humanitarian Issues which was established in the early 1980s and included,
among others, Desmond Tutu as a colleague on this great work on the ethic
of human solidarity. And we looked at global issues: population, environment,
poverty and development. We involved the forces of change: new nations,
peoples' movements, women, youth. We focused on the vulnerable groups.
We listened to the mothers in Plaza de Mayos in Argentina. We studied
the case and listened to witnesses of torture, of uprootedness, of the
neglected. We developed studies on man-made disasters-on famine, desertification
and deforestation. And we focused on new man-made disasters-commercial
nuclear power, genetic engineering and industrial disasters.
We presented our recommendation to the Secretary-General of the United
Nations and every year in the General Assembly there is a call for a New
World Humanitarian Order. Sadly, however, when I turned to the NGOs they
said, "We came to you as the lobby of the powerless." And I
said, "I am sad to say that I am the powerless lobby for the powerless."
I think that we have to persevere. We have to continue to emphasize moral
authority, however important political power may be. Within this New World
Humanitarian Order, I think it is important to bear in mind what Walter
Sisulu said to me in Soweto in January of last year-that we have to stop
working against something-against xenophobia, against apartheid, against
occupation; and rather start working for something-working for a sharing
of cultures and a sharing of perceptions.
Just as the proposal of the late Yehudi Menuhin, regarding the establishment
of a Parliament of Cultures, led me to address the International Parliamentary
Union and to say that culture is not an afterthought after security and
economy. Culture is identity, culture is security, culture is the meaning
of life to so many of us. In Arabic we say, "Comprehension precedes
understandings" and I would like to suggest that in any worldwide
proposal, say, for instance "Globalization"-if it is not understood,
it is not comprehended. If you use the term globalization in our part
of the world, it would be asked if you mean universalization of values.
Then they would understand and could participate. Any new worldwide proposal,
in order to have legitimacy for all concerned, must be related to the
various religious, cultural and legal traditions. If this can be done,
globalization will not be perceived as a western imposition on the rest
of humankind. Globalization will be accepted as a way to modernize and
enlarge, through participation, each tradition while remaining faithful
to its roots. By the same token, each tradition will discover that the
challenges human beings faced for centuries were met in more or less similar
ways. In doing so, different civil societies might be inclined to accept
the other as a brother sharing the same human destiny and not as a potential
enemy or barbarian.
President Daisaku Ikeda, in his Daily
Guidance, says, and I quote:
"True happiness exists in faith alone."
"No matter what awaits us in the future, we have no alternative but
to pursue the road toward enlightenment, peace and the salvation of mankind."
"Faith means courage. Faith means vitality. Faith means continuation.
Faith also means good common sense."
"Faith enables us to live with a peaceful mind in the scope of the
eternal flow of life; to objectively observe transient phenomena, based
upon the eternal and absolute Mystic Law."
vvvv
I wonder whether a moment cannot come where we see a charter for civic
and human rights for different regions of the world, fundamental rights
in which we all share and responsibilities in which we give of ourselves,
perhaps that concept of a peace corps. Can we not speak of alms? For 20
years, I have worked to try and create a Muslim Zakat alms foundation,
and I have had an echo of the pension funds in Europe where people have
agreed to work to participate in alleviating poverty if it is a clearly
defined program with a clearly defined objective. I think this is one
aspect of people-to-people involvement that may be considered. There are
many thoughts on a code of conduct, but it took us 25 years of conversation
to come up with one sheet of paper to outline such a code of conduct.
It started with emphasizing the association between theology and practicality,
beginning with commonality; taking into account the Enlightenment tradition.
In his answer to the question, "What is Enlightenment?" (1784),
the great Immanuel Kant deemed that, "If it is now asked whether
we live at present in an enlightened age, the answer is: No;" although
he did add, "We do live in an age of enlightenment." Europe
was in the throes of becoming enlightened. How? To secure a "man's
release from his self-incurred immaturity," Kant judged, people must
think for themselves under the watchword sapere aude-"dare to know"-a
tag from the Roman poet Horace. Can we not speak of embracing the principle
of "No Coercion?" Can we not uphold the right to proclaim one's
own religion; to reconsider the
content of education-Soka Gakkai International emphasizes the value of
life for education, education for human dignity. Can we not ensure a free
flow of information?
Yesterday, Dr. Massey spoke to me of the digital divide. I think that
the digital divide is the divide between data and information on the one
side and knowledge on the other. In looking afresh at, firstly, our own
and, secondly, each other's texts, heritage and history, can we develop
a framework for disagreement as well as accept responsibility for words
and actions at all levels, and recognize the political and economic dimensions
of our interfaith dialogue?
All my adult life I have treasured the words of the Muslim scholar, Ibn
Arabi, who lived in Spain between 1165 and 1240. And I would like to share
with you his thoughts. He said, and I quote:
"My heart is open to all the winds:
It is a pasture for gazelles
And a home for Christian monks,
A temple for idols,
The Black Stone of the Mecca pilgrim,
The table of the Torah,
And the book of the Qur'an.
Mine is the religion of love.
Wherever God's Caravans turn,
The religion of love
Shall be my religion
And my faith."
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