We call upon you to reconsider the position of claiming civilizational supremacy over others. We further urge intellectual and opinion leaders among you to maintain neutrality and fairness with regard to Islam, its noble values, and its good virtues which has bequeathed humanity over ages.
In Conclusion
We affirm the importance of proper inter-cultural dialogue in reaching the truth and limiting unjust aggression on others. Nonetheless, we are certain that talking about dialogue for some people is nothing more than a way to justify actions of the 'West' and to suppress the dissenting opinions and the authentic Islamic thinking and ideals. We stress the fact that communication between civilizations is quite possible in today's world but on the condition of establishing justice and fairness.
The contemporary western civilization is an outcome of the accumulation of the accomplishments of all previous world civilizations and their civic and progressive creativities. Nevertheless, the 'West' desires to monopolize its benefits for itself, and only for those who circle in its orbit. The 'West' appears to be adamant about depriving the Muslim world of the means of technological and materialistic progress to keep it occupied with inter-fighting and struggles fueled and instigated by the 'West' itself.
The stagnation of Muslims in development and creativity - due to many reasons - is an exception to the norms of the history of the Islamic civilization. This stagnation does not indicate that we are a backward community in terms of civilization or values. On the contrary, the Muslim world community encompasses a wealth of morals, ideals, values, and sources of guidance and enlightenment, and it will never abandon them. It will always carry the responsibility of calling humanity to these virtues.
We call upon you to reconsider the position of claiming civilizational supremacy over others. We further urge intellectual and opinion leaders among you to maintain neutrality and fairness with regard to Islam, its noble values, and its good virtues which has bequeathed humanity over ages.
The current situation of our Islamic world might not be great, but the foundations of Islam in creed, legislation, civilization, and ethics are nonetheless magnificent and applicable to every time and place. Furthermore, it is important to state that while the 'West' has achieved strong materialistic progress and technological innovation, the foundations of its civilization as they currently stand are not beneficial to humanity in the long run.
The defects of our current situation do not affect our conviction of the value of our religion and our civilization for humanity. This is why we are addressing you, the opinion leaders and decision makers, and we address through you the silent majority of the western peoples as well as those who are implicated in the campaigns of aggression on our sanctities and our resources and we demand from all the following:
First: Stop inflicting injustice upon us. Bring to an end the interference in our affairs, and stop attacking what is sacred and holy to our Muslim world community. Continuing these acts of aggression will not serve your vital economic interests in our countries. The only way to preserve these interests is through justice and fairness.
Second: We call upon you to join forces with us to stop media and cultural campaigns which insult what is sacred to us, ridicule our noble Quran, and attack the character of our Prophet. Otherwise, the Muslim community will have no choice but to continue exercising its legitimate right to resist the western oppression in all its forms: cultural, civilizational, political, and military.
Third: Rather than allocating resources and efforts on current campaigns aiming at containing and dominating us culturally, economically, politically and militarily, we urge you to allocate some of your intellectual and research efforts to determine the real causes of the rising civilizational conflict between us. We also urge you to research and study the real essence of the message of our Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him). We call upon you to open your minds and hearts to comprehend and appreciate the universality of Islam and the realities of our religion before attacking them, or calling people away from them.
Fourth: It is more important for western intellectuals and leaders to focus on reforming their own countries before interfering in the affairs of other nations and civilizations. The 'West' is undeniably in need of several fundamental reforms. It is far more imperative to tackle these reforms than to impose western reform projects on the Muslim world. We are confident that western nations and societies are heading towards a grievous abyss of incoherence, deterioration, and cultural bankruptcy if their leaders continue their approach of exporting corruption and inequalities to the rest of the world. All these mounting abuses will eventually return back as arrows hitting the hearts of those who spread and propagate them.
To reiterate: This letter is a call to the intellectual leaders in western countries to implement a ‘Western Reform Initiative’ to rekindle the true virtues of faith which all Prophets called for, to pay due respect to these Prophets (Peace be upon them), to aid the innocent, and to prevent injustice and aggression in the entire world and not just in the 'West'.
Before making calls to reform the Islamic world (or the Greater Middle East as they call it), the thinkers and leaders of the 'West' should adopt a project to reform their own societies with regard to family values, marriage and virtue. We also call for a western economic reform, which will protect people and individuals from being ‘terrorized’ by corporations and capitalistic market forces. This reform will bring back respect and appreciation to moral values rather than market values. It is a reform project which will enable the 'West' to join global forces working together in order to stop the alienation of the underprivileged, and to reinstate intrinsic value to real education.
Now is the right time to launch this initiative to rescue the 'West' from the dominance of an atheist minority seeking to destroy all contemporary religious values and moral standards.
Fifth: The 'West' must apologize for its repeated assaults on Islam. Furthermore, it must apologize for the numerous crimes that were committed in its name against Muslims during, before, and after the colonial era.
Our message to those who are determined to continue their aggression against our Muslim community is this: The propagation of Islam never ceased when it was attacked at any time in the past nor will it come to an end if it is harassed in this era or until the end of age. The Muslim world has a unique resiliency; a capacity to rebound after setbacks as witnessed throughout history.
The role of our Muslim community will not be limited to defending our religion and what is sacred to us. It will also extend to expose the tactics of the enemies of humanity. Citizens of the western world will come to recognize that what the enemies of Muslims in the 'West' are doing will harm the western world far more than it will harm the Muslim community.
The 'West' could possibly lose the advantages of economic trade with 1.25 billion people representing an overwhelming market share of world consumers. It will risk trade relationships with many Muslim countries, which retain a vast wealth of all current natural energy resources needed to fuel the wheel of modernity and development. These are the same Muslims who carry the largest share of the burden of sustaining human fairness and justice.
We believe that welcoming the western technological advancements, which are beneficial to humanity, does neither indicate nor necessitate trading our own values in order to merge into western cultures. We reject blind adherence to the 'West' or anyone else. At the same time, we do not object to trade and exchange benefits with the 'West' or to make use of its technological and industrial innovations.
We call upon the intellectual and opinion leaders in the 'West' to truly understand the religion of Islam, and the Muslim community. What motivates us to do so, and our evidence to it, is the divine order in the Book of Allah – The Noble Quran, which we find to be the very best way to conclude our letter to you. The glorious God states: "Say: 'O people of the Scripture: Come to a word that is just between us and you, that we worship none but God, and that we associate no partners with Him, and that none of us shall take others as lords besides God.' Then, if they turn away, say: 'Bear witness that we are Muslims.'" [Quran,3:64]
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Do not become weak (against your enemy), nor be sad, and you will be superior (in victory) if you are indeed (true) believers. [Quran aal-Imran (3):139]
