4.11. THE POLITICAL DIALOGUE WITH THE WEST
After accomplishing these religious and intellectual dialogues, the Islamic Movement should have another dialogue with the West, a political dialogue with decision makers, those of them who stand on stage as well as those who stand in the back scenes.
I believe that the two previous dialogues should pave the way for this important dialogue. The Church, while officially kept away from politics, still wields much influence over men of state, and still plays from behind the scene in the field of foreign policy, especially where Islam and Muslims are concerned.
Orientalists, while appearing as mere academics, have undeniable connections with intelligence and national security agencies and ministries of foreign affairs.
There are many who try to sow the seeds of despair of any attempt at political dialogue with the West. There are others who quote the old Western poet’s saying. “East is East, West is West. they never meet!”
But we have seen the West meeting with India, Japan and, most recently, China! . Other says, “The West may meet with India, Japan and China, or with Hindus, Buddha Communists but not with Muslims”. They may quote missionaries, Orientalists or politicians who slashed at Islam with poisondripping tongues.
There are also those who look with suspicion at anyone who tries to contact the West or hold any sort of dialogue with Westerners, and use such contact or dialogue to smear that who attempts it with their alwaysready accusation: treason, collaboration, treachery etc. No one can forget what our strong, faithful brother Hassan AlHudaybi, second Guide of the Muslim Brotherhood, suffered as a result of his contact with Mr. Evans. Although the Egyptian Revolution leaders had known and blessed these contacts they eventually turned them into a weapon that they used against him, and into a tool for tainting his image and the images of the Movement and its men and policies!
This is an aspect that we have to take into account and guard against, so that similar contacts may not be exploited by the enemies of the Movement to attack it.
I have to say here also that the complexes of fear of Islam and the grudges against it still influence the behavior of Western politicians in general, and the memories of the battles of Yarmuk and Ajnadin, the Crusades and the Arab and Ottoman conquests still haunt their dreams, with names like Khalid Ibn AIWalid, Tariq Ibn Ziyad, Saladdin Al Ayyubi and Mohammad AlFatih (the conqueror of Constantinople) robbing the sleep from their eyes.
However, we should not ourselves fall victim to fear of these complexes. We have to break psychological barriers and try to shake off all complexes, old and new alike.
Despite the wars, feuds and bloodshed that raged over Europe over the past centuries, the countries of that continent are coming together into unity, and will become one country in the near future.
The Americans and the Soviets have also closed the gap between them, having ended their hot and cold wars.
So why cannot there be rapprochement with the Muslims?
The logic of the West is well known: there is no permanent friendship or permanent enmity. There are only permanent interests.
We have no objection to starting from the principle of securing mutual interests between ourselves and others.
I believe that the West’s interest lies in avoiding the hostility of a thousand million Muslims and winning their trust, friendship and respect.
We in turn should seek to improve our image in the eyes of the West, so as to change that image formed over the ages through bitter conflicts that were not free of exaggeration and fiction. We are not denying that there are some people among us who do not paint the best image of Islam neither by their way of thinking nor by their behavior.
They present Islam in an image of violence, fanaticism, bloody collision with others and neglect of freedoms and human rights, particularly the rights of minorities and women.
Perhaps this image have, been helped by the actual state of affairs in many Muslim countries that could be taken to be the result of Islam and Islamic law.
Such strong illusions do not just fade away by themselves, or disappear overnight, but can be removed by means of good intentioned, longlasting dialogue that is based on frankness and straight forwardness, not maneuvering and elusiveness. Although this sort of dialogue is unlikely in politics, it is not impossible, for nothing in impossible is the world of politics today!
If we manage to convince the West’s leaders and those who influence its policies that we have a right to live by our Islam, led by its Creed, governed by its Shari’ah and guided by its values and morals, without harboring any ill intentions towards the West or doing it any wrong, then we will have covered a long distance towards our objective of establishing the Muslim community that we wish for our homeland.
There is no doubt that the first obstacle that stands in the path to this objective is our rulers who stand guard over us, watching our every move and resisting any tendency for establishing Islam as the rule in social, political and cultural life. There is also no doubt that the most influential power that affects our rulers is the West and its leaders, who warn our leaders against Islam and throw fear of Islamists in their hearts, making them suspicious of Islamic movements by direct and indirect means and through covert and overt statements.
Therefore, persuading the West of the necessity of the emergence of Islam as a guiding and leading force, if possible, will be a vehicle for persuading Arab and Muslim leaders as well, and this will certainly be a great benefit.
Source: Islamic Basics by Yusuf Al-Qaradawi
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