Last week I was invited to a seminar on “Cultural communication…goals and hindrances” organised by the World Islamic Call Society (WICS). The society issues a quarterly magazine under the name “Communication”, aiming at realising better co-existence between people of different religions.
The day-long seminar was a de-luxe affair. It was held at a five-star hotel on the outskirts of Cairo; the organisers of the seminar arranged for comfortable air-conditioned coaches to take the participants to the hotel. A sumptuous buffet lunch awaited the participants, while refreshments and snacks were served round the clock. Participants were presented with all the publications on the seminar and issues tackled, as well as an “Islamic agenda” for the new year, all placed in a luxury natural leather wallet.
Brothers under the skin
The seminar began on an upbeat note. The prevalent rhetoric evoked tolerance, enlightenment, and acceptance of the other. Sheikhs, priests and Islamic scholars extolled respect of ‘other’ religions and better communication with members of other faiths.
In the opening speech, Egypt’s Mufti—a mufti is one authorised to issue fatwa or Islamic edict—Ali Gomaa highlighted the importance of co-existence and accepting the ‘other’—regardless of religion or nationality.
Father Makary Habib who attended on behalf of Pope Shenouda III said that religions do not conflict but rather respect one another. The Coptic Orthodox Church, he said, does not accept the concept of the clash of civilisations. The parable of the Good Samaritan was used by Bishop Mounir Hanna Anis of the Episcopal Church to relay the message of “who is my neighbour?” “We are all brothers under the skin,” he said.
Abdel-Ilah Ben-Arafa, expert at the Arab Education, Sciences, and Culture Organisation, read a paper on “Mechanisms of cultural communication”. These, he said, are mainly trade, emigration and war. Many of the participants protested at the idea of war being a ‘carrier’ of civilisation but Dr Ben-Arafa stuck to his view, citing as examples the Crusade wars and Napoleon Bonaparte’s military campaign against Egypt, both of which acted as vehicles to introduce the European culture of the time to the region.
In his paper entitled “Peaceful co-existence in a pluralistic society”, Sheikh Fawzy al-Zafzaaf, member of Islamic Research Academy, said that no religion has escaped misquotation, yet all religions call for cooperation and love, teaching men that we are all brothers and sisters in humanity. “We are all descendents of the same father and the same mother.
Mohamed Ahmed al-Sherif, secretary-general of the society, asserted that the choice of Egypt to host the seminar was appropriate since Egypt has a time-honoured tradition of peaceful co-existence between Christians and Muslims that the entire world could benefit from.
Kaddafi genius
All these speeches were enthusiastically discussed and applauded.
Right outside the hall where the seminar was organised a book fair was held, presenting the books published by WICS. Dr Sherif had informed us that WICS was a NGO established in Libya in 1972, and that its financing came from its own investments inside and outside Libya in addition to donations and a trust fund. “Analytical Readings in the Speech of Timbuktu” was one of the books in the fair and it drew my attention. The book includes a collection of writings, analyses, and studies on the speech of the Leader of the Libyan Jamahiriya Muammar al-Kadafi, which he delivered before an Islamic convention in Timbuktu in 2006. I asked to buy the book, but the attendant insisted it was distributed free of charge. Leafing through the book, I found out that it was a 200-page celebration of the utter genius of Kaddafi, written by 28 writers most of whom are university professors. It moreover carried an introduction by prominent Islamic scholar Dr Ahmed Mohamed al-Ansari, who wrote that Kaddafi had disclosed what no-one had ever dared voice.
As to the topic of the much-applauded speech, it was Kaddafi’s declaration that Christians and Jews were not worshiping true religions. The Bible and Torah were misquoted, Kaddafi said, meaning they do not represent the ‘real’ Christianity or Judaism, and that the only authentic holy book was the so-called 16th-century Barnaba’s Gospel which allegedly prophesies the coming of Islam’s prophet Mohamed.
The book called for translating Barnaba’s Gospel from the original Italian into Arabic, because it represents the most important document in Christianity and proves the credibility of the Qur’an. This despite the fact that the book had, in a previous chapter, contested the veracity of the Bible and Torah on grounds that holy books should only be read in their original languages—in this case Hebrew or Greek—but not in translation. Several other articles in the book ridiculed the Holy Bible and the Christian faith.
Why?
The entire matter appeared to reek of appalling double standards. What was the true message WICS was trying to send? The one calling for tolerance and enlightenment preached in the hall, or the one ridiculing and defaming another religion as preached in the book outside the hall? And which of the two messages are we to believe? Or was the wonderful rhetoric a mere manoeuvre to mask the actual fanaticism?
When a Muslim colleague of mine saw the book he was amazed and commented that perhaps WICS published the book as a compliment to Kaddafi, the president of the country in which WICS is registered. But a minute later he muttered: “But why did they have to introduce the book at this particular event which supposedly calls for better communication and co-existence between people of different faiths?” Why indeed?