Rimini (UNA-OIC) – At the invitation of the presidency of the Rimini Forum, hosted in Italy, Rimini Forum is the largest gathering of European youth to promote friendship among peoples. It is also the largest forum in the world, with about one million visitors annually. During the forum, His Excellency Secretary-General of the Muslim World League (WML), Chairman of the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Dr. Muhammad bin Abdul Karim Al-Issa, delivered the key lecture of the forum in a large European presence of youth and religious, political and intellectual leaders, academicians, intellectuals and university students.
Dr. Al-Issa began his speech by stressing the importance of such global forums that contribute to raising awareness of the importance of rapprochement, understanding and cooperation among nations and peoples together with addressing the slogans of hatred and racism, along with the theory of the inevitability of civilized clash and conflict.
In the context of his lecture, His Excellency cast light on the deep feelings of faith embedded in every human being, in an intellectual and philosophical atmosphere that addresses everyone, believers and non-believers. He used the logic of wisdom which guides man to believe in the Creator who created man and placed in him values as a human instinct. He also stressed the importance of sensing the religious sensibility which represents the faith value of every human being, and through it, the reason and wisdom of our existence and its value are sensed.
Dr. Al-Issa explained that the general values that represent the moral commonalities and denominators among human beings are, in fact, a reflection of some traces of the pure instinct existing in every human being. He added that this instinct in its full meaning means the instinct of faith in every human soul, and even if a person denies belief in the Creator, we say to him: “These human values are an effect of the hidden belief in One God that has been ignored for any reason.”
Dr. Al-Issa explained that human history contained a lot of arguments and philosophies, but it recorded moral commonalities among them, and said: “We – believers in Allah the Almighty – say that these moral commonalities are a reflection of the instinct of faith, and others describe them as human values. We do not mind calling them “human values,” because we are certain that these human values do not create themselves. This is the inner belief in One Creator, whether this faith was declared or hidden in the depths of the human soul.
Dr. Al-Issa made clear that when a person is stripped of this faith, in other words, he ignores the inner belief motive with its previously explained effects, man finds himself in front of an ambiguous and absurd explanation, hence the absurdity of materialistic expediency, in its selfish form and with its negative and dangerous consequences for humans in world peace and community harmony, came.
Dr. Al-Issa censured the theory of the inevitable clash of civilizations proposed by Samuel Huntington in his book under the title “The Clash of Civilizations”. He also warned that the omission of the human denominator produces such a theory, which in turn creates a number of extremist ideologies. He added: “Huntington’s book on the inevitability of the clash of civilizations set a record in the number of its editions and the number of translations. His extremist theory was applauded and promoted by many parties in the East and West.
Dr. Al-Issa pointed out that the MWL and its partners around the world have announced the “Alliance of Civilizations”, to be an alternative to the clash of civilizations, and the United Nations has recently realized the importance of this matter, and has established an international organization for this purpose.
His Excellency detailed the issue of the instinct of faith, indicating that Allah the Almighty implanted this instinct in our souls and that religion and the heavenly laws came to awaken this instinct on which the moral values of individuals and societies are based. He added: “We note that knowledge without values produces extremist theories and even led man to the manufacturing of weapons of mass destruction.”
Dr. Al-Issa dealt with the issue of freedom, stressing that the issue of freedom is an essential foundation in religious and human values. He also stressed that the true meaning of freedom ends at the laws of states and their communal values, calling for the need to differentiate between freedom and chaos, and between it and respect for the dignity of others.
In the context of his lecture, His Excellency Dr. Al-Issa provided an analytical critique of the ideas and sayings of some of the most prominent Western thinkers who had great contributions in the religious and philosophical fields, most notably the work of the famous Italian scholar, philosopher and clergyman Luigi Giussani, who presented a unique proposal on knowledge, especially religious knowledge, in his famous book themed “Religious Sense”.
