Abdullah Urges Muslims to Reclaim Lost Golden Legacy
KUALA LUMPUR, Tue.:
Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today outlined four imperatives, including renewing the spirit of unity among Muslims, for Islamic states to seek a wider and more active role in a globalising world and reclaim the golden legacy of the Islamic era.
The prime minister said Muslims must also start to revive their economic position, invest in education and skills and establish social justices, based on timeless Islamic principles.
He said that for more than a thousand years, Muslim civilisation was the zenith of human achievement with the Muslims as the leading philosophers, scientists, and innovators of their era and as such, they needed to reclaim this golden legacy that had been lost to the ages.
Abdullah said Muslims often forgot that through the spread of the empire, they gave birth to a Muslim wave of globalisation more than a thousand years ago, where Muslim states were shining examples of economic progress, scientifc innovation and social justice.
“We cannot remain mere spectators in a world that is rapidly moving ahead. We must commit ourselves to enhancing our competitiveness in order to play a contributing role to the advancement of human civilisation, as was the legacy of Islamic states in the past” he said.
He said this in his address at the Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia’s (IKIM) international conference on “The Role of Islamic States in a Globalised World” here.
His speech was delivered by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Touching on the need to renew the spirit of unity among Muslims, Abdullah said Islam is a global faith that binds many races together, but today Muslims find themselves pitted against each other, such as Sunnis against Shias and most tragically, Palestinians against Palestinians.
In this context, he stressed that Muslims must also renew their understanding of Islam and put aside any sectarian differences which could lead to division and conflict among them.
“Ultimately, we must begin to move beyond politics and conflict, and focus on the issues that truly concern us as an ummah – tackling poverty, eliminating illiteracy, combating ignorance and raising the quality of life. This is the immediate concern for us all, as Muslims,” he said.
On another key imperative, Abdullah said Muslim nations must begin to revive their economic position because Muslims’ share of the global economy was poor and even the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) member countries had collectively recorded a declining share of trade within developing countries.
In 2005, the OIC’s collective Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was less than five per cent of the total world figure, and intra-trade volume – at about US$800 billion – was only about six to seven per cent of total global trade.
Abdullah said that when Malaysia took over the chairmanship of OIC, one of the objectives Malaysia set out to achieve during its tenure was to expand and deepen the economic linkages between Muslim countries of “what I call putting an economic face to the OIC”.
“I believe that we are already on our way towards promoting the revival of the global Muslim economy. In 2005, the World Islamic Economic Forum was launched under the aegis of the OIC. We have endeavoured to promote economic links and entrepreneurs within the Muslim ummah, particularly among women entrepreneurs as well as young leaders,” he said.
Abdullah, who is the current chairman of the OIC, said he had spearheaded a capacity-building programme within the OIC to build capabilities in commercially-driven and income-generating projects, particularly in the lower-income countries, adding that these initiatives were among the many efforts the OIC would continue to undertake to further promote trade and economic cooperation among the Muslims.
Abdullah also said that there was a need for Muslim countries to invest in education and skills because the rise of every nation was preceded by the acquisition of knowledge.
He said Muslims need to build a knowledgeable society – an “Ulul Al Bab” community – in which real and true knowledge is the governing principle of all human activity.
“We must be willing to invest towards educating the next generation of great scholars – the ulama that will light our way – in every spectrum of the sciences. Of the great scholars that we already have today, we must honour them and their contributions. We must build a generation of Muslims that recognises and honours knowledge. This is the way of success,” he said.
Speaking on the need to establish social justice, based on timeless Islamic principles, Abdullah said Muslim countries must liberate good, human capabilities so that every Muslim and individual citizen could positively participate in our system of governance.
“We must remember that the governed possess the right to be governed as free men, as human beings governed by consent. This is true, not only through the prism of western frameworks of human rights, (but) it is also true from the tawhidic concept of justice,” he said.
Abdullah pointed out that the four imperatives must be undertaken within a cohesive framework of Islam, which promotes a proper appreciation of Islam as a force for progress and development, adding that this approach may be found in the principles of Islam Hadhari, which he introduced in Malaysia and promoted globally.
Abdullah pointed out that while globalisation has led to many positive outcomes such as rapid advancement in trade, communications and transportation, it has also contributed to a host of global ills such as loss of jobs and unfair terms of trade.
He said that as such while the global challenges confronting the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims were tremendous, playing the role of a global player was not something completely new to Muslims as they have played that very role centuries ago.
The prime minister said that unfortunately the reality today was that Muslim countries were woefully unprepared to face the challenges of globalisation where many of them were still grappling with basic developmental issues at a time when many other nations were finding ways to become more competitive.
“It is quite clear that some Muslim countries today are in a state of confusion and even desperation. In fact, for some Muslims, they have even begun to see globalisation as a conspiracy to undermine Islam. This leads many of them to espouse radical views and even commit extremist acts and for many other Muslims, they remain resigned to their sorry fate, deprived and dejected.
“Nevertheless, we need to realise that the phenomenon of globalisation is here to stay. Simply opposing globalisation – adopting the attitude of withdrawal or taking the path of obscurantism – is clearly not a wise option. In fact it is not an option at all,” Abdullah said.
