Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
The Collective Voice of The Muslim World
Date: 10/07/2007
10 July 2007 At the outset, I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude and sincerely express my thanks to the University of Exeter, its Vice Chancellor and the Faculty Members for this very prestigious honour and secondly for the very kind and generous words that have been spoken here for me. I am honored to accept the conferment of Dr. honoris causa degree. On this happy occasion, I would like to share with all of you that Exeter University has a special place in my heart, not only because I remember with fondness those two fruitful years of academic accomplishment at the Department of Chemistry in mid-seventies, but also because of long lasting friendships and relations which I had with fellow scholars, and memories of the warm and hospitable Exeter community. I reminisce those years with yearning and the history and tradition which is so redolent of Exeter. I have rekindled my ties with Exeter by having four graduates from this great seat of learning as part of the OIC family working with me at the General Secretariat on important assignments. These Exeter graduates are the new faces of the reformed OIC. I cherish all the good days I have had here on these premises. It was a time when I was a research fellow, a visiting young scholar at the Department of Chemistry where my mind was placed, but it was the library and the Department of History where my heart belonged. Up the hill at the Department of Chemistry I enjoyed working with distinguished scholars such as Professor Schofield, then reader Professor Roy Moodie and met many other great scholars; also very active young researchers from this country and from overseas. Down the hill, it was at the library that I found an immense treasury of books. It was in the Department of History that I met an eminent historian of the Abbasid period and learned, to my and his great surprise, that he was a student of my father in the early fifties in Cairo, where he carried out Turkish studies at Ain Shams University. That was the late Professor M.A. Shaban. These two years were a straddle between two worlds. Then, none of my three books– two in Arabic and one in Turkish – were in this library. Today Professor Tim Niblock mentioned nine of my recent books. I do remember also, as I was walking down the hill having finished my laboratory work, the pond where I stood in peace, looking at the ducks being fed by elderly ladies who devoted their time to feeding them and exchanged nice words with the passers-by. Also, I do recall how generous this university was, not only to its family of students and visiting scholars but also to Muslims from allover Devon and Cornwall, allowing them to have their Friday prayers and their Eid prayers organized by Muslim students’ association; these later turned to be the Islamic Society for the Southwest of England which I have had the honour of being its founding President. These were days when I and my wife had the opportunity to be introduced to the British way of life and English hospitality. Now I am glad to see that Islamic studies, Middle East studies and studies on the Gulf region are flourishing at Exeter University. It is one of the leading institutions in these fields and I feel proud of this. I would like to take this opportunity to pay a tribute to those who are contributing immensely to these leading endeavors of the University and those friends who extend their support. In this respect I would like to pay a special tribute to His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohamed al-Qassimi for his valuable support. When we turn our eyes to the present day world, there is crisis allover. It is in many Member States whom I represent and in the larger international arena; and this crises affects inter-cultural and inter-faith relations among the communities, racial groups and also states at large. We have to ask ourselves this question as to why at the beginning of the 21st Century we have ended up in a situation which has wide and far reaching repercussion and yet no solutions. Do we, as an international community, subscribe to have a global order that should be just and fair for all, or, are we so parochial and narrow-scoped that we cannot accommodate the vision of a multi-cultural and multi-faith international community which should provide space for everyone? We may positively work for the consensus over the international values on which most of us have total agreement and we can build on those values irrespective of their source an international dignified political and humane multi-cultural world. I leave the question for your intellectual challenge and urge all of you to find solutions for the suffering of mankind in whichever field you are making your contributions. Looking at the image of Islam as is currently seen from this country, one sees with deep regret that paradoxically, there is a big difference between what it is now and what it was thirty years ago. Today some who claim to be acting on behalf of Islam while they do not represent Islam at any rate and those who misunderstand Islam, neglect the need to seek the truth; because of all those marginal groups we are going through hard times. I do denounce all those who use force and violence and aim to put their evil deeds under the cover of Islam. I also would like to invite all those who misunderstand Islam not to be too hasty in their judgments and to make an effort to learn about it. A center par excellence for such endeavors is certainly the University of Exeter. Once again, let me express my personal gratitude for the conferring on me the highest and prestigious honour of this great University.
