Prince Charles, Heir Apparent to the British Throne, is accused from time to time of being a “secret Muslim”, an accusation also often heard being riled at President Barack Obama. In fact, I have seen on many extremist websites fake pictures of the Prince and the President, with each wearing a turban or some sort of Islamic dress. But I think that Prince Charles, given his role in public life in the past decades, has become immune to criticism, as he endures and carries on. Recently, two books by him -or about him- were published: “Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World”, which he co-authored with Tony Juniper and Ian Skelly – both environmental advocates. The other book is “The Prince Speaks: Selected Speeches of His Royal Highness”, an Arabic translation of a book in English that gathered a number of speeches and lectures given by Prince Charles on issues he is personally interested in, from the environment and agriculture, to architecture, education, health and most notably, dialogue between Islam and the West and the establishment of a multicultural society. The book, published in Arabic, was presented to the public in London last week by the British-Lebanese Association, with the attendance of Prince Charles and several officials, diplomats and prominent figures of the Arab community in Britain. “The Prince Speaks” was edited by Suheil Bushrui and David Cadman. The original book in English was published by the University of Maryland, and the Arabic version was published by Dar al-Saqi, translated by Professor Bushrui (who is an old dear friend and who tutored me at the American University in Beirut in the program on the Irish poet W.B. Yates. The professor is a world-renowned authority on Yates and his poetry). Prince Charles is truly a Prince. He is highly cultivated and he is bold when it comes to the issues dear to him. I have been acquainted with his work on interfaith dialogue over nearly three decades, first with Prince Hassan when he was the Crown Prince of Jordan, and then with Prince Turki and Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, and Princess Lolowah Al Faisal, through the Council of One Hundred Leaders (C-100) at the World Economic Forum in Davos. In January 2008, the C-100, which includes representatives from world religions, and from the worlds of finance, business and the media, presented its annual award to Prince Charles. I still have the material we published on the subject at the time. The award was presented by Prince Turki, Lord Carey and Princess Noura representing Princess Lolowah Al Faisal. Members of the Community who joined in the delivery of the award included: Khalid A. Alireza, Farhan A. Nizami, David Rosen, Sir Sigmund Sternberg, and yours truly. After that, the Prince of Wales received us at Clarence House, his official residence in London. I was standing with him and with Prince Turki Al Faisal, and told him jokingly: Your Highness, we have been doing this for 30 years and still, we did not achieve anything. How about we give it a rest and stop? He then turned to Prince Turki and said smiling: What do you think about what this man said? Before Prince Turki replied, he added: No, this work is important and it must continue. If I am to choose one paragraph from the speech he gave 17 years ago, in which Prince Charles explained his ideals, it would be this one: I believe from the bottom of my heart that the links between the two worlds are today more important than ever, because the level of misunderstanding between the Islamic and Western worlds is still dangerously high, and because their need for dealing and living with one another, in an increasingly interdependent world, has never been more significant than it is today. He gave this speech at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies in 1997. Last June, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Centre's inception, Prince Charles retuned to Oxford and gave a similar speech that tackled man's destruction of the environment, and said that this was contrary to the teachings of all religions, particularly Islam, and urged believers around the world to re-establish the connection between man and nature. He also gave a speech about the same issue this month. Nature is also the subject of his new book in English, “Harmony: A New Way of Looking at Our World”. The Prince and the book's co-authors included topics in their book that range from birds to the Sufi brotherhood, from carpet-weaving in Afghanistan to the stars in the sky, and also spoke in detail about the depletion of natural resources. I believe that this particular issue is an imminent disaster, and I recently read a report published by the United Nations which said that Yemen will lose all its water resources soon, including its drinking water. Prince Charles is an exceptional personality in Western political, cultural and social life. I have been closely acquainted with him and I salute his efforts. [email protected]
