LONDON: “Those among you who read history, are advised to go back to the glorious history of Spain when Christians, Muslims and Jews co-existed in peace and amity and contributed to then civilization,” said the ambassador of Palestine to the UK, Professor Manuel Hassassian, at a meeting on the “Christian-Muslim Relations” held on 20 February, 2008 at the Imperial College, London. On the concept of multiculturalism, Dr. Hassassian said, “I am Arab by ethnicity, Christian by religion and Catholic by denomination and also am Palestinian by citizenship and Muslim by acquisition.” Speaking about the Christian-Muslim relations in the Arab World, Palestinian ambassador said, “As a matter of fact, Christians and Muslims have co-existed all along history; fighting together for independence; fighting against British mandate; against Israeli occupation; because we do believe that before being Christians and Muslims we all share common aspirations.” Speaking about Western imperialist mentality, the ambassador said, “When they do not have any enemy, they create one. And unfortunately, they have created today Islam as an enemy after the disintegration of the Soviet Union.” “Islam is such a (tolerant) religion that it has accommodated (other faiths) all along history and has reconciled with modernity or with modernization; because it is not bound by limitations of time and space,” observed Dr. Hassassian. “I, as a Christian, when I talk about Islam as my civilization I am proud of it,” said the ambassador and added, “We are all men of faith. We are proud of the Islamic architecture as an Arab and as a Muslim; because if we don't appreciate that, then who will do.” Speaking about the common enemy, the ambassador said, “They call God Allah, we say God. Where do we differ then? We are one and the same. Our common enemies are those who are distorting our religion, those who are abusing religion, (those who follow) the racist ideology. We have to fight together, Christians and Muslims, and Jews. As a matter of fact, this is the message that we have learnt when we were at the school; this is the message of tolerance of this country.” The next speaker, Bishop Riah Abu El-Assal, the Bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem and the Middle East, said, “Partitioning Palestine does not serve either the Palestinians or the Israelis, neither the Jews nor the Christians, and certainly not the Muslims.” Bishop El-Assal said, “I want to tell you if there is a vote for an independent Palestinian state on all Palestinian soil, it is the Arab Palestinian minority – irrespective of how difficult, the discrimination against us, the expropriation of our lands and the demolition of more than 400,000 villages, we remain where we belong.” Bishop El-Assal spoke about relationship between Christians and Muslims, “If we learn the art of co-living, we will help mobilizing relations between the Muslim world of 1.5 billion people and the 2.1 billion Christians in the world. Very much the same if there will be peace in Jerusalem; there will be peace all over the world,” he said. “Co-existence and co-living in an area as Middle East will bring co-living and co-existence in other parts of the world. When Archbishop Tutu came to visit us in Jerusalem, somebody asked him how he described the relationship between the Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land; he said you remind me of scrambled eggs which no one can unscramble. We have been living together here for 1400 years as Christians and Muslims, especially, in Palestine,” said Bishop El-Assal. “Religion was described by someone as electricity which you can use to generate light or you can electrocute people. It may be described as water which quenches the thirst of the people or drowns them,” said Bishop El-Assal. “There are some people in the world, as the ambassador here said, who cannot live without enemies; if they can't find them they create them. With the collapse of communism, many wish us to view Islam as the new enemy number one,” said Bishop El-Assal and added, “True Islam is not known to many in the West; hence the fear, the suspicion, the bias and the prejudice and the hearsay against it.” Speaking about co-existence, Bishop El-Assal mentioned the situation of Jews in Spain. “Had it not been for the rule of Islam there would have been no Jews living in Spain. Judaism was in fear of the inquisition,” said Bishop El-Assal. “The world can learn a lot from the way Muslims, Christians and Jews lived together as well as with several other denominations in the Medieval Ages and were able to build the greatest of all civilizations.” Dr. Azzam Tamimi, the director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought (IIPT), said, “Philosophy, medicine and all the sciences were the joint product of this combined effort.” Speaking about religion, Dr. Tamimi said, “Religion is not used, it is abused. Religion has not been given a chance to live by.” “There is crime going on everywhere. There is mayhem. Killing is alien to our culture; it is not the norm. Why is all this happening?” Dr. Tamimi asked, “How do we come out of this crisis?” He said, “Firstly, don't blame religion, don't blame the doctrines; secondly, Muslims, Christian and Jews need to work together in order to get rid of this menace. We have to join hands together against this menace in as much as the world joined hands against apartheid. And thirdly, we have to resolve everything with equitable treatment.” __
