Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister and Head of the Delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the meeting of foreign ministers of the '' Forum for the Future'' addressed the forum here today. Following is the full text entitled '' Reform with Stability'': His excellency Colin Powell, the U.S.Secretary of State, His excellency Muhammad bin Isa, Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, ladies and gentlemen, Thank you for providing this opportunity to exchange views and ideas between the advanced industrial countries and the countries of the Middle East and North Africa. At the outset let me state firmly that I believe there can never be a clash of civilizations between us. It is a contradiction in terms. Civilizations are not competing products in the marketplace but rather the collective effort of human genius built on cumulative contributions from many cultures. We are all indebted to the ingenuity of great men like Bacon, Locke, Rousseau and Goethe. Who can deny the effects of the great Greek philosophers on our civilization , or the role of such Islamic thinkers as Avicenna, AlRazi, Ibn Al-Haytham and Ibn Rushd in keeping the flames of human knowledge during the darkest ages, let alone the shining beacons of knowledge, from India and China. So civilization can not be monopolized by any single nation or group. --More 2227 Local Time 1927 GMT
