00:00:11
Uh thank you very much. Uh so that's
00:00:14
that's what you get when you Google
00:00:16
something. Uh complete exaggeration. Um
00:00:19
and halftruth. I think uh I I'm actually
00:00:22
much more humble than that. Uh I uh I do
00:00:25
have certain sort of opinions about
00:00:26
what's happening in the Middle East. Uh
00:00:28
and I think you know I've reached a
00:00:29
stage in life where I believe it's very
00:00:31
important that somebody says it. Uh I
00:00:33
haven't heard anybody else say it. So I
00:00:35
decided that it was time that I actually
00:00:37
say it. Uh so initially I'd like to say
00:00:40
it's really a great honor to be here
00:00:41
today. Uh and before I begin I'd like to
00:00:44
uh thank Jerry Jerry went for his
00:00:46
immense generosity and strength. Uh I'm
00:00:49
extremely grateful to Jerry for having
00:00:50
invited me to speak. He spent an
00:00:52
afternoon a few months ago uh discussing
00:00:54
the Arab world with me and I must have
00:00:56
said something interesting to him uh
00:00:58
because he invited me to Wharton. I got
00:01:00
very excited. Um I uh I'm actually uh
00:01:03
off off from my job without permission
00:01:06
to speak to you today. Um so I'd also
00:01:09
like to thank all the people who've uh
00:01:10
helped organize the event. I know the
00:01:12
immense efforts that go on behind the
00:01:13
scenes.
00:01:15
Uh I also just come from watching uh
00:01:19
John Kerry on TV speaking about uh the
00:01:22
challenge ISIS in particular presents
00:01:24
not just to the Arab world but to the
00:01:26
Islamic world and to uh to well to the
00:01:29
US. Uh and I am even more convinced now
00:01:32
that he's only got part of the picture
00:01:34
um and that there there are sort of
00:01:36
greater forces at play uh and that this
00:01:38
isn't simply a military matter. So world
00:01:41
foreign ministers just met in Paris to
00:01:43
defeat uh to decide how to defeat the
00:01:45
movement called ISIS. Uh uh ISIS is in
00:01:48
my opinion above all an ideological
00:01:50
movement which gains its strength by
00:01:52
winning recruits and sympathizers across
00:01:54
the Arab world. Uh so how can ISIS be
00:01:57
defeated ideologically? Uh so I'm I'm
00:02:00
assuming that most people in the room
00:02:02
want to defeat ISIS in one way or
00:02:04
another. Um I I apologize if that's not
00:02:07
the common a common opinion. Uh so as as
00:02:10
a UAE ambassador to Moscow, uh I've been
00:02:12
there for six years. U I want to I want
00:02:14
to say that I also think of myself as
00:02:16
slightly uh um outside of the the narrow
00:02:19
box of a diplomat. So I think of myself
00:02:21
as a liberal uh in the positive and
00:02:23
broader sense of the word. Uh secondly,
00:02:26
I think of myself as an Arab who insists
00:02:28
on thinking as deeply as possible about
00:02:30
the Arab world and its future. And uh
00:02:33
thirdly uh I think of myself uh as an
00:02:35
individual uh with uh a right to uh an
00:02:39
opinion and a right to an existence uh
00:02:42
that I define. So um as a liberal, a
00:02:45
conscientious thinker and an individual
00:02:47
uh that's how I would like you to hear
00:02:48
me, not necessarily as a as a government
00:02:50
official pushing a specific government
00:02:52
line. So I think I'm going to spend
00:02:54
about half an hour uh speaking and then
00:02:56
I look forward to questions and answers.
00:02:59
So why am I speaking about this topic
00:03:00
today? And why do I intend to uh to
00:03:02
speak about it in other places? Well,
00:03:05
it's because I I and many others like me
00:03:07
are horrified by the violence shown by
00:03:09
ISIS in the name of Islam and in the
00:03:11
name of the Arabs. ISIS has slaughtered
00:03:13
its critics, including many among the
00:03:15
Sunni Arab community, which it claims to
00:03:17
defend. It strangely and arrogantly, I
00:03:20
believe, claims a right to rule over all
00:03:22
Muslims everywhere in the world. Uh
00:03:24
shows ambition at a minimum. It's
00:03:27
persecuted minorities which every decent
00:03:29
Muslim individual should cherish and
00:03:31
protect. And it's not unique in that
00:03:33
respect unfortunately because other
00:03:35
Islamist movements have done much the
00:03:37
same. Uh and indeed one of the points
00:03:39
that I'm I want to make is that other
00:03:41
Islamist movements including uh in my
00:03:43
view the Muslim Brotherhood also need to
00:03:45
be confronted.
00:03:47
So most of the coverage of the reaction
00:03:48
to ISIS has been of the West and its
00:03:50
Arab allies marshalling a coalition to
00:03:52
defeat militarily ISIS and eradicate it
00:03:55
from the territories it claims. Uh and
00:03:58
this is said to take anywhere between
00:03:59
three and and and 10 years. But ISIS is
00:04:02
much more dangerous as a model in the
00:04:04
minds of my fellow Arabs and fellow
00:04:06
Muslims. It's the shell into which any
00:04:08
substance can be inserted. And it is it
00:04:11
is this aspect of ISIS that I believe
00:04:13
must be fought above all. So, I've got
00:04:15
five proposals or ideas for how one
00:04:18
might go about doing this in in a
00:04:19
positive sense, in the sense of not just
00:04:21
um eradicating really bad people and
00:04:23
really bad ideas, but coming up with
00:04:25
something to then replace those very
00:04:27
attractive uh
00:04:28
ideas. So, I'm not focusing on the
00:04:31
measures that need to be taken to stop
00:04:32
individuals from funding ISIS. And I'm
00:04:35
not going to set out economic or
00:04:36
political measures such as concessions
00:04:38
to Iraq, Sunny, Arab Minority, or
00:04:40
policies to reduce unemployment. It's
00:04:42
not because I don't think these are all
00:04:44
important. I just think there are others
00:04:46
who can discuss them uh better uh and
00:04:48
who have more sort of uh statistical
00:04:52
knowledge that perhaps I I have. So I I
00:04:54
prefer to talk about the ideological
00:04:56
debate within the Arab world uh and some
00:04:58
of also the things that are not said
00:05:00
that should be part of the ideological
00:05:01
debate uh and how all of this can be
00:05:03
turned against ISIS and other Islamists.
00:05:06
So this is a debate primarily to be had
00:05:08
between Arabs uh and it should be done
00:05:10
in terms that Arabs understand. Worrying
00:05:13
whether a western society or media will
00:05:16
like what we say to each other distracts
00:05:18
us from speaking to each other. When we
00:05:20
talk of moderate Islamists or Islamic
00:05:22
democracy, it's often clear that we're
00:05:24
not actually talking to each other in
00:05:25
the Arab world. We're talking to an
00:05:27
imagined Washington and what we expect
00:05:29
Washington then to tell us. Uh these are
00:05:32
not coherent concepts, at least not yet.
00:05:35
and they're not I don't believe very
00:05:36
high up on the real list of
00:05:38
priorities. Uh so as a Sunni Muslim uh
00:05:41
as distinct from a Sunni Islamist, what
00:05:43
are my concerns? I and many of my
00:05:45
compatriots are deeply concerned about
00:05:47
number one, our moral state, number two,
00:05:50
the violence within our Arab Muslim
00:05:52
society. Number three, our theological
00:05:55
leadership. Number four, the role of
00:05:57
laymen and people of goodwill in
00:05:59
redirecting the path of the Arab and
00:06:01
Muslim world. And number five, the jobs
00:06:03
and economy of course. So these five
00:06:06
themes, morality, tolerance, religious
00:06:08
moderation, inclusivity, and good
00:06:10
government, or what I will call
00:06:11
technology, are critical ones for
00:06:13
undermining the appeal of militant
00:06:15
Islamist movements like ISIS and the
00:06:17
Muslim Brotherhood. So in my view, we
00:06:20
should first point out that although
00:06:21
they say they will make Muslims more
00:06:23
virtuous, they do not. Their perspectus
00:06:25
of forced morality and imposed religious
00:06:28
norms is not just illogical, it's also
00:06:30
bound to fail.
00:06:32
Second, we should highlight that their
00:06:33
program of violence and intolerance is
00:06:36
in contrast to the historical caliphate.
00:06:38
It is actually a reductive sketch of
00:06:40
Islamic
00:06:41
history. Third, we should tackle the
00:06:43
issues of the Muslim clergy who either
00:06:46
back the extremists and license their
00:06:48
violence or do not interest themselves
00:06:51
uh in the pastoral duties in their
00:06:53
pastoral duties to Muslims in and of the
00:06:55
21st century.
00:06:57
Fourth, we must tackle the question of
00:06:59
how our societies should be guided, what
00:07:01
the right path is to a better future
00:07:03
with inclusive government and security
00:07:05
for all citizens. And lastly, I believe
00:07:08
we must show that Islamists govern
00:07:09
badly. They govern badly not just
00:07:11
because of their inexperience, but
00:07:13
because their ideology actually prevents
00:07:14
them from governing well. So, let me
00:07:17
look first at
00:07:18
morality. Islamists are fond of saying
00:07:20
that Islam is the answer. I I grew up uh
00:07:23
and this was something that I always
00:07:25
took for granted that it is the answer.
00:07:27
This is a motto that was promulgated by
00:07:29
the Muslim Brotherhood but also by Shia
00:07:31
militant movements in Iraq. In the last
00:07:34
few years, many of us have actually
00:07:36
asked what was the question. Islam is
00:07:38
the answer. What was the question? Islam
00:07:40
is our religion. Uh and it is a deep and
00:07:42
powerful influence over our lives. And
00:07:44
for many of us, it is the answer to our
00:07:46
spiritual and existential needs.
00:07:49
However, when it's raified by Islamists
00:07:51
and used as a promotional tool for what
00:07:53
I can only say is a lust for power, then
00:07:55
I believe that we need to push back
00:07:57
until we get more answers at least. So,
00:07:59
one way of pushing back is by asking why
00:08:01
Islam is the answer to specific
00:08:04
questions and why specifically is it the
00:08:06
answer in their hands. The Islamist
00:08:08
explanation never moves beyond vague
00:08:10
assurances that all will all be good
00:08:13
when we implement Islam. That still
00:08:15
doesn't answer the question why a purely
00:08:17
technical or administrative or
00:08:19
biological or societal problem will be
00:08:21
solved through piety. In fact, it seems
00:08:24
that utilizing our religion in this way
00:08:26
is a disservice to it. The focus of our
00:08:28
religion in my view and the view of many
00:08:30
of my fellow Muslims is ethical, moral
00:08:33
and spiritual in its essence. Deciding
00:08:35
pension fund politics is not the realm
00:08:37
of religion. Nor is economic development
00:08:40
directly the realm of religion. There
00:08:41
will of course be ethical matters to
00:08:43
take into account, principles of
00:08:45
fairness, equity, and and justice. But
00:08:48
it is too much to say that there is a
00:08:49
specifically Islamic answer to these
00:08:52
matters. The truth is that there are
00:08:53
many answers to these questions
00:08:54
depending on how we describe them. I
00:08:57
often find it interesting that
00:08:58
corruption is cited as one of the vices
00:09:00
that will be stopped by implementing
00:09:01
Islam under the
00:09:03
Islamists. We are told that pious people
00:09:05
will hold positions of responsibility
00:09:07
and that this will bring corruption to a
00:09:09
halt. This is wishful thinking at best.
00:09:13
Why not try some tried and tested
00:09:15
administrative procedures that will
00:09:17
ensure enough transparency to make
00:09:19
corruption much more difficult to hide?
00:09:21
My worry is that we are asking too
00:09:23
little of our great religion. When our
00:09:25
holy text and our moral principles can
00:09:27
be directed towards personal
00:09:29
regeneration, we instead demand of it to
00:09:32
convert the publicly pious into the
00:09:33
morally infallible. A very difficult
00:09:35
task. we can move uh we can more easily
00:09:38
and quickly build administrative systems
00:09:41
uh that will perform this function
00:09:43
without regard to the moral worth of the
00:09:45
administrator and be of greater uh
00:09:47
service to our fellow
00:09:49
citizens. What is also worrying is to
00:09:51
see religion's noble goals being used to
00:09:53
justify evil and cowardly means. It is
00:09:55
used, for example, to glorify violence,
00:09:58
which is something that ISIS's religious
00:10:00
propaganda does all the time. And it can
00:10:03
be used to cover up another kind of
00:10:04
violence, the violence of bribery,
00:10:06
corruption, and exploitation. It is also
00:10:08
a kind of psychological violence that we
00:10:10
do to each other whenever when when we
00:10:12
enforce religious standards on each
00:10:14
other to the point where we monitor each
00:10:16
other's mental states searching eagerly
00:10:18
for moral
00:10:19
weakness. The second message I'd like to
00:10:22
talk about is about tolerance as opposed
00:10:24
to violence. essentially that ISIS and
00:10:26
other movements are reading history
00:10:28
incorrectly and selectively when they
00:10:30
claim to be the modern successors of the
00:10:32
early
00:10:33
Muslims. There's no doubting the power
00:10:36
of the claim that they make. Let me
00:10:38
focus on ISIS for a moment. Although
00:10:40
both ISIS and the Muslim Brotherhood are
00:10:42
Islamist movements and fundamentally I
00:10:45
believe hostile to the kind of Arab
00:10:46
society that I want to see. Uh ISIS I
00:10:49
think is more worrying for me than the
00:10:50
Muslim Brotherhood. Why? The Muslim
00:10:53
Brotherhood is more uh is a more
00:10:54
cult-like organization in my view, a
00:10:56
fraternity of sorts with all sorts of
00:10:59
tests and demonstrations of absolute
00:11:00
loyalty to a religious administrative
00:11:02
leadership. It's a closed system that is
00:11:05
mired in its own mythmaking and
00:11:07
worldview. ISIS, on the other hand, is
00:11:09
an open system. Uh it's violent and
00:11:12
makes an appeal to the basic elements of
00:11:13
Islamic history.
00:11:15
ISIS intends or seems to intend to
00:11:17
replicate the spread of Islam by the
00:11:19
sword throughout the region in a kind of
00:11:21
replay of 7th century history. It is
00:11:24
actually a very seductive approach that
00:11:26
makes use of many commonly held
00:11:27
references. It claims the forms of
00:11:30
ancient Islamic history for itself in a
00:11:32
way that many uh Muslims recognize,
00:11:34
including myself. The Muslim
00:11:37
Brotherhood, on the other hand, is a
00:11:38
modern hierarchy that is not reflected
00:11:39
in in the early history of Islam.
00:11:42
ISIS recalls the caiffs and the battles
00:11:44
where so many early Muslims proved
00:11:46
themselves or sacrificed themselves to
00:11:47
to defeat the enemies of Islam. It
00:11:50
appeals to this sense of reenactment and
00:11:52
this is where its true danger lies. ISIS
00:11:55
have managed to articulate and reference
00:11:57
a misleading and one-dimensional
00:11:59
narrative that unfortunately has wide
00:12:02
purchase in our region. I don't think
00:12:03
this point actually comes out very
00:12:05
often. Uh it's it's described as a
00:12:08
complete distortion of Islam. Uh and I
00:12:10
think that that's that's a bit worrying.
00:12:13
Uh many of us will recognize elements
00:12:15
within that that actually aren't a
00:12:16
distortion uh but a a a very strange
00:12:20
expression of uh Islam. So why does it
00:12:23
have this uh wide purchase? Well, I
00:12:26
believe because of institutional
00:12:28
pressure that refuses to examine and
00:12:31
re-examine the implications of poorly
00:12:33
understood beliefs that we have about
00:12:35
our religion, about our history, about
00:12:37
present societies, and the ways in which
00:12:40
we can improve our lives. Here we Sunni
00:12:43
Muslims need to ask ourselves some
00:12:44
critical questions. Why would the form
00:12:46
of an Islamic state and the declaration
00:12:48
of a caliphate so excite certain
00:12:50
populations on social media? Do do these
00:12:53
people know what they are excited about?
00:12:55
Do they understand the difference
00:12:56
between the form of an announced
00:12:58
caliphate and the substance of daily
00:13:00
murder in the name of our dear religion?
00:13:02
Do they realize that ISIS would likely
00:13:04
behead them if they were under its rule?
00:13:07
Do they know enough history to realize
00:13:08
that in the time of the actual caliphat
00:13:11
the the the kaiff Yazid was sent to was
00:13:14
said to spend his evenings in long and
00:13:16
friendly discussions with his Christian
00:13:17
minister who later became a Christian
00:13:19
saint. or that the caiff al-Mansour
00:13:21
sought advice from Hindu astronomers
00:13:23
before choosing the time to lay the
00:13:25
foundation stone of Baghdad. It's
00:13:26
basically tolerance. ISIS's so-called
00:13:29
Islamic State is a perversion of
00:13:31
history, but it is not a completely
00:13:32
alien proposition. The set of actions
00:13:35
it's taken and the set of references
00:13:37
they make are very well known, I
00:13:39
believe, in the Arab world. And that
00:13:41
makes it particularly dangerous. This is
00:13:42
where our religious authorities need to
00:13:44
step up and devise narratives that
00:13:46
attract a new generation of young Arab
00:13:48
Muslims.
00:13:49
and to be honest, Muslims from uh from
00:13:52
Western Europe where they seem to have a
00:13:54
lot of excitement for ISIS. So, let me
00:13:57
turn now to the question of those
00:13:58
religious authorities, how they behave
00:14:00
and how they are
00:14:01
constituted. My third theme is religious
00:14:03
moderation. And for this to flourish, I
00:14:06
believe we've got to address the issue
00:14:07
of the Islamic clergy. I believe in free
00:14:09
speech uh and I'm exercising it here.
00:14:12
Yet, there are limits to it. Religious
00:14:14
leaders who claim in effect to speak for
00:14:16
God have great power to sway people's
00:14:18
minds, especially the minds of those who
00:14:20
have not been taught to think for
00:14:22
themselves. It's unconscionable and
00:14:24
unacceptable in my opinion that a cleric
00:14:26
with the authority is uh with such
00:14:28
authority as Ysef Karawi who lives in
00:14:30
Qatar and who has great influence with
00:14:32
the Muslim Brotherhood and who I used to
00:14:34
watch on on Al Jazzer and and enjoy very
00:14:37
much. uh it's unconscionable that he can
00:14:40
be allowed to say as he did in 2009 that
00:14:42
Hitler put the Jews in their place and
00:14:43
that the next time will be at the hands
00:14:44
of the believers. In the context of
00:14:47
Syria though obviously the Assad regime
00:14:49
has done many terrible things to the
00:14:50
Syrian people. Those clerics who have
00:14:52
encouraged viciously violent Islamist
00:14:54
groups like ISIS have done a great
00:14:55
disservice to the Arab world and to
00:14:58
humanity. But it has occurred to me that
00:15:01
perhaps militant clerics give license to
00:15:03
these groups because of their own
00:15:04
insecurity.
00:15:06
Perhaps in turn, this insecurity is a
00:15:08
result of their inab their apparent
00:15:10
inability to engage with questions
00:15:11
thrown up by modernity,
00:15:13
telecommunications, and
00:15:15
globalization. One of the key problems
00:15:17
of the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS
00:15:18
narratives is that they are
00:15:20
one-dimensional, disconnected, reductive
00:15:22
sketches of Islam's history and that of
00:15:24
the modern world. However, this is
00:15:26
perhaps precisely why they appeal to
00:15:28
existentially disenfranchised young
00:15:30
Muslims. If our traditional religious
00:15:33
authorities are unable to recognize that
00:15:35
their grasp of Islam's narrative in the
00:15:37
minds of our youth is slipping, then it
00:15:39
is for laymen and people of goodwill to
00:15:42
take up the battle. Today, we need to
00:15:44
think in terms of Islamic structures and
00:15:46
institutions that are more responsive to
00:15:48
people's existential need and of how
00:15:51
they can be of service to the people
00:15:52
rather than how the people can be of
00:15:55
service to their visions of glory. We
00:15:57
need religious leaders who show a
00:16:00
concern for the well-being of each and
00:16:01
every individual in their community. We
00:16:04
need a religious leadership that thinks
00:16:05
about the modern world, that understands
00:16:07
political science and economics, that's
00:16:08
well read in the social sciences, that
00:16:10
speaks languages, and that looks at
00:16:12
young Muslims, Arabs, Arab or not, as
00:16:14
individuals to be educated and cared
00:16:16
for, not as cannon foder in an Islamist
00:16:19
onslaught against
00:16:21
modernity. My fourth theme is
00:16:23
inclusivity. I don't see democracy as
00:16:25
the answer to the Islamists and I would
00:16:26
rather focus on inclusion instead.
00:16:28
Here's why.
00:16:30
When I saw the protests in Tah Square in
00:16:32
in Cairo in 2011 and protests against
00:16:35
Ben Ali in Tunisia and uprising the
00:16:37
uprising against Gaddafi in Libya, I and
00:16:39
many of my friends wanted to believe as
00:16:42
the Western press did that these
00:16:43
protests were an expression of the noble
00:16:45
aspirations of the Arab people, a
00:16:47
flowering of the demand for freedom and
00:16:49
democracy by the oppressed of the region
00:16:51
and the end of the of Arab exclusion
00:16:53
from history. Now in 2014, we see that
00:16:56
Tunisia is unsettled and the question of
00:16:58
Islamist control of government is still
00:17:00
undecided. Libya is in great trouble uh
00:17:03
with the proliferation of arms and
00:17:05
militias threatening the unity of the
00:17:06
state. Egypt experienced its non-cool
00:17:10
and is at the heart of the battle
00:17:11
between an ideological Islamist
00:17:12
worldview and a worldview that I would
00:17:15
say is more inclusive in scope. Perhaps
00:17:17
because I've got a some inside
00:17:18
information. Uh I'm not sure if it's
00:17:20
coming out in the press in the same
00:17:21
manner. Yemen doesn't make the headlines
00:17:24
these days, but the economy is suffering
00:17:26
tremendously and various low-level
00:17:27
conflicts continue to tear at the fabric
00:17:29
of the country. Of course, Syria is the
00:17:31
shame of the Arab world with over
00:17:33
200,000 dead now and a merciless and
00:17:35
brutal civil war that has morphed into
00:17:37
the spectre of radical and violent
00:17:38
religious extremists dominating more and
00:17:40
more territory. So, what's gone
00:17:44
wrong? First, despite the virtues of
00:17:46
democracy, it can be divisive, much more
00:17:49
so when it is coupled with Islamism. It
00:17:52
can be a puzzle to people new to
00:17:53
democracy to understand that winning the
00:17:55
election doesn't mean that the minority
00:17:57
has no further role to play and no
00:17:59
rights that remain. Many Islamists will
00:18:02
welcome democratic elections on the
00:18:04
basis that we are all Muslim societies
00:18:06
and that therefore the most Muslim of
00:18:08
parties will win and win and win again.
00:18:11
Whereas in my view, the point of
00:18:12
designing political systems is that
00:18:15
there they be genuinely just and stable.
00:18:17
And this will involve the expression of
00:18:19
wider and deeper principles such as the
00:18:21
protection of all winners and losers,
00:18:23
majorities and minorities, men and
00:18:24
women, so that the chance of renewal
00:18:27
always remains a possibility and so that
00:18:29
people can still live in peace and
00:18:31
security irrespective of their personal
00:18:33
and uh religious
00:18:35
beliefs. Islamist election winners in
00:18:37
Egypt and Iraq were not willing to make
00:18:39
any such concession. Yet in our society
00:18:41
which is still divided along regional,
00:18:43
tribal, ethnic and religious lines,
00:18:45
there are many minorities faced with the
00:18:48
threat of suffering from arbitrary
00:18:49
power. Many are willing to fight when
00:18:51
confronted with the prospect of
00:18:52
democracy. Strangely, as they would
00:18:55
fight any change that may threaten their
00:18:56
freedom, it's no coincidence that ISIS
00:18:59
was born in Iraq, which is an electoral
00:19:01
democracy of just this kind, one which
00:19:03
is run by Shia Islamists. Those who
00:19:06
benefit from dividing the country on
00:19:08
religious lines and can then appeal to
00:19:10
their home base for votes have no
00:19:11
interest in treating citizens on an
00:19:13
equal basis regardless of their
00:19:15
religion. It's partly because of
00:19:17
Islamist movements I believe that
00:19:18
democracy in the Arab world will be so
00:19:21
difficult to implement. It's also
00:19:23
because of the lack of institutions that
00:19:25
can rise above partisan politics. When
00:19:27
every when every minister who is elected
00:19:28
in a country like Iraq evicts the
00:19:31
existing staff and replaces them with
00:19:32
his or her own partisans, the stakes in
00:19:35
an election or raised very
00:19:36
high. Given the social, cultural, and
00:19:39
educational realities of our part of the
00:19:41
world, many of us recognize that an
00:19:44
introduction of electoral democracy that
00:19:46
precedes the development of effective
00:19:48
impartial institutions may exacerbate
00:19:50
tribal and sectarian divisions. Even
00:19:53
when voting, even the voting in
00:19:54
something as apparently inu innocuous as
00:19:57
a regional poetry competition in the
00:19:59
Emirates often takes place along tribal
00:20:01
lines. This doesn't mean that western
00:20:03
style democratic processes will never uh
00:20:06
take root or or will never happen.
00:20:08
Simply that overnight changes in the
00:20:10
civil relationships in civil
00:20:12
relationships are fraught with dangers.
00:20:14
On the other hands, the Islamist demand
00:20:17
that we all obey the utterances of a
00:20:18
shadow shadowy spiritual guide and his
00:20:20
businesssavvy henchmen. Islam is the
00:20:23
answer to all questions and the conveyor
00:20:25
of those answer answers is a person
00:20:27
whose infallibility never seems to be in
00:20:29
doubt. What happens when such a movement
00:20:31
is elected? How can it ever be expected
00:20:34
to yield up power peace power
00:20:35
peacefully? When is the last time that
00:20:37
any movement which saw itself as having
00:20:39
a god-given right to rule stood stood
00:20:41
down in a in favor of a an allegedly
00:20:44
godless opposition? So the challenge is
00:20:46
to find a way to include all citizens
00:20:48
and give them a voice without risking
00:20:50
the ripping apart of the social fabric
00:20:52
as we've seen happen in a number of Arab
00:20:54
countries so far. The fifth and last
00:20:57
theme that I want to address is the
00:20:59
issue of of good government. How to
00:21:01
deliver jobs and security. Let me
00:21:03
address this first through the uh the
00:21:05
lens of technology. The Arab and Islamic
00:21:08
world has an illustrious history with
00:21:10
technology. The Muslim world produced
00:21:12
some remarkable technological
00:21:13
achievements in the areas of
00:21:15
mathematics, astronomy, geography, and
00:21:17
medicine. Modernday Islamist movements
00:21:20
are not as
00:21:21
open-minded. They want to accept the
00:21:23
technological product, but refuse the
00:21:25
premises upon which the technology came
00:21:27
into existence. We are always in search
00:21:30
of a pure and idealized past where
00:21:33
ethics, morality, and the path to the
00:21:34
good life were clearly set out and where
00:21:36
the right choice choices were always
00:21:39
clear. Introducing an environment that
00:21:41
would allow us to flourish
00:21:42
technologically means that we would have
00:21:44
to open the doors to inquiry and the
00:21:46
best inquiry is free inquiry. Given that
00:21:49
our current theological masters are not
00:21:51
ready yet to face the puzzling questions
00:21:54
of science and modernity, they prefer to
00:21:56
dictate against the inquiry but to
00:21:58
accept the product of the inquiry. And
00:22:00
thus we have the injunction against
00:22:02
innovation, invention, importation of
00:22:04
foreign and alien ideas. What's the what
00:22:07
is the area of application of this
00:22:08
injunction? Who decides its limits? The
00:22:11
reality is that this injunction may be
00:22:13
in of limited scope in theory. However,
00:22:17
the way it is taken up by various groups
00:22:18
in the Muslim world is less selective.
00:22:21
This is a point I'd like to emphasize as
00:22:23
it's critical for the future of the Arab
00:22:25
world. Technology is the product of
00:22:27
inquiry and is premised on the creation
00:22:28
of a free space of inquiry. Without the
00:22:31
freedom to inquire, to question, to
00:22:33
challenge, we have no ability to create.
00:22:36
However, inquiry cannot be limited to
00:22:38
those areas permitted by religious
00:22:40
authority. Inquiry quickly quickly
00:22:43
escapes its master's grip just as
00:22:44
radicalism does. This inquiry is limited
00:22:47
more by religious injunction and
00:22:49
ideologies of religion than political
00:22:51
censorship. So does this attempt to
00:22:53
limit our interaction with the immoral
00:22:56
world of inquiry mean that we will be
00:22:58
saved from evil? I don't believe so. In
00:23:00
fact, we are doubly disadvantaged.
00:23:02
Firstly, it puts us in a place where we
00:23:05
will find our lives produced and
00:23:06
manipulated by other people's designs of
00:23:08
technology. I don't think that's
00:23:10
something that we're we're aware of in
00:23:11
in the Middle East. Not having produced
00:23:13
technology, we don't we can't directly
00:23:15
see the effect of technology. And
00:23:17
secondly, we lack the ability to create
00:23:19
it ourselves. We want the project uh
00:23:21
product, but we reject the principles
00:23:23
that led to the creation of the product.
00:23:25
Uh I was shocked a few years ago to hear
00:23:27
that the spiritual guide of the Muslim
00:23:29
Brotherhood again Yusf Karadawi said
00:23:31
that God had produced the West to
00:23:34
provide Muslims with technology and thus
00:23:36
there was no need for us to create it
00:23:37
ourselves. at the very least an
00:23:40
incoherent approach uh and an
00:23:42
unambitious approach. Uh it seems that
00:23:45
when it is a western invention, we do
00:23:46
not have the moral burden of the
00:23:48
consequences of the product. We're
00:23:50
merely its weak and weakened object.
00:23:52
What does make sense is that this
00:23:54
approach will increase the tension in
00:23:56
the Arab and Muslim worlds between those
00:23:58
who insist on going backwards in time
00:24:01
and those who are in the present time.
00:24:03
This tension is reflected in the battle
00:24:05
between radicalism and progressive
00:24:07
thinking and between those who want to
00:24:09
stop still, who want time to stop still,
00:24:12
and those who recognize that life is
00:24:13
about mastering change on a daily basis.
00:24:16
This is not a moral issue. It's simply
00:24:18
the logic of contrasting existences and
00:24:20
and world
00:24:22
views. Uh as well as physical
00:24:24
technology, let me speak briefly about
00:24:26
political technology. You'll be pleased
00:24:28
to know that the time I spent in Russia,
00:24:30
which is coming up to six years, uh uh
00:24:32
has been put to good use. Uh as I'm out
00:24:36
of the way of home politics, I enjoy the
00:24:37
privilege of letting my mind wander. The
00:24:40
Russians often refer to political
00:24:41
technologies in their public discourse.
00:24:44
This is interpreted in the West as a
00:24:46
euphemism for political manipulation.
00:24:49
And so this may or may not be the case.
00:24:51
uh but it did prompt me to think of
00:24:53
political systems as intentional systems
00:24:55
by which I mean systems that are
00:24:56
intended to produce certain outcomes. So
00:24:59
rather than dividing the world up into
00:25:00
those that are democratic and those that
00:25:02
are authoritarian, I began to see
00:25:04
political system more in terms of the
00:25:06
outcomes that they were likely or in
00:25:07
some cases guaranteed to produce. So one
00:25:11
interpretation of the demonstrations in
00:25:12
Tahir Square in 2011 is that the
00:25:15
protesters were demanding political
00:25:16
change, the fall of Mubarak, democratic
00:25:18
elections, the victory of youth over
00:25:20
age. Another view of the events says
00:25:23
that people were demanding firstly
00:25:24
social justice, secondly an end to
00:25:26
corruption and thirdly jobs. So what
00:25:29
they got was the Muslim
00:25:30
Brotherhood. I was puzzled by the
00:25:32
enthusiasm that the Egyptian Muslim
00:25:34
Brotherhood demonstrated in the pursuit
00:25:36
of political power. I simply couldn't
00:25:38
understand what they wanted to do with
00:25:40
political political power in case they
00:25:42
won. As we all know, they already had
00:25:44
tremendous social and cultural power
00:25:47
through their compelling, the reductive
00:25:48
uh and vague narrative that Islam is the
00:25:50
answer to any problem. They also had
00:25:52
this wide social network and and they
00:25:54
took care of uh many many poor people
00:25:57
which obviously helped them in the
00:25:58
elections. In order to better understand
00:26:00
this matter, I looked at the election
00:26:02
platform of Muri, a candidate Muri at
00:26:04
the time, and compared his platform to
00:26:06
those of other parties. So my reading of
00:26:08
the Muslim Brotherhood's agenda was the
00:26:10
following. They wanted to correct the
00:26:12
moral state of the Egyptian people first
00:26:13
and then that of others later. They
00:26:16
wanted to enforce Sharia law. They
00:26:18
wanted to root out corruption. And they
00:26:20
wanted to ensure social justice, however
00:26:22
vaguely defined. Uh I spent um a number
00:26:25
of hours uh trying to track down
00:26:27
specifically a definition of social
00:26:29
justice and I couldn't find it in Arabic
00:26:31
or in English to be honest. So how did
00:26:33
they propose to achieve all of these
00:26:34
aims? The moral state of the Egyptian
00:26:38
people and others was to be corrected
00:26:39
with personal piety. Sharia law was to
00:26:42
be enforced by a pious parliament.
00:26:44
Corruption was to be eradicated by the
00:26:46
piety of government administrators. And
00:26:48
social justice was to be the outcome of
00:26:50
overall and generalized piety. This is
00:26:53
not a caricature of their approach. It
00:26:55
is the legacy of years of insisting that
00:26:57
Islam is the answer without delving into
00:26:59
how and why piety, Sharia law, prayer,
00:27:02
devotion and the range of religious
00:27:03
exercises that are actually central to
00:27:06
our lives as Muslims, how this was going
00:27:08
to translate into ad administrative and
00:27:10
economic excellence, moral excellence
00:27:13
perhaps, but in a state of failed
00:27:15
economics and dis disastrous public
00:27:17
services. So in conclusion, piety and
00:27:20
holiness are key to our lives as
00:27:22
Muslims, but they are not systems or
00:27:24
technologies of
00:27:25
governance. Having spoken about these
00:27:27
five themes that I believe must be
00:27:29
emphasized in the fight against radical
00:27:30
Islamism, I'd like to say something uh
00:27:32
about my own country and its political
00:27:34
system. I'm slightly biased in this
00:27:36
matter. With the events of the Arab
00:27:38
Spring and the loud calls for immediate
00:27:40
democratization or
00:27:42
Islamization, many of us in the UAE
00:27:44
asked ourselves the following question.
00:27:47
Did it make sense to risk or sacrifice
00:27:49
what we have achieved up until now for
00:27:51
an idealized democratic polity or for an
00:27:54
Islamist state? Either of which could
00:27:56
unleash destructive forces that we know
00:27:58
are within us. So why do I say this? For
00:28:01
two primary
00:28:02
reasons. Firstly, in establishing the
00:28:05
Emirates, our leadership overcame
00:28:06
divisions and antagonisms that were
00:28:08
deeply rooted in tribal nomatic culture.
00:28:11
These features of our society uh and
00:28:14
this is being very honest are never too
00:28:16
far from the surface. These a feature
00:28:19
common to all Arab societies. The fact
00:28:21
that we managed to overcome these
00:28:23
obstacles of distrust and competition
00:28:25
for limited resources and build an
00:28:27
economic success in our region is to be
00:28:29
commended. Once upon a time, we in the
00:28:32
Emirates could have been like Libya
00:28:33
today, a war zone of militias and
00:28:36
Islamists and smugglers and terrorists.
00:28:38
But we in the UAE are the product of a
00:28:40
judicious understanding of what we have
00:28:41
within our historical tribal selves and
00:28:44
what we could become. Changing our
00:28:46
system by a radical reordering of
00:28:48
existing relationships is highly likely
00:28:51
to lead to people falling back on
00:28:54
traditional allegiances of family, tribe
00:28:56
and blood to the detriment of the social
00:28:58
cohesion that we have
00:29:00
today. We also know what happened in in
00:29:03
country after country in the Arab world.
00:29:04
Extremists are better at grabbing power
00:29:06
than moderates. Moderates take an
00:29:08
accommodating system for granted. Rather
00:29:11
than being radical and revolutionary,
00:29:13
our approach has been to uncover our own
00:29:15
potential and to reveal to ourselves
00:29:17
what is already present. I'll go further
00:29:20
and propose that key features of the UAE
00:29:22
system can form the basis of positive
00:29:24
development in other parts of the Arab
00:29:26
world. Why? Let me return to the five
00:29:29
themes which I began this talk with.
00:29:30
Morality, tolerance, moderation,
00:29:32
inclusiv inclusivity, and technology.
00:29:35
First, I'd say that in contrast to the
00:29:37
Islamist relentless and often
00:29:39
hypocritical focus on moral virtue, we
00:29:41
in the UAE recognize human weakness.
00:29:44
Though we set high standards for
00:29:46
standards for ourselves, we recognize
00:29:48
that perfection is an attribute of Allah
00:29:50
and not of people. There is a remarkable
00:29:52
readiness to forgive errors and move on.
00:29:55
This translates into the rise of the
00:29:57
entrepreneurial class amongst Imirati
00:29:59
youth as well as a lenient or at least a
00:30:01
more lenient approach to other people's
00:30:03
moral conduct. We believe these matters
00:30:05
are a choice for the individual. We do
00:30:07
not engage in moral witch
00:30:09
hunts. Secondly, I'd like to say that
00:30:11
the UAE's rulers are decidedly tolerant
00:30:13
Muslims and certainly not Islamists. The
00:30:17
Islamist assumes that he is right and
00:30:19
that you are wrong. The president and
00:30:21
founder of the UAE, his highness Zed,
00:30:23
God rest his soul, made clear his
00:30:25
opposition to movements like ISIS. My
00:30:27
quote, "In these times, we see around us
00:30:29
violent men who claim to talk on behalf
00:30:31
of Islam. These people have nothing."
00:30:33
whatsoever that connects them to Islam.
00:30:35
They were apostates and criminals. He
00:30:37
also, interestingly, rejected the Muslim
00:30:38
Brotherhood's agenda. Uh he met with the
00:30:42
Brotherhood's leaders in the 1970s and
00:30:44
refused their proposal to set up an
00:30:45
office in the capital Abu Dhabi. When
00:30:47
asked why, he responded, "If you are the
00:30:50
Muslim Brothers, then who are
00:30:52
we?" In our approach, all are included
00:30:55
as long as they include others. This key
00:30:57
feature translates into the Allied
00:30:59
notion of tolerance.
00:31:01
If we are prone to error and we do not
00:31:04
ex exclude those who are different, this
00:31:05
expresses itself as a deep tolerance and
00:31:07
acceptance of other ethnicities and
00:31:09
others faiths. We have over 190
00:31:11
nationalities in the UAE and and over 70
00:31:14
churches, I'm told. Mosques are full and
00:31:16
churches are full. Thirdly, the UAE
00:31:19
takes action to suppress religious
00:31:20
hatred and extremism by maintaining
00:31:22
rigorous control on the content of
00:31:24
clergy sermons. Having uh been a
00:31:27
frequent attendant attender of of Friday
00:31:30
prayers, I understand why they uh
00:31:32
control the clergy sermon so well. It
00:31:35
also hosts the international center of
00:31:37
excellence against violent extremism in
00:31:39
in Abu Dhabi. The center is engaged in
00:31:42
capacity building and best practice
00:31:43
exchanges encountering all forms of
00:31:45
violent extremism. In order to further
00:31:48
promote peace in Muslim communities, the
00:31:49
UAE announced uh in 20 uh in July of
00:31:52
2014 the establishment of the Muslim
00:31:55
Council of Elders uh an independent
00:31:57
international body of scholars from
00:31:58
Muslim countries promoting the core
00:32:01
tolerant values and practices of our
00:32:04
faith. Fourthly, our system is both
00:32:07
consensus and leadership driven. The UAE
00:32:10
does have some explicitly democratic
00:32:11
mechanism allowing for formal voting and
00:32:13
voicing of opinion. However, more
00:32:15
significantly, the UAE has social and
00:32:18
cultural mechanisms and platforms for
00:32:20
debate, analysis, polling, idea testing,
00:32:22
and consensus building. These are not
00:32:25
immediately uh visible to the outsider
00:32:27
and even sometimes the insider. Uh
00:32:30
however, they are there and they do
00:32:31
exist and they are effective. Going
00:32:34
forward, there will inevitably be a need
00:32:35
to further develop and refine these
00:32:37
indigenous systems of signaling. Uh and
00:32:40
that will be done and done by us.
00:32:42
Consensus is allied with leadership.
00:32:44
Historically, the leaders of the tribes
00:32:46
of the region were men who had proven
00:32:48
themselves by natural leadership
00:32:49
abilities. It's the combination of commu
00:32:52
communal uh consensus and strong
00:32:55
decisive leadership that uh move us
00:32:58
forward as a society. As a society, we
00:33:01
face the uncertainty of the future not
00:33:03
as a source of anxiety and an excuse for
00:33:05
autocracy, but rather as a challenge and
00:33:08
with
00:33:09
determination. Fifthly, we're not afraid
00:33:11
of technology. We focus on getting
00:33:13
things done in a manner that can be
00:33:14
measured in the welfare of our people.
00:33:16
This means that we focus on
00:33:18
technological innovations and and this
00:33:20
will sound strange but I I I do think of
00:33:22
it as a technological innovation. The
00:33:24
rule of law to begin with uh efficient
00:33:27
judicial systems, administrative
00:33:29
effectiveness which is something that is
00:33:31
uh focused on to an extreme uh level. uh
00:33:35
schools and a variety of schools and
00:33:37
diversity in the uh in the provision of
00:33:40
schools. Uh functioning and adequate
00:33:43
health system. I think we can probably
00:33:44
improve there. Airlines that connect us
00:33:46
with the world and show us how dependent
00:33:49
we are on the rest of the world.
00:33:50
Government as a platform provider and an
00:33:53
economy that is open to outside
00:33:54
investment and is freeing itself from
00:33:56
dependence on oil. These are some of the
00:33:58
key features that explain the success of
00:34:00
the UAE over the last 40 years. The
00:34:03
first steps first step involves
00:34:04
leadership with a vision for what is
00:34:06
possible and the second step is the
00:34:08
vital work of building and reinforcing
00:34:10
trust between key members of society.
00:34:13
This work of trust building cannot be
00:34:15
underestimated and and to be honest when
00:34:17
I look around at the other countries of
00:34:19
the Middle East uh I can only interpret
00:34:21
what's going on as a lack of trust
00:34:23
between different communities. I often
00:34:25
think how we need to think of uh ways in
00:34:28
which we managed in the uh late 60s and
00:34:31
early 70s to build trust between the
00:34:32
differing groups of the Emirates and
00:34:34
perhaps share that experience with uh
00:34:36
some of our neighbors. So we want our
00:34:38
fellow uh this so this work of trust
00:34:40
building can't be underestimated. I said
00:34:42
we want our fellow Arabs to engage in
00:34:44
the same step-by-step approach that we
00:34:46
have followed always reaffirming and
00:34:48
demonstrating goodwill to each other.
00:34:51
So in conclusion uh I tentatively put
00:34:54
forward the idea that we in the Arab
00:34:56
world are pursued by a variety of
00:34:58
fundamentalisms by rigid ideas and
00:35:01
preconceived notions of what people are
00:35:03
like and of what the outcomes should be.
00:35:06
And it is these dogmas that distract us
00:35:08
from building our societies today uh as
00:35:11
well as tempt us with the possibility or
00:35:13
the seeming possibility of instantaneous
00:35:16
utopias that may we may want but need to
00:35:19
work towards. ISIS is the proof we all
00:35:21
needed in Sunni Islam to recognize that
00:35:24
there are and must be different
00:35:25
interpretations and that layman of
00:35:27
goodwill are obliged to enter the
00:35:30
fray. Laymen and women need to wrestle
00:35:33
back Islam from the embrace of violence.
00:35:35
ISIS makes a mockery of all the values
00:35:37
that we believe and know Islam to
00:35:38
embrace. So if there are three thoughts
00:35:40
that I'd like to leave you with today.
00:35:43
Number one, we in the United Arab
00:35:44
Emirates believe wholeheartedly that the
00:35:46
Arab world has the capacity and the
00:35:48
knowledge to create a path of
00:35:49
intellectual and economic productivity
00:35:52
uh and that violence is the least
00:35:53
effective means of achieving what the
00:35:55
silent majority wants, an Arab world
00:35:56
that is at peace with itself and
00:35:58
confident in its position in the
00:36:00
community of nations. Number two, most
00:36:03
young Arabs prefer the Emirates model to
00:36:05
that of the Islamists. The 2014 Arab
00:36:08
Youth Survey showed not for the first
00:36:10
time that when asked what country their
00:36:12
countries should emulate, Arab youth
00:36:14
named the UAE above all other countries,
00:36:16
above the US, above the UK, above Turkey
00:36:18
and
00:36:19
Iran. Thirdly, I'd like to say that we
00:36:22
Muslims and the Muslim communities of
00:36:23
the Arab world in particular have within
00:36:25
us the capacity to reformulate our
00:36:27
approach to ourselves firstly and then
00:36:30
to the rest of the world and thereby to
00:36:32
share the beauty of our great religion
00:36:33
with all. And in conclusion, I'd like to
00:36:36
thank you for having given me this
00:36:37
opportunity to speak to you today.
