Tariq Ramadan at the Parliament of the World's Religions

what do you see as the main challenge for for religion as we stand just at the beginning of the 21st century and we and we face this host of of problems from the ecological issues to political issues um there's there's so many things that need to be addressed and those things are becoming more and more urgent I think that really the most important thing for me today as we are in this globalized world is for every uh tradition and people from within every tradition to come to the universal and the fundamentals of this respective religion I think that it's really important to know okay we have differences and we have to know them and to respect each other but we have and every one of us thinks that he or she is following a universal message so from our respective tradition extract the universality and try to good preaches in that I I was interviewing a person the other day who has a Spanish philosopher and he was telling he said something interesting that remind I was reminded of when you said that he said that it was really in the Universal ethics the idea of universal ethics that applied to every man to Every Woman across regardless of nation tradition that's something that kind of came out of a later period in human history than when most of the religions were formed so do you think there's a unique Challenge and in in in the religion coming to that understanding of the universality of Ethics yes I'm very cautious with with this as well because I think it's really important to to to make it clear that we are not promoting syncretism or something which is okay everything is the same okay we are all we are not right so there is a common ground but let us know and respect the fact that there are many ways and path and and and and and to come to this so for example as I'm speaking from a Muslim Viewpoint it's really important for me to let the people understand that my road my route to r at this common uh uh field is specific and this should not be uh forgotten I think it's really important for us to understand that we have specific path but a common ground so it's both respected diversity and common challenges a universal common values so it's at the same time so diversity is a challenge and the Common Ground could be a risk what what's the main challenge for Islam in order to meet the I would say what is the the most or the priority challenge for Muslims today I think that at the international level to avoid victimizing themselves say okay the people don't like Islam we are not you know the all the discussion about terrorism and and violence I think that's avoid I'm sorry victimization right right this is we were at the the the in we were at a discussion yesterday it was really extraordinary to see in the audience you felt how victimized people felt by the public perception of them I can understand that but it seemed like their their their anger was not so much at at those who were within their own kind of religious community that were causing causing that perception it was more at the at the the media and there's a lack of self-criticism as if everything is coming from outside and we are not responsible of what uh we are experiencing and and and the stigmatization we are dealing with so the problem is that to stop victimization is really important and to come back to to once again a rereading of our sources in the way to explain more to reach out to speak out more about what do we stand forward for example the teachings the main the principle teaching the fundamentals of Islam are not known by the people and we don't explain that we are just defending we are just the defensive trying to explain to justify ourselves so this kind of victimization should be uh avoided and which should also promote something which is Partnerships with other not to to to to accept this isolation we are experiencing so uh once again to speak about spirituality as a Muslim about love about uh social commitment about ethic as I'm speaking about ethics of citizenship I'm a European citizen I want to be a citizen but I have an ethics and these ethics should nourish should nurture my citizenship in the way I'm dealing with others so all this new uh thinking should be uh now spread built first and spread uh afterwards so so the challenges are very very very big but once again now we have new generations of Muslim thinkers men and women they are coming we have to listen to them and we have also to accept and this is what I I I I I I I tell my fellow citizens yes we have a great deal of responsibility of Muslims but you have also a shared responsibility which is know more about Islam try to make an effort to know with whom you are living because this is at the end of the day this is our pluralistic society we are speaking about so if you are not just if you just if it's the media who are informing you about what Islam is all about is not going to work so to to buy a a copy of the Quran after September 11 could be good but it's not the way we are going to to know each other it's not after a catastrophe that you you start to know about the people even though it could be a good opportunity to start and then to continue the process so for for me today it's also to tell the people around us okay try to know more about uh uh this religion and to to to study because uh once again if and you're saying for mus not just for for non-muslims for Muslims Muslims and non-muslims together alike I think that it's exactly the same process we have to to promote just made me one question on religious violence but I find it interesting here there seems to be a common message I heard a lot of people say you know you know particular in relationship to Islam Islam is a religion of Peace Islam is a religion of Love ISL and you know they'll say about Christianity all religions are religions of peace and love and I find that's a bit of a it's true but it's more of a complex picture really for for just for Islam but for all religions really and and the issue of religious violence it's not that religion necess sanctifies violence but but the issue of peace and and non violence in all religions is a bit is a more complex picture than just the true message is peace and that's the end of it yes and yeah I agree with that this is why I I'm I'm used to say that the way you put it makes the the the statement wrong to say that uh Islam is about love and peace it's wrong it's not only about this the the end of the message is to get peace and love but we are dealing with human beings and when you deal with human beings and you you deal with the text reveal text you found violence yes Wars and conflict so let us say it clearly yes there are verses in the Quran dealing with violence and dealing with killing and dealing with Wars so the question is not to avoid them just to say okay it's all about love and peace and no this is wrong this is not the message the message is okay you are human beings you have to deal with violence so know out of this text how to master the violence in order to get peace so your responsibility is to face up to the reality that is the violent reality of human beings the the the the the the radicalism you can find the oppression you can find not to avoid it within a specific spiritual realm or uh things but yes to deal with with this reality so of course in the Quran in the Bible in all the sacred books you have something about violence and because it's it's the reality of human beings so uh let us see that for example Jihad in the way the Muslims asking okay you know it's just legitimate resistance it's more than that it's an effort to go from a natural conflicting situation to a mastered peaceful reality this is the spirit the the the natural state of human being it's not peace with my own bad The Bad aspect of my personality it's it's a conflict just I'm trying to to get an Harmony Harmony between these two uh Temptations the good one and the bad one so this is I have to master this in order to get peace peace is the end of the world is not the starting point the discussion so the spiritual way is the spiritual way from RE real conflict to potential peace so let us speak it about it like this and say that this is the reality so if you know how to deal with this you may be better in the way you're are going to to deal with respond you respond differently yeah you you respond with some kind of appreciation of the moral complexity of the of the situations a simple statement is wrong when it's too simplistic so I think that we have to be very very clear about the fact it's much more complex than the way we are presenting this and that we are dealing with violence as religious people and mainly we have to speak about it frankly sincerely if we really want to go beyond that MH