Article April 22, 2002 Issue

LANGUAGE AN IMPORTANT TOOL IN CREATING HARMONY

Feisal Abdul Rauf

Sojourners

"The source of all conflict is always an identity differentiation between the 'i' and the 'you,' however we might define it. It could be Arab against Jew, it could be black against white, it could be Hutu against Tutsi, it could be Harvard against Yale, it could be man against woman....

"One of the things that has been bothersome to many of us in the Muslim world is the [language that describes] the so-called 'clash of civilizations'....it has become a very catchy phrase. People say civilizations clash, and the next big clash is the West against Islam. We [Muslims have] been demonized in that way. You have to have a dialogue amongst civilizations rather than speak of it in terms of a clash.... If we frame the dialectic in terms of a dialogue among civilizations, we will create harmony. But if we foster the dialectic as a clash of civilizations, we will actually perpetuate the clash."

Feisal Abdul Rauf
"Fundamentalism and the Modern World"
Sojourners
March-April 2002

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

'Everything toward peace has an effect'