Any dialogue between different faiths has to embrace differences and diversity to build real bridges, and Muslims across the world, including in India, have to be discerning when it comes to religious fatwas that aren’t in consonance with contemporary realities, the Grand Mufti of Egypt has said.
Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam, who is on a six-day visit to the country at the invitation of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), an autonomous body under the external affairs ministry, said Muslims who carry out terrorist attacks are part of a “fringe minority” that represents a sick mentality. Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, an Islamic advisory body, is gathering like-minded scholars to stop this phenomenon, Shawki Allam said in an interview.
Allam told that, It’s my second time in India and what I have personally noted is India has seen staggering development since I last visited New Delhi about five years ago. Any visitor to New Delhi would notice the successive developments in a great country like India. I personally feel the fragrance of the ancient vision of wisdom and knowledge of India mixed with new urban development undertaken by the government of India. Personally, I feel like the recent visit of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi [chief guest at Republic Day celebrations] has added a new flavor to the ever-growing and strong bilateral relationship between India and Egypt.
I think the starting point is to realise we are created by God in a diverse way, in terms of languages, ethnicities, religions, orientations and thinking. In Islam, this diversity is seen as a divine gift. We have to embrace it and move to the second step, which is to get to know each other, get rid of different barriers which we have built within ourselves that helps feed the hatred of others. Rather, we have to get to know each other. God, in one chapter of the Quran, says, ‘O people We have created you and made you into tribes and nations so that you get to know each other.’ So this is the purpose for which God created us. God did not say I have created you to kill each other or hate each. Rather, he underscored the purpose of getting to know each other. The third bridge builder is to move from getting to know each other to real partnerships and real cooperation. Because man cannot live by himself or herself. Rather, we have to engage, interact and cooperate on that which is good for ourselves and for humanity at large.