Saudi intellectuals respond to ‘U.S. fabricated lies’

By WND Staff

A group of Saudi intellectuals denounced a statement signed last month by 60 American scholars justifying the U.S.-led war on terrorism and boiling it down to a “clash of civilizations,” reports the Arab television station al-Jazeera, as translated from Arabic by WorldNetDaily.

One of those who signed a statement provided to the station, Saudi Islamic thinker and Sunni religious figure Salman Bin Fahd Al Awda, said that he came to answer the U.S. intellectuals who, he claimed, the U.S. government was using in its war against terrorism.

The Saudi intellectuals condemned what they described as the organized media campaign against Islam and
Muslims, especially against the educational system and the cultural system of the Muslims.

Many of the Saudis wondered about the reasons behind the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington and why the U.S. was targeted. According to the statement provided al-Jazeera, they concluded that the U.S. is the largest country differing from the decisions of the U.N., and that the U.S. touts human rights in the face of the continuing operations by the Israelis to suppress the rights of children, women and youth in Palestine. At the same time, the Saudis added, Washington is starting a military confrontation against another country, namely Iraq, for allegedly violating human rights.

The Saudi statement, entitled “We’ll Live No Matter What,” said that scholars in the Muslim world reject the connection
between religion and extremism. The Saudi signers of the statement point to the call of the West for dialogue and serious openness with Islam and insist that most of the Islamic movements are themselves able to maintain a state of moderacy.

According to Harvard scholar Samuel Huntington, conflicts of the 21st century will be neither ideological nor economic, but more fundamental “clashes of civilizations.” The battle lines, Huntington is quoted by the Sydney Morning Herald as stating, will be drawn along the cultural lines of the world’s seven or eight major civilizations, with no more important defining factor than religion.

Al Awda stated that the centers of education and religious schools in the kingdom of Saudi used to be centers for the learning of science by the West because they were not teaching ideology of strife and terrorism. Al Awda said it was for this reason that it was important to issue a statement to confront the U.S. intellectuals’ statement, adding that the West must hear a sound voice defending the Islamic nation – “a moderate sound that defends faith.” Al Awda further explained that the
U.S. intellectuals’ statement reveals that the true Muslim values are unknown in the West.

Among the other signers of the Saudi statement are Sheek Abd Allah bin Gabreen and Dr. Safir bin abd Rahman Al
Hawali and Dr. Ahmed Al Towegree.

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