Since April 1948, Al-Azhar has held successive conferences on Palestine, Al-Aqşā Mosque and the Muslim and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem. From 1948 to 1988, Al-Azhar held 11 conferences that were attended by great Muslim and Christian thinkers and scholars from Africa, Europe and Asia. During these conferences, several highly precise, deep and detailed pieces of research were presented by those who had little or no hope to achieve any significant results.
These conferences frequently declared the rejection of the Zionist violation of the Muslim and Christian sanctities, the occupation and desecration of Al-Aqşā Mosque, and violating its sanctity by the excavations, tunnels and massacres taking place in its courtyard. They also declared outright rejection of the violation and destruction of the Christian monuments, such as churches, monasteries and cemeteries in Jerusalem, Tiberias, Jaffa and other cities.
Today, Al-Azhar is calling for holding its twelfth conference on the Palestinian cause and the Muslim and Christian sanctities. Despite the hoped-for participation of Eastern and Western bright-minded people with clear consciences, the conference is not expected to add new facts other than those already stated and written with regard to this issue and its related scientific, historical and political dimensions. However, it suffices that this conference rings the alarm, reenergizes the resolution and determination and confirms the unanimity of the Arabs, Muslims, Christians, and intellectuals of the world. They are all united over the necessity of resisting the barbaric Zionist corruption into the 21st century – an occupation supported by international agendas of other parties, sorrowfully. Such parties do tremble with fear if they think about deviating from the plots of the Zionist entity and the Zionist policies.
I am firmly convinced, as theologians say, that any occupation will inevitably come to an end even though it might seem impossible at the present time. Indeed, days are changeable, and the fate of the oppressor is predictable and inevitable, no matter how long awaited it may be. Let us recall the history of the Romans in the East, the Persians in the Arabian Peninsula, the Crusades that comfortably stayed for two hundred years in Palestine. You can also ask the countries that were always proud of the fact that the sun never set on their settlements, or the European colonization which finally left Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, the Levant, Iraq, India, Indonesia and Somalia. Ask them all to realize that decline is the inevitable fate of oppressors, and that any authoritarian power, according to Ibn Khaldoun, is destined to deterioration. This is a universal truth and a divine law, and having doubts about it will be deemed “contempt for knowledge, reasoning and reflection”.
This fact is conjoined with a preceding one; the possession of the strength that terrifies the enemy and obliges it to reconsider its moves before bogging down in absurdity, tyranny, and authoritarianism. However, Allah knows that we are promoters of peace that is based on justice, mutual respect and fulfillment of the rights – no bargaining or worldly wins are sought. Our peace does not involve humiliation, submissiveness or compromising a tiny part of the homelands or the sacred places. Rather, it is supported by the power of knowledge, education, economy, market control and armament that is capable of powerfully facing any attack and deterring anyone who tries to harm the people and the land.
If our fate is to live currently with an intruding enemy that understands only the language of power, then we have no excuse before Allah or history, for being weak, defeatists or humble while we have all the elements of power and its material and human resources.
I am one of those who believe that the Zionist entity is not the reason behind our defeat in 1948, 1967, or in any other war or clash. Instead, we have made our own defeat because of the underestimation and narrow vision regarding the imminent risks, and carelessness when the necessity required seriousness. Indeed, a nation that has a conflicting and torn up identity cannot stand against an entity that fights with a rooted doctrine and under a united flag. It is then impossible to defeat it or bring down its flag: Almighty Allah says, “Do not contend against one another, that you might not be disheartened, or your vigor goes away.” (Qu’ran, 8: 46)
I am completely aware that my speech will not achieve new results and that it is emitting from a source packed with sorrow and pain. I do also recognize the fact that its impact will not exceed that of the speeches delivered by the great scholars of politics, science, thought and media throughout seventy years. They cannot change reality, put an end to greediness, or stop blood shedding, sufferings and pains to which the Palestinian people, youth, women and children, have been exposed. Such Palestinian hardships have also been witnessed in prisons while unrelenting resistance and hard determination of the Palestinian people have never weakened or faded away.
Indeed, this may be said about my speech or our conference. However, I think that you agree with me that today’s conference is very different from the preceding ones because it is held under circumstances similar to that of clouds pregnant with hurricanes. Furthermore, the countdown is actually started to divide and split the Arab region and to place the Zionist entity as the commander of the whole region whose orders should be strictly obeyed. If we consider the conspiracies plotted against our homeland on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, the Red Sea and the east of the Mediterranean and its extensions in Yemen, Iraq and Syria, we will recognize how serious the situation is. Repetition of speeches and rumination of slogans are no longer commensurate to the conspiracies being plotted against us. In fact, next generations would curse us and our descendants will be ashamed to call us their parents or grandparents if we followed the same traditional ways used throughout seven decades to counter these fatal conspiracies.
My predicted hope is that our conference will achieve untraditional and practical results for which the efforts are invested even though they sound so little or insignificant. The top and utmost result that I hope to be achieved is increasing the awareness of the Palestinian cause, in general, and Jerusalem, in particular. The harsh reality is that the curricula in all our educational stages have failed to create any form of awareness of such cause for millions of Arab and Muslim youth. There is no one single curriculum devoted to illustrating the dangers surrounding the Palestinian cause, its history, present and future and its impacts on the future of our youth, who are supposed to bear the flag of defense for Palestine, without even knowing any significant facts about the cause.
On the other hand, the Israeli youth is supported, from their earliest age, with educational curricula, chants and supplications that contribute to forming their hostile conscience and feeding their racism and hatred against all Arabs and Muslims. Likewise, our mass media hardly present anything significant apart from a piece of news or a monotonous report on the Palestinian cause with a swiftly fading effect by it’s the end of the report or as the speaker moves to another piece of news.
The second proposal is that the unjust decision of the American president, which is rejected by more than 128 countries and denied by all peace lovers around the globe, should be confronted with new Arab and Islamic thought that focuses on affirming the Arabism of Jerusalem, inviolability of Muslim and Christian sanctities and their real belonging. This affirmation should be transformed into a local and international culture for which the capabilities of the Arab and Muslim media should be harnessed. It is worth mentioning that our enemy succeeded in harnessing mass media, while we failed to do so.
We must not hesitate to deal with the Palestinian cause from a religious prospective – be it Islamic or Christian. I am so surprised by the marginalization of the religious aspect of the Palestinian cause. Meanwhile, all the claims of the Zionist entity are purely religious, and they do not hide or feel ashamed of them. In fact, the Zionist entity has no justification to usurp the land, which does not recognize it in the first place. Nor does the Zionist entity justify its rootless claims except through obsession with religious texts and myths that attempt to legalize aggression and justify blood shedding, and violating both chastity and properties of people. Moreover, the modern Zionist Christians, supporting that entity, depend on nothing more than false religious interpretations strongly rejected by church clergymen and Christian scholars, Jewish rabbis and monks.
A proposal that I present to you to consider is making 2018 the year of Jerusalem. During this year, we can work on increasing the awareness about Jerusalem, providing financial and morale support to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, organizing regular informative and cultural activities to be sponsored by official organizations such as the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, religious institutions, Arab and Muslim universities and civil society organizations, etc.
In the end, I call upon the elites of the nation to pay heed to the fact that our enemies are plotting conspiracies against the nation’s religion, identity, educational curricula, unity and co-existence. The nation must rely on its resources and regain trust in Allah and in its own capabilities. It should no longer rely on promises of foreign oppressors, who turned their back on us and trespassed all the red lines. Allah Almighty says, “Do not incline toward those who do wrong, lest you be touched by the Fire. Otherwise, you would not have any protector apart from Allah; then you would not be any helped.” (Qu’rān, 11:113).