A Muslim Centrist Platform for Democracy in the Arab World
2004 Report
On January 28, 2004, Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan presented "A Muslim Centrist Platform for Democracy in the Arab World" at the New School University in New York. The event was sponsored by Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West. Prince Hassan was joined by a panel consisting of Mustapha Tlili, founder and director of Dialogues, Bob Kerrey, President of the University and former U.S. Senator, and Steven Rockefeller, Chair of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Mustapha Tlili began the discussion by praising Prince Hassan for bringing hope to the "sad landscape" of the Arab world today, challenging it to bring its civilization and intellectual heritage into line with modernity. Tlili noted that the Prince's adherence to the values of tolerance, reason, and human rights has been an inspiration for the Muslim people.
Steven Rockefeller recalled that Prince Hassan, a member of the Hashemite family, is a direct descendent of the Prophet Muhammed and then thanked Tlili for the opportunity to learn about the great spiritual tradition of Islam as well as paths to democratic social change and peace. Dialogues is part of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund's quest to respond meaningfully to the tragedy of September 11, 2001 by improving communication between the West and the Muslim world. He then called upon the Muslim world to do its part in supporting this undertaking, which represents a rejection of the idea of a Clash of Civilizations in favor of working together toward one global society.
President Bob Kerrey then took the floor and hailed Dialogues as "more than a name"--the program has already hosted a major international conference in Granada, Spain and two more are planned: one in Amman, Jordan in March and one in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in late 2004. Kerrey went on to tell the audience about the accomplishments of Prince Hassan, who has been honored by more than twenty countries and has risked his life over and over again for the sake of dialogue.
Kerrey then discussed his own role in a post-9/11 commission and his conviction that force alone will not prevent another such tragedy: we are facing not just terrorism, but, he emphasized, radical Islamic terrorism, and to understand this is to understand the current debates within the Muslim world. Islam itself is not the threat--there is clearly a world of difference, he stated, between Osama bin Laden and Muslim advocates of tolerance and liberalism like Prince Hassan. Kerrey welcomed the Prince as a friend of peace and freedom.
Next, Prince Hassan presented his vision of an Arab Centrist Platform for Democracy. Although 600 million Muslims already live under Islamic democracies, the Prince acknowledged that his proposal is controversial. He outlined his vision of a pan-Arab council devoted to principled multilateralism and nonalignment for peace, in other words, a forum in which it is possible to disagree civilly. "What hope do we have for communication and peace without basic infrastructure?" he questioned.
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