It shocked me both emotionally and intellectually to see the king of Saudi Arabia present himself to the Pope with a sword on the occasion of his historic visit to the Vatican. Precisely at the moment when it is terribly necessary to remove the name of Islam and the image of Muslims from the violent connotations and the symbolism of the sword. The unfortunate choice of the Saudi monarch's gift prompted me to sit down and write the speech I think he should have given the Pope if only his advisers were familiar with Western mentality and culture.
“Your Holiness,Your Eminences, in the name of Saudi Arabia which I am honored to represent and in the name of the Islam to which I am honored to belong, I extend greetings of peace. In fact, the word "Islam" in Arabic is the anagram of the word "peace". I speak on behalf of myself and the people I represent when I propose to start a new era based on mutual respect, an era in which neither side offends the feelings of the other and both refrain from aggression, whether moral or physical, whether direct or live. I ask you and the party I represent to act so that the followers of every religion, although they have the right to invite others to their faith, do not resort to violence, coercion or the sword but only persuasion and reasoning to convince them of merits of the faith to which they belong. I take this opportunity to declare that as of today "jihad" means only self-defense and resistance to aggression but never the initiation of a conflict or the attempt to convert others to our religion through violence or the sword. There is nothing more pathetic than a religion that cannot win people's hearts and minds except with the use of the sword. I also urge everyone to be more concerned with the quality of the followers of each religion than with their quantity. In this regard, much we must do to improve the quality of the followers of our great religion. There is nothing more pathetic than a religion that cannot win people's hearts and minds except with the use of the sword. I also urge everyone to be more concerned with the quality of the followers of each religion than with their quantity. In this regard, much we must do to improve the quality of the followers of our great religion. There is nothing more pathetic than a religion that cannot win people's hearts and minds except with the use of the sword. I also urge everyone to be more concerned with the quality of the followers of each religion than with their quantity. In this regard, much we must do to improve the quality of the followers of our great religion.
I ask you and the party I represent to refrain from ridiculing and insulting the other, from belittling their beliefs or sacred texts. I ask you and the party I represent to start a new era in which everyone has freedom of belief, freedom of worship and the freedom to build places of worship anywhere and at any time. Since the Prophet of Islam welcomed the Christians of Najran when they went to pray in his mosque, now known as the Prophet's mosque in the holy city of Medina, I declare before you that we will begin a new chapter of relations with non-Muslims as our brothers in humanity. I will invite all Muslims in the world to consider terms such as dar al-harb (territory of war), dar al-salam (territory of peace) and ahl al-dhimma (non-Muslim monotheists) as products of specific historical conditions now past that are no longer applicable today and to aspire to a world that is not divided into territories of war and peace. Our mosques will welcome all who cross their threshold and our religion is a strong religion that does not force anyone to remain a prisoner of its precepts.
Your Holiness, I have chosen two gifts to give you today. The first is a golden palm that symbolizes our history and our environment, the other is an ancient manuscript of the Bible that dates back many centuries. I refused the proposal to give you a sword first of all because the sword is not one of your historical symbols, secondly because we do not want to obscure the future of our relationships with the meaning it carries. My country will do everything to ensure that in the future foreigners in our country feel welcome, that they enjoy warm hospitality and tolerance in every sense of the word, including the right to pray and worship God in churches or temples according to their own. religion. The sight of bell towers or domes of temples on the horizon will not disturb our feelings, as well as the sight of minarets in Europe, America, Canada and Australia does not upset the feelings of non-Muslims in those countries. I pledge before you to ensure that our law is not applied to the followers of other religions in the future. We begin a new era in which the other is accepted, an era of tolerance and "relativism" regarding religious belief, that is, so that no one on earth behaves as if his religion is the absolute truth while the others they are totally false. May God deal with matters that do not concern us and do not belong to us. I ask you and those I represent to start a new era of tolerance, acceptance of the other and mutual respect in which everyone stops diminishing the religion of others. I pledge before you to ensure that our law is not applied to the followers of other religions in the future. We begin a new era in which the other is accepted, an era of tolerance and "relativism" regarding religious belief, that is, so that no one on earth behaves as if his religion is the absolute truth while the others they are totally false. May God deal with matters that do not concern us and do not belong to us. I ask you and those I represent to start a new era of tolerance, acceptance of the other and mutual respect in which everyone stops diminishing the religion of others. I pledge before you to ensure that our law is not applied to the followers of other religions in the future. We begin a new era in which the other is accepted, an era of tolerance and "relativism" regarding religious belief, that is, so that no one on earth behaves as if his religion is the absolute truth while the others they are totally false. May God deal with matters that do not concern us and do not belong to us. I ask you and those I represent to start a new era of tolerance, acceptance of the other and mutual respect in which everyone stops diminishing the religion of others. that is, so that no one on earth behaves as if their religion is the absolute truth while the others are totally false. May God deal with matters that do not concern us and do not belong to us. I ask you and those I represent to start a new era of tolerance, acceptance of the other and mutual respect in which everyone stops belittling each other's religion. that is, so that no one on earth behaves as if their religion is the absolute truth while the others are totally false. May God deal with matters that do not concern us and do not belong to us. I ask you and those I represent to start a new era of tolerance, acceptance of the other and mutual respect in which everyone stops belittling each other's religion.
I would like to take advantage of this meeting to propose the establishment of a committee made up of the best representatives of each faith, not only the three great monotheistic religions, but also the other faiths, to review all school programs throughout the world to achieve the following objectives:
-Eliminate from the programs any material that is offensive or prejudicial towards other religions;
- Eliminate from programs any material that sows religious hatred and feelings of superiority over other religions;
- Eliminate from programs any references that discourage tolerance and acceptance of the other and replace them with references that promote admiration for diversity and variety as the best examples of life and main sources of wealth and beauty.
Your Holiness, I offer you the Palme d'Or and the New Testament manuscript which dates back to the spread of Christianity in the Najran region, currently a governorate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
This is the speech that the king did not make and which I believe could have fostered a new era of harmony and understanding between the different faiths.
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