A word of hope
Mostafa Khaled*

God has created humankind as a single family. This family became divided as a result of religious and civilisational clashes. Humankind can potentially be reunited as a single family if we can minimise the imbalances created by misguided minority and power-hungry narcissists. What we need today is dialogue between civilizations to narrow the differences and work jointly to undercut the long hands of the evil forces.

We must get rid of our thinking in terms of racial or civilisational superiority and work for establishing peace and harmony. We must genuinely work to establish equality between all sections of human family and shun chauvinism and adventures to establish global dominance.

The countries where Muslims are the majority range from Morocco to Indonesia. But there are many Muslims who live as minority in other societies. One in every six in China, 25% in India, and 20% of the former Soviet countries are Muslims. Muslims are also minorities in Europe, North America, South America and Australia. In addition to the existing Muslim minority in the West, many Muslims are migrating to foreign countries for employment and other purposes. So the concept of multi-cultural and multiethnic societies are a burning issue today, especially for the Muslims. In these circumstances how Muslims should interact with non-Muslims and how should they live their lives in such societies need to be determined in the light of Islamic principles.

I congratulate Al-Bayyinah magazine for addressing the issue to strengthen relations between different communities that will ensure peace and justice in this trouble ridden modern society.

*from Dhaka, Bangladesh.