This meeting is held in the wake of very grave events that will certainly have wide repercussions on the international situations and the Muslim nation for a long time to come. The expected American military action on Afghanistan, backed by the support of the allied states, was launched on the seventh of this month as a response to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington last month, which shook the whole world with the heavy losses of the lives of innocent people, and the extensive destruction of a number of public and private properties it caused in the United States of America.

    The consequences of this terrorist act and the military response to it will be casting their shadows on the entire world and imposing immense challenges not only on our Islamic countries but also on the whole international community. All this makes it imperative upon us to meet for consultation on what we have to do to face up to these circumstances and ways of dealing with their causes and consequences.

    Allow me, on this occasion, to extend on your behalf to the people and government of the United States of America our deep condolences and sincere consolation and stress our strongest condemnation of what has happened and our denunciation of these ignominious acts and the killing of the innocent and terrorizing of the peaceful. Such acts are contrary to all human values, international conventions, and heavenly laws and religions, including our true Islamic creed which advocates peace among human beings and urges on tolerance, love and equality and not enmity and hatred.

    While stressing our unequivocal rejection of these acts, we find that countering them should not affect innocent civilians, and should not extend to any but those who carried out those attacks. This requires providing conclusive evidence against the culprits. The military action should be exclusively confined to the perpetrators after the release of such evidence, so that the international community could determine its position with discernment and substantiated evidence. Innocent peoples should not be the ones who would eventually have to pay. This places on all of us considerable responsibility towards the Afghani people who have suffered for long decades from wars and conflicts that displaced millions of their sons and completely destroyed their infra-structure. The Ninth OIC Summit conference held in Doha affirmed the urgent need to set up a fund to extend aid to the people of Afghanistan under the auspices of the OIC. I think it is high time that a decision was taken to establish this fund, for which I announce here the contribution of the State of Qatar the sum of ten million U.S. Dollars.

Dear brothers,

    Stating our position on these events, particularly those that directly affect us as Muslims, and those incumbent upon us as members of the international community requires that we point out first of all that our true religion holds high human life and respects the right of people to live in peace and security.

    Islam is a religion of peace; its greeting is peace. Even at times when the Muslims were in their strongest and most powerful, it pursued the course of peace and tolerance and upheld the rights of non-Muslims living under Islamic rule. It guaranteed their security, their sanctities and sacred places as well as their complete civil rights.

    Hence our condemnation of terrorism is not aimed at removing suspicion from Islam; it is denunciation of extremism which is prevailing in human societies and is not confined to a specific creed, culture or race. Moreover, it is necessary for countering extremism to address its causes that stir hatred and lead to violence.

Dear brothers,

    The Islamic world was among the first to have called for the dialogue of civilizations as a means for interaction, agreement and rapprochement of their peoples instead of falling into conflicting sects and camps and clashing dichotomies based on the principle of “If you are not on my side, then you are against me”. It is known to all that the United Nations General Assembly will soon issue an international document on the dialogue of civilizations based on an Islamic initiative and with reference to Islamic studies and documents which will be the axis of this document.

    This proves that the Islamic world has always been an active part of the international community on account of its civilization being one of international orientation removed from isolation, introversion, xenophobia or antagonism to other civilizations or feeling the necessity of fighting or taking revenge on them.

    Moreover, the Organization of Islamic Conference was forerunner in adopting a firm position on terrorism. Several years ago it arrived at a code for combating international terrorism, which was later included in a draft convention to which the Islamic countries were invited to endorse.

Dear brothers,

    Reading past experiences allows us to draw formula, that would enable us to counter this hateful phenomenon that does not differentiate between one race or another, nor recognize political or geographic boundaries nor social or economic doctrines. The first thing that this requires is to work more for activating the role of the United Nations as the framework which holds together all countries of the world and represents international legality based on its Charter which basically aims at maintaining international peace and security. To that purpose, the United Nations should call for an international conference to draft an international convention on combating terrorism binding on all countries. The U.N. must carry out its full responsibilities for the codification of the provisions of that convention, its implementation, putting it into effect, setting the penalties for violation of its provisions, so that combating international terrorism is carried out under the U.N. umbrella and command, in accordance with the criteria agreed upon, most important of which is the definition of terrorism and distinction between terrorism and peoples struggle against foreign occupation and their legitimate right to defend their freedom and self-determination as a lawful natural right guaranteed by the international laws and conventions.

    From this stand point, the Palestinian people in their struggle for the liberation of their homeland are practicing a lawful right in resisting the occupation that has usurped the land, displaced its people and imposed a policy of starvation and siege and the assassination of the leading political figures, in its continuing attempts to stifle the freedom of these people and suppress their independence.

    The international community should not permit the recent events in the United States of America to distract it from its role and blind it to shouldering its responsibilities towards the state terrorism practiced by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people, its grave escalation of the situation in the region and its attempt to exploit these events to create new situations in the region that would threaten security and stability.

    The atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinian people are nothing but organized terrorism practiced by the Israeli state against unarmed people who have no alternative other than resistance in defence of their rights, the protection of their holy places and standing up against the humiliation, oppression, killings and displacement inflicted upon them.

    I must state here that there are voices in our Islamic nation which spell out that state terrorism begets terrorist organizations, and that violence breeds violence. The only way to break this vicious circle is to grant the Palestinian people their legitimate rights, on top of which is their right to self-determination and the establishment of their independent state on their national soil, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

    From this stand point, we call upon the international community on top of which is the U.S.A., which is also one of the co-sponsors of the peace process along with the Russian Federation, as well as on all influential international parties, to shoulder their responsibilities and provide the required international protection for the Palestinian people in the face of the Israeli war machine, as a preliminary step to the resumption of the peace process on its original bases in accordance with the resolutions of international legality and the principle of land for peace.

    I would like, on this occasion, to express satisfaction at the statements, in this respect, made by the U.S. President George Bush when he spoke of establishing the Palestinian State as being part of the strategic American vision of settling the conflict in our region. This position represents, in our view, a positive development of great importance, which will put things in their true course. We cannot but express hope that the United States would move quickly to put this position into effect and seek to attain this strategic goal in the framework of the relevant international resolutions issued in this connection to make it possible to pave the way for bringing about comprehensive, durable and just peace for all peoples and states in the region.

    I must also commend the fair and responsible position taken by the American President and leaders of the European countries in standing up against attempts to exploit those tragic events to falsely accuse the Arabs and Muslims of terrorism, as well as their opposition to those suspicious attempts at abusing Arabs and Muslims.

Dear brothers,

    You are most welcome in your country. I hope that your meeting will bring about a unified position on the extremely grave events that are taking place in the world today. I beseech Almighty God to bestow success on you for the good of our Islamic nation and the whole world.

May the peace and blessings of God be upon you.