Ladies and Gentlemen,
Assalamu Alaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakatoh.

      Your Conference is being held under critical international circumstances, the negative impacts and repercussions of which are reflected on the norms of life and the set of values and concepts.

      This, in turn, makes it imperative for all of us to explore the right means to deal with these conditions and the challenges they pose to our Islamic nation and try to project the true image of Islam and Muslims, in a way which unequivocally reflects the true spirit of Islam and its sublime teachings, thereby enabling Muslims to face up to these challenges with utmost consciousness and awareness.

      Hence the importance of speeding up the implementation of the cultural strategy for the Islamic world, set by your esteemed Conference at the top of its priorities and which we deem to be a vital step in the right direction to maintain the collective will of the nation to resume its cultural and civilizational role in communication and dialogue with other cultures at a time where some erroneous concepts advocate the inevitability of the clash of cultures and the isolation and renunciation of the other.

      Hence, we repeat our call for the dialogue of cultures, without which humanity will not be secure, nor would peace prevail.

Brothers,

      It is imperative upon us to embark on rectifying the distorted and false image of Islam and Muslims in order to be able to enhance mutual understanding since of late many people propagate such ideas in wide intellectual and media circles particularly in the West. This responsibility requires us to make use of all our potentials to develop a positive and frank dialogue with members of other civilizations with the objective of conveying to them a clear picture of Islam and Islamic culture.

      We may have to benefit from the achievements of the communications and information revolution, and in particular the vital role being played by satellite channels in forming the cultural awareness and influencing public opinion in different countries and nations.

      We have to put among our priorities of joint Islamic cultural action the setting up of an Islamic satellite channel which is an essential means of communication and dialogue with other civilizations, so as to be accessible to various Islamic schools of thought and cultural theories.

      We have also to make use of all the means available to us. We have migrant Muslim communities all over the world to whom we have to extend our hands, and with whom we have to communicate, and through whom we can address those of other cultures among whom those migrant Muslims live.

      The knowledge and capabilities as well as the ties those communities have with their Muslim nation have made them the window through which other cultures view Islam.

Brothers,