It gives me pleasure to meet with you in Doha where you came to deliberate together on an important issue related to the course of democracy and reform in our Arab world.

      I believe that your conference is a new occasion which confirms that the enlightened thinkers of this nation are still capable of contributing to show it the way to a better future that compensates for the missed opportunities of advancement, and enable it join the emerging democracies since the countries of our region have lately recognized the necessity for development and after hesitation concurred on the principle of reform seem ready more than ever before to have a new dawn in which many clouds are cleared out and which revives hope that the same feet which stumbled in the fog of the past are able to rise up again to see the light of the future.

      Your meeting here enhances Qatar’s conviction that the civil society organizations in the Arab world deserve getting their full opportunity to shoulder their national responsibilities and actively address the issues that preoccupy our nation. This was embodied recently in the issuing of a new law regulating the right to set up professional associations and national organizations.

      Since the topic you are tackling became the issue of the day, your conclusions will receive broad attention by wide official and popular circles that care for the future of this region which it is being confirmed day after day that the world is closely following its affairs and showing growing willingness to help it reform itself if it did not take the initiative to do so.

      Our Arab region while reviewing its situation is in need of an explicit approach that goes to the core of reality without decoration or falsification but to speak openly and rectify, it has to start with self criticism before putting the blame on others; taking the example of the wise Caliph Abu Baker Al-Seddeek who said: “Reform yourself and the people will follow suit”.

      It is a reasoning which indicates that a lot of sufferings of this nation is attributed to self imposed heavy restrictions and an arsenal of home made pretexts and excuses against reform and it is high time to get rid of them.

      It is no longer acceptable that the conflict with Israel or waiting for peace with it to be reached, should be taken as an excuse justifying a slackening in the reform process since this conflict has been going on for a long time and might continue longer specially as the Arab wrath is not stirred by the Palestinian issue alone but has other internal deep factors related to the essence of political and economic performance in the region.

      It is also no longer reasonable to claim keenness to protect the interests of the world in our region and maintain that if reform was launched, it would destabilize security and threaten stability in the region as in the last years the world discovered for itself that the risks of non reform are far more greater than all risks that may accompany reform.

      Also the pretext that there are differences and disparities among Arab countries that justify a different reform prescription for each country, an argument which even if it has some truth yet its continuous propagation will open the way for some countries to evade the course of reform with the excuse that they have special circumstances, while the success of reform requires that no country is excepted or excluded from its course particularly as a common denominator of reforms has to be implemented by all without hesitation or procrastination; and the particularities would have their status and enjoy all respect.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

      The present Arab situation is fraught with tremendous challenges, which indicate that the troubles and challenges from which our region is suffering are due to its lingering on reform and staying away from democracy. The successive complications of the Palestinian cause and the repercussions of the situation in Iraq are mere few examples which prove that reform was an urgent need to which the nation did not pay attention in the right time, so it suffers today from all what it encounters, and thus time as the Arab proverb says will educate those who have no educator.

      While the region, due to its delay, has encouraged outsiders to offer proposals and initiatives for reform, its enlightened nationals remain the most qualified and most capable of formulating an independent Arab reformatory vision, especially as another pretext has started to resound in parts of the region calling for fighting reform on the ground that it is coming from outside.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

      The former reform advocates throughout this nation’s history are good example which we should assimilate and be inspired by. They communicated with the outside world and never cut themselves off it. They held on to their roots and never abandoned them, to transfer the experiences of advanced nations in an innovative and enlightened way, which enabled them have wide visions that accommodated both heritage and modernity.

      Today, while you are renewing the call for reform, you can present your vision in no less innovation than that of your predecessors, in order to help correct errors and repair damage, and to prove to the world that our region is capable of sifting and sorting out what it receives, and could even formulate a viable reformatory project, drawing in the meantime, the attention of whoever lingers that the world has become more serious in dealing with our region and far more interested in having its reform proceed forward without a slowdown or delay.

      Reform, as we understand it, is not a cosmetic operation or a formality, but rather creating a new culture that replaces the culture of dominance and oppression, which caused a great deal of damage to this nation wasting its people’s energy, forcing them to leave their homeland, and denying them their right of participation and expression, and even led to the emergence of those who impaired its relations with the world.

      The reform culture we mean calls for implanting solid values that fights corruption and consolidates transparency, builds institutions and resorts to law, respects the citizen and safeguards rights, broadens the scope for dialogue and opens the way for sharing responsibility. It is not a culture for the few but for all; or for the governed alone but for the governor as well, and as Imam Ali Bin Abi Taleb said, “the subjects would not behave righteously unless their leaders do so.”

      This new culture does not only restore hope to the nation, but also revives the spirit of the true religion to confirm to those who reject democracy in the name of Islam do in fact reject Islam itself, and go astray from its eternal message, on which even some of its adherents have unjustly laid blame by claiming that it contradicts democracy which they accused of being a heretical thought ignoring that shura is an integral part of Islam, and that freedom, responsibility, participation, advice, and dialogue are intrinsic and pioneering values in the crux of its tolerant call.

      Islam does not contradict democracy nor conflicts with the endevours of reformers to encourage freedoms, because the reforming and well-governed state in our Islamic heritage does not restrict people but guards them, it does not oppress them, neither curtails nor cancel their roles, but calls upon them to shoulder their responsibilities, and participate by thought and deeds. Also, it does not bestow holiness or infallibility on itself in order to preserve to God His exclusive traits of greatness and loftiness, and clear out the vagueness that clouded the eyes of many who fail to differentiate between what belongs to God and what belongs to man.

      Dear brothers, reform is not a process that starts and then ends; it is an integrated method of thinking, and a comprehensive way of life; it is about time that our nation lives it and adopts it to be able to lead its way amongst the advanced nations. These nations did not reach their status because they reformed themselves once, but because they have preserved what they had reformed time after time, and they are keen to correct their mistakes publicly rather than in the dark.

      Although the world has lately been upset by the disgusting violations committed by a group of foreign military against some prisoners in Iraq, yet this world has known about those shameful actions through loud voices, critical writings, investigations conducted in the countries where those offenders came from, to reveal the violations of that devious group of their own citizens instead of hiding and keeping those violations in the dark. Our region, which has been angered and upset by those crimes, may also find in revealing and investigating them what arouses the desire to learn the principles of out-speaking and avoiding quibbling especially when it is trying now to develop and reform itself.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

      Those who take the path of reform even if they stumble for sometime always remain determined and dedicated to their cause without grumbling or weariness especially that a favourable opportunity for achieving success looms in front of them now, due to the fairness of objective and persistence on perseverance. If the success of man depends on his efforts then your efforts in this conference could go a long way in this region’s course to reform itself and insure its position as a partner amongst the advanced nations.

     I welcome you all, and wish your conference success and right guidance.

Wassalam Alaikum Warahmatullah Wabarakatoh.