Promoting Peaceful Coexistence and Common Citizenship

[ 57 ] — RELIGIOUS LEADERS’ PLATFORM — n the name of God the Most Gracious, Most Merciful. Distinguished assembly — may the peace, mercy, and blessings of God be upon you. To begin, please allow me to speak in a non-traditional way because I am going to talk about some personal experiences as well as about my country. According to our scientists and scholars, this introduc- tion to our discourse means that God is the Most Merciful, both in this life and on the Day of Judgment. God wants to grant us mercy. He also wants us to build the foundations of our own words and deeds on mercy. He, who is the most powerful, the most courageous, has given us only terms that are related to mercy, a methodology that has also been fol- lowed by the prophets. In a letter from Solomon, may the peace of God be upon him, to the queen of Sheba, he began: “In the name of God the Most Merciful.” There is another sacred sentence that begins: “The peace, mercy and blessings of God be upon you.” This is a saying from all religions, not just from Islam, and encompasses three meanings —peace, mercy, and blessings. So, I would like to take a moment to think about how peace and mercy are used in the singular, whereas bless- ings are talked about in plural. Why? Because God provides continuous, permanent, non-stop blessings for every person and every nation. This is the foundation of all blessings so as to allow our work, the work of humankind, to be blessed. Now, I would like to talk about more personal things. I was raised in a conservative Muslim family. My father used to be a Sunni scholar. However, there was something unique about my dad that I came to understand later. I was five years old before he enrolled me in l’Ecole de Bizerte primary school, run by the nuns in our country. My father sent me to that school for one year in order for me to learn how to write, behave, eat, and so forth. My father never told me what to study; however, I decided to study religion at the University of Zitouna. This is how I became a university instructor and then president of that same institution. Recently I found a note written to the uncle of my grand- father, from a queen who appointed him to be an imam, the scholar in charge of a mosque. This is evidence of the preser- vation of our traditional civil society, as all imams are solely appointed by the King and Queen. According to the imam Prof. Dr. Hichem Grissa I Prof. Dr. Hichem Grissa Dr. Hichem Grissa is a professor and Vice President of the University of Zitouna, Tunisia. He has a Doctorate in Theology, 1998, and is the author of several books on Islamic Finance. He is also a Sharia adviser to Banque Zitouna. Thirdly, we need to continue to work on social equity. How can we stop the use of violence if the world continues to suffer from oppression, injustice and wealth inequality? Dear assembly — whoever says that he holds the only path to truth and is therefore entitled to rule over the world, remains alone in the end. The history of humankind proves that our world is a better place if we look deep within our hearts and minds and realise that one religion is not better than another. We should look at the differences, not from an emotional, but from an intellectual perspective — seeing the Other as diverse and recognizing this as a fruitful opportu- nity to co-exist and exchange. I would like to take a moment to think about how peace and mercy are used in the singular, whereas blessings are talked about in plural