Iraq for All Iraqis

Conference at United Nations,
New York June 11-12, 2007

Introductory Remarks
By Mustapha Tlili, Founding Director
New York University Center for Dialogues:
Islamic World- U.S.-The West

1. New York University’s Center for Dialogues: Islamic World-U.S.-The West emerged from the tragedy of September 11 to address the need for greater communication between the West and the Muslim World.

2. The Center provides a forum for constructive debate between various religions, intellectual, economic, social, and political sectors of American, European, and Islamic societies.

3. Through research, conferences, publications, and multimedia projects we offer new insights into such areas as the strategic relationship between the Islamic World and the West, the nature of authority in both worlds, governance and the reform movement in the Islamic World, and Muslim communities in the West.

4. The Center is unique among comparable institutions at American Universities for combining public outreach and international conferences, academic study and policy review and recommendations

5. Today’s conference and the issues it addresses are a perfect fit for the Center’s mission and approach. Together with Alhakim Foundation and Religions for Peace we are happy to provide this forum to the eminent Iraqis representing various religious sects and who are in search of a new consensus for the unfortunate circumstance of the country.

6. We joined our partners—Alhakim Foundation and Religions for Peace—in offering this forum because we believe only Iraqis can at the end of the day solve Iraq’s problems.

7. A new political compact is urgently needed in Iraq, but it will not be possible without a new consensus among all Iraq’s sects, faiths, ethnic and linguistic groups, political factions, and other segments of Iraqi society. This consensus will not be achieved without a serious commitment by all to reconciliation policies and activities.

8. The old consensus was conceived in and enforced by violence. This all too familiar tragedy lasted for decades without significantly troubling Islamic World conscience. Who among Muslim leaders and intellectuals protested Saddam’s bloody repression of the Iraqi people? The historical record is indeed a very sad one.

9. We believe it is now the moral duty of all—Muslims AND non-Muslims, governments and civil society to help Iraqis forge a new consensus based on shared values, shared objectives, shared interests, shared identities, and framed by mutual respect, a spirit of reconciliation and a strong commitment to peace—a strong commitment to an “Iraq for All Iraqis”.

10. The alternative to this course of action would be a catastrophe for all—to Iraq, the region, the Muslim World, and the world as a whole. Before it is too late, Iraq’s religious leaders in particular should firmly assert the centrality of a policy of reconciliation, following in this the example of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) when he returned to Makkah from his hijrah to Medina. He offered Kuraish reconciliation and peace and prevailed on the members of the new Muslim community to follow his example, instead of resorting to revanche and violence. True Muslims can do no less today.

 

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