“Extremism”, “Terrorism”, “Pluralism” and others are words that catch our attention today amid a world full of contradicts and variable mainstreams that aim to rob him out of his peace. Hence rises the topic of the conference that is titled, “Extremism and its negative influence on the future of our Arab cultural heritage”, in order to shed light on the importance of the concepts of “Pluralism”, “Acceptance of others” and “Respecting the freedom of others” in other words “coexistence”: our ability to live in peace and security for the safety of our society and building the future.
If pluralism has many definitions that are multiple and variable, we here do not mean anything by it but the meaning that affirms the idea of, “the ability of people who obtain variable ideologies to coexist”, in religious, politic, economic, cultural contexts in one homeland that let its people collaborate to work and erect without conflicts or sacrificing one’s identity for the sake of other, in other words, without any intention to change the strict beliefs of others. Hence, pluralism is the indication of existence of difference in its face value, while its essence implies the ability of people to coexist despite their differences.
“Accepting pluralism” requires: • To implement the concept of “Humanity” with all what it carries of feelings of love, friendship and mercy.
Here I quote the saying of Mandela, the great leader, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
Here I would like to wonder when we are to teach our children to love and accept the others, even if they did not share us the same ideas and beliefs so that our homeland would be rescued from destruction, I refer to the Arab world in general, or allow me to say, the whole world?!
• To implement the concept of “true freedom” that does not offend the rights of others.
• To implement “the different concepts that all religions acknowledged”, as acknowledging that there are common virtues and humane behaviors between humans like: prodding to do good, be affable, tolerant and have compassion, will break many barriers that separate the children of one nation and build a new entity that is positive toward others. Hatred springs from one’s ignorance of others and judging them without being aware of all the aspects of the situation; hence we have to try to be close to each other through the mutual basics between us.
• To develop the feeling of sharing “One homeland” and a common nationality; for the sake of building our country. As for the ideas and beliefs considering the private relation between man and God, no one is entitled to judge them and implement his judgments according to his distorted concepts.
General Bishop Head of Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center
