Jihad

Abstract

It is a great privilege and honor for me, as the founding chairman ofthe Institute of Islamic Understanding, Malaysia, to be invited to addressthis distinguished Second Parliament of the World's Religions. Thistopic-Jihad: Struggle for Peace and Justice-is very relevant, as we arestill searching for a universally acceptable world order that can guaranteea true state of intematfonal peace through absolute justice. The world hasyet to be completely free from a number of bloody atrocities andaggression that are direct infringements on human and individual rights.There is the unending Middle East conflict between the Palestinians andIsrael for more than four decades, the "ethnic cleansing" of the Bosniansby the Serbs, and the Somali political and economic convulsion. The relevant world bodies have yet to exhibit their ability to handleand manage effectively, and with the desired firmness and vigor, suchdelicate intemational conflicts. It is quite apparent that the intemationalcommunity seems to depend on the world bodies that serve only the interestsof a powerful few. Actions taken seem to be rather selective, tothe extent that they create a degtee of bias and injustice.The problems of environmental degradation and resource distributionstill loom large despite rapid and unprecedented advancement in scienceand technology. Abject poverty, undernourishment, and malnutrition remainprevalent in parts of Africa and Asia. The world now sees a systemthat concentrates political, military, economic, social, and cultural powerin the hands of a privileged few located largely in the North. More specifically,within this global system the poor South had to "pay" the richNorth approximately 132 billion dollars in debt servicing during 1988. Ithas been estimated that six hundred fifty thousand Third World childrendie each year. If we consider the global distribution of income -both betweenand within countries-we would discover that the richest 20 percentof the world's population receives at least 150 times more than thepoorest 20 percent. What is even more distressing is a United Nations'study showing that "the poorest of the developing countries have morethan half of the world's population and 5.6 per cent of world income." ...