Mubarak calls Islamic World for cultral awakening
Egypt-Regional, Politics, 6/2/2001

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on the Islamic world for a cultural aeakning to renew itself and shake off the dust of backwardness so that it can find a niche for itself among the civilized countries.

Addressing the 13th General Conference of the Supreme Council for Islamic affairs that kicked off in Cairo on Thursday, President Mubarak said the greatest impediment facing the Islamic nation is the rigidity in all intellectual, social, economic and scientific domains.

The nation's preoccupation with fragmental and inessential issues is sheer absurd and futility, said Mubarak in his address, read on his behalf by Awkaf (endowments) Minister Hamdi Zaqzouq.

"It is time for Muslims to wake up and concentrate on reform at all levels especially the refining of intellectual orientations," he said.

The problem of Islam now is not with its enemies because they are well known and their machinations are exposed.

It is rather with Muslims who get into labyrinthine roads that finally lead up to destruction although the way of Islam is straightforward and clear, he added.

Grand Imam of AL Azhar Sheikh Mohamed Sayed Tantawi, in the gathering held under the slogan "renewal in Islamic thought," said that renewal and movement are needed in order to continue for the good of mankind.

Pope Shenouda III of Alexandria, Patriarch of Saint Mark Diocese, said renewal is required to understand religion.

Previous Stories:
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