Hamza, addressing the conference

By Tareq Delwani, IOL Correspondent

CAIRO, August 22 (IslamOnline.net) – Democracy and Shura system, theories and possibilities of application, in Islam topped this year's annual conference organized by a Jordanian think tank, attended by a host of respected Muslim scholars and inaugurated by Jordan's young Crown Prince.

Addressing a three-day conference on Islamic thought in Amman Saturday, August 21, Crown Prince Hamza urged Muslims worldwide to introduce reform in the Islamic thought, attributing extremism in the Islamic world to oppressions and injustice done to the Muslims.

Hamza further said fanaticism in the Islamic world was caused by a "deprivation, oppression and absence of justice" that "provokes hatred."

Hamzah is the president of the board of trustees of the A'l Al-Bayt Foundation for Islamic Thought, host of the conference.

The A'l Al-Bayt Foundation is a semi-independent think tank established in 1980 by late Jordanian King Hussein, who died five years ago.

The institution's name derives from  Jordan's ruling Hashemite dynasty, which claims ancestry to the Prophet Muhammad.

The conference in the Jordanian capital brings together around 80 scholars, intellectuals and academics from 40 Arab, Islamic and foreign countries including leading scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, Shiite scholar Ayatollah Mohamed Ali Taskheeri, vice chairman of the Muslim Scholars Union, and Islamic intellectual Dr. Mohamed Saeed Ramadan Al-Bouti.

The summiteers discuss Islam's stand on pluralism, civil and democratic dimensions of the Islamic rule, the US position on religion and similarities between Shura and the system of obedience in the Islamic history.

The 24-year old Hamza stressed that the extremist Islamic behavior resulting from several pressures is taken as evidence to brand Islam with extremism and violence.

"But the truth is that Islam and the Muslims reject and condemn these exceptional cases as strange to their true religion and as a form of transgression," according to the Associated Press.

The Jordanian Crown Prince, however, urged Muslims to abandon extremism as it was the chief reason behind the destruction of the Islamic civilization.

"Extremism has destroyed, throughout history, remarkable achievements in great civilizations, including our Islamic civilization," he said.

"When hatred is dominant and hearts are closed, and when people do not resort to the rulings of Shari'a (Islamic law) and reason, the tree of civilization withers away and societies cease to grow."

Hamza also heaped blame on the media for weakening the Muslim's energy and soul, suggesting educational reform could remedy extremism and show Islam's true meaning.

"The road to proper education is rough and formative work requires a pure, protective atmosphere where sprouts are grown in suitable conditions," he said. "This protective atmosphere is provided by the family as well as the entire society."

Work Papers

Leading Muslim scholar Yusuf Al-Qaradawi

During the conference's first day, Syrian scholar Mohamed Al-ziheili presented a working paper entitled, "Islamic Rule… Shura and ruling terms". In that paper, he showed how the Islamic rule applied the social dimension of current democratic trends better than any modern democracy.

Iraqi scholar Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Duri, on his part, linked application with thoughts in "the political systems".

He stressed that application comes before reasoning to make it better, clearer and more compatible with peoples' lives. So, according to Al-Duri, we have to start with clearing the thinking to make it more applicable.

Dr. Al-Bouti, on his part, presented a paper around "points of confusion between Islamic Shura and Western democracy".

"Shura and democracy have a lot in common. Shura is even better as it is a Divine obligation and duty on all people, unlike democracy which is a duty in itself."