Qatari PM Lectures on Vision of the Current Arab Situation and Future Prospects

London, May 23 (QNA) - HE the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabor Al-Thani, has said that the current events on the political scene in the Arab world required a candid revision of the attitude of real politics towards the issue of reform.
In a lecture Monday at the Islamic Studies Centre at Oxford University themed " A Vision of the Current Arab Situation and Future Prospects", he said that the State of Qatar has ever reiterated that reform and popular participation emanate from the right of peoples to exercises their own will in organizing their political life freely in a way securing the respect of the rights and duties for all individuals in the community in a right manner regardless of desires, interests or foreign pressure. He noted that the desire of the people is not irrational or mere imported ideas.
The State of Qatar's foreign policy is based on the need for co-existence and peaceful cooperation at the international level on the basis of mutual respect of the rights and duties, and joint interests in accordance with the rules of international legitimacy.
"We emphasize the values of tolerance, justice, openness interactions among peoples, cultures and civilizations which must be accorded due respect and peoples must live in freedom and dignity in their countries', he said , underlining the importance of renouncing violence, extremism and terrorism.
Qatar categorically rejects attempts by western political and academic circles to equate terrorism and extremism as a phenomenon of human history with Islam as a religion, civilization, culture and heritage, he said.
The phenomenon of terrorism and extremism in the world of today, he explained , is an expression of political tendencies that has no relation whatever with religion. They must be dealt on the basis of this understanding , so that they could be treated successfully, he noted.
He said it is the duty of Muslims and Arabs to exercise more efforts to improve the distorted image about the Arabs and Muslims. Others also need to rectify their deformed image about Arabs and Muslims,he said and called for investigating the roots of terrorism.