M.A. Al Shami: Address to the International Leadership Conference 2018
Written by Hon. Mohamed Anass Al Shami, Assemblyman, Syria
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
Address to International Leadership Conference 2018, Seoul, Korea, February 18-22, 2018
In the name of Allah, I start.
Many thanks to the people, parliament, and government of South Korea for hosting this conference, and for the generous hospitality and good reception we received.
Dr. Thomas Walsh, Ladies and Gentlemen, Respected Guests,
I salute you with greetings of Islam:Peace, mercy and blessings of Allah be upon you all.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
We are all from Adam, and Adam is from dust.All creatures are created by Almighty Allah, and the closest to Allah is the one who better serves his people. (We do believe that we are all one family under the roof of one God.)
Peace is the wider door of a dignified life. As you know, every door has a key, and the key to the door of peace is love.Love each other, so all of you will be covered in peace.
It is mentioned in the Gospel that “Allah is love” and in the Holy Quran that “those who believe are stronger in love for Allah.” Peace means security and safety, no aggression, noviolation, no injustice, noconquer, no robbery andno rape.
In order to achieve peace, we should have free will and to be united against oppressors and aggressors to prevent and deter them, and as such we can achieve our goal.
I came from Syria, the cradle of civilizations and the land of peace.It is bleeding from the attacks and injustice of some political regimes that rule the world's major countries and have sent mercenaries and armies to kill people, destroy buildings and stealthe country's wealth under false slogans (democracy, freedom, Arab Spring, New Middle East).Words of truth come with falsehood.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
What peace do you speak about? Do you open one eye and close the other?Israel is an insidious entity. Some people want to portray our differences as religious or ethnic, and this is pure slander. Jews and Christians are our people, our brothers and our partners who are protected in our religion, and their harm is forbidden.
Our prophet Mohammed (peace be upon him) says: “He who hurt a Jew or Christian will hurt me, and I will be his adversary in the Day of Resurrection.” Who among Muslims dares to harm Jews and Christians and quarrel with the Prophet Muhammad? This is impossible.
Israel is openly attacking the Palestinians, the Lebanese and the Syrians. It does not care about international legitimacy, the United Nations and the decisions of the UN Security Council relating to Jerusalem, the Golan and the return of refugees numbers, as seen in Resolutions 242, 252, 267, 298, 338, 446, 497 and many others.It is still sending jets to attack the Syrian people and kill them. In the near past, the courageous Syrian army shot down an Israeli F-16 fighter, and we do not find any voice condemning the Israeli attack. Which peace are you considering?
As peace ambassadors looking for peace in our all sects, colors and affiliations, let us call things as they are in reality in order to tell the truth: to diagnose disease and give appropriate medicine in order to achieve security, safety and peace. What we need today is people like Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Jamal Abdel Nasser and Hafez al-Assad to achieve the peace of the brave.
In conclusion, I end my speech with the words of Almighty Allah: “And hold firmly to the rope of Allah all together and do not become divided. And remember the favor of Allah upon you—when you were enemies and He brought your hearts together and you became, by His favor, brothers.”
To go to the International Leadership Conference Schedule 2018, click here.