RECOGNISE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN ISLAM AND OTHER RELIGIONS - CROWN PRINCE

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 11 (Bernama) -- The Crown Prince of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, said there could be greater recognition in the West of the many similarities between Islam, Judaism and Christianity, such as the veneration and respect that Islam accords to Christian and Jewish prophets. He pointed out that, instead, the distance between Islam and Christianity was often exaggerated. Raja Nazrin said that on a host of issues, be they human rights, social justice, environmental responsibility, good governance, freedom of religion, or law and morality, there was much in common between these two religions. "The distance is only greater between Islam together with the other great spiritual traditions, and the hedonistic and crassly materialistic version of the secular view of the world and of human nature," he said in his lecture on 'Islam, Muslims and Human Rights' at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Oxford, on Wednesday. The text of his speech was made available here. Raja Nazrin said at the intellectual level, the Western citadels of learning, such as Oxford University, could draw greater attention to Islamic contribution to human knowledge and understanding, and to Islam's civilisational achievements. He observed that in Western commentary of Islam, it should be recognised that there were as many faces of Islam as there were of other religions. "To evaluate Islam by reference of its worst-run societies is unhelpful. Additionally, in comparing civilisations, one can't compare the lofty ideals of one region with the ground realities of another," he said. He also told his audience that the West could seek to empathise with Muslim anguish at the suffering of fellow Muslims in many parts of the world, not least in Palestine, with the failure of the United Nations and the world community to resolve the Palestinian conflict at the level of international law thus far. The crown prince has been elected trustee of the centre, to which Britain's Queen Elizabeth II has also granted a Royal Charter, making it the first ever Muslim institution in Britain to have received such a recognition. -- BERNAMA