Prince Charles Presents Muslims an Opportunity That May Not Come Again

by Abdul Qater Tash

Once again, Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, has spoken of his deep admiration for Islam. Addressing a select gathering of academics, businessmen, religious leaders and British officials concerned with Middle Eastern issues at Wilton Park, the headquarters of the British Foreign Ministry, recently, he spoke glowingly of Islam as a religion and culture that the world had much to learn from.

The Times and The Daily Telegraph gave the speech front-page coverage, both publishing it under the headline, “Learn from Islam”a headline that carries deep meaning and significance.

Earlier, in October 1993, the prince had made a similar speech at Oxford University, commending Islam and highlighting the pioneering role Islamic civilization had played in the development of modern Western civilization. Dwelling at length on the contributions Islam had made to the making of contemporary Europe, he pointed out that Islam was part of the legacy of Europe and not something independent of, or distant from, the Europeans. Calling upon the West to learn from Islam, he had argued that Islam could teach the Europe of today how to understand and how to live…Islam in its essence, he said, preserved an integrated view of the universe and rejected the separation of man from nature, religion from science, and mind from matter. Islam had a metaphysical vision of man and the world around him as an organic whole, the prince went on to say.

It is obvious that the prince lays great emphasis on the need for a return to that integrated view, which looks at the universe as an indivisible whole. The rejection of that view is the real cause of the misery that modern materialistic civilization has brought for man.

That was the reason why the Prince of Wales pointed out, in his speech at Wilton Park, that “Modern materialism is unbalanced and increasingly damaging in its long-term consequences…During the past three centuries, in the Western world at least, a dangerous division has occurred in the way we perceive the world around us. Science has tried to assume a monopoly—even a tyranny—over our understanding. Religion and science have become separated…Science has attempted to take over the natural world from God; it has fragmented the cosmos and relegated the sacred to a separate and secondary compartment of our understanding, divorced from practical, day-to-day existence.”

Science Alone Not Enough

This harsh criticism of science by Prince Charles does not mean that science is an evil which should be gotten rid of. The problem does not lie in science as it is, but in separating it from moral values and spiritual and social goals. This is what the prince meant when he said: “Science has done the inestimable service of showing us a world much more complex that we ever imagined. But in its modern, materialist, one-dimensional form, it cannot explain everything…As science and technology have become increasingly separated from ethical, moral and sacred considerations, so the implications of such a separation have become more somber and horrifying as we see in genetic manipulations or in the consequences of the kind of scientific arrogance so blatant in the scandal of BSE [mad cow disease].”

Prince Charles believes that only Islam can save contemporary civilization from its present crisis, because “Islamic culture in its traditional form has striven to preserve this integrated, spiritual view of the world in a way we have not seen fit to do in recent generations in the West. There is much we can learn from that Islamic world view in this respect.”

The prince goes further when he advocates practical steps to translate this idea into reality: “We in the West need to be taught by Islamic teachers how to learn with our hearts, as well as our heads.” He believes that the way to build mutual understanding and appreciation between Muslims and the West is for the West to learn from Islam. That is absolutely true, for the West has misunderstood Islam for a long time and has considered it hostile to Western existence and civilization.

The speech by the prince has gone far beyond a strong defense of a much-maligned religion before a Western audience. It was an open call to the West to study Islam and learn from its values and ideals.

It is a new horizon that the Prince of Wales has opened before us. The question is: Now that we have such an opportunity, what are we going to do with it? Will we strengthen the hand of the prince and try to make use of this fine opportunity to introduce Islam to those who want to learn from it? Or are we going to be quite content with enjoying the praise, and do nothing? If that is our option, we will be missing an opportunity that may never come again.