Holy Quran top selling book in the West
DUBAI: The Holy Quran has become the top selling book in the West
while books about Islam and about the Muslim World were in great
demand following the Sept. 11 attacks in the US. This was stated by
prominent French political studies scholar Giles Kepel while
addressing a seminar on Clash of Civilisations or Opportunity for a
Dialogue, at the Dubai Press Club on Saturday evening. He is also a
professor at the Institute of Political Studies and a senior
researcher at the National Board for Scientific Research, both in
Paris.
“Today, there is an increased desire to understand better what takes
place in the Muslim World. People are hungry to know more about
Islam,” Kepel said. Commenting on the Northern Alliance victory in
Mazar-i-Sharif, Kepel said that it was the first breakthrough in the
ground operations so far. The turning of the page would change the
moral of the troops on both sides, he said, adding that he was not
sure how far the victory would go because winter would make it
difficult to operate from the air and on the ground it will be
difficult to differentiate a Taliban from an Afghan.
Kepel said that France was not taking an active part in the US led
attack on Afghanistan because, firstly US had not asked for French
participation so far as it did when Kuwait was an issue and secondly
because France had reservations on the way the military operation was
being conducted in Afghanistan, specially because of the loss to the
civilians.
He said that the need to live together was being emphasised more than
ever in the French society, where five per cent or about 3 million of
the French population, both nationals and residents, were from the
Muslim stock. He said that a large number of today’s Muslims were born
and educated in France unlike the previous generation of Muslims who
were new in the country and were not skilled. Today’s Muslims had
reached a position of influence in the country and, therefore, the
feeling for a shared culture, shared civilisation and shared values,
was growing, he said.
Kepel said that the events of Sept. 11 had created a rare opportunity
for Europe and the Middle East to develop a new type of dialogue for a
working and living relationship despite the presence of extremists on
both sides. He said that there were 10 million people in Europe from
the Muslim countries who will soon become citizens in Europe and take
part in politics.
“Time is ripe for an effort to bring our cultures together since it is
a matter of survival for both. It is time to extend hands and not
fists,” he said. He also said that it was very difficult to convince
the investors in the West do invest in the Middle East because of
their argument that people of the Middle East did not invest in their
own region and instead placed their funds in the West. Kepel said that
the Muslim Ulema had been cautious in their call for Jihad because
they were aware that if the scope of Jihad was not well defined, it
could lead to insurrection.