ISLAM

''Faith, belief and religion are in your head. Real Islam is inside of you not in your cloths. The base for religions is good relations among people.''

From His Excellency's Interview with the Turkish 'Hurriyet' Daily, (November 8, 2009)

“Islam is the religion of openness and cultural interaction; and it has gained its strength and continuity from its openness to all, in every sense and implication of openness and interaction.”

 From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)

“Islam has always lived side by side with other religions in one geographical and human space and has been able to engage all the nations and ethnicities which assimilated it without undermining their cultures or peculiarities.”

From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)

“That is why, when we talk about an Islamic world, we do not mean only Muslims but also all the components of this rich diversity which, through its existence, expresses the truth of openness which characterizes Islam and our Organization-OIC- which defends the interests of all those who live in this vast region regardless of their faith or ethnicity.”

From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)

“All those who live in this area are brothers and sisters and have commitments towards each other; and unity among them is a duty within the same religion and ethnicity in as much as it is a duty among different religions and ethnicities.”

From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)

“That is why any call for closure is contradictory to the essence of religion and destructive to its noble goals, and any attempt at instigating division inside this world and among its components is a violation of the essence of its human mission. In this context, we must face the attempts aiming at creating conflicts and hostility among our peoples and cultures.”

From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)

“The illusory difference, which exists neither in our culture no among our cultures, is turned into a real war, with our blood as a necessary fuel for external intervention in our affairs and for weakening our countries.”

From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)

“Hence the importance of coordinating our cultural and media policies in order to face this worrying situation by expanding the circle of dialogue among ourselves for consolidating the natural bridges among our peoples and filling in the artificial gaps so that we can walk together towards the future as a force molded by cooperation and solidarity.”

From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)

“We must also understand the logic and implications of the media and cultural war, the war of terminology and concepts which are exported to us, and which are then transformed into a cultural and political reality that has nothing to do with our reality. In this fake reality a friend is turned into an enemy and a brother into an adversary. The illusory difference, which exists neither in our culture no among our cultures, is turned into a real war, with our blood as a necessary fuel for external intervention in our affairs and for weakening our countries. Such massive wars start with a short-sighted political term and a faulty concept which express isolation and intellectual closure. These wars could result from a shortsighted political performance.”

From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)

“Education complements media and culture in protecting the next generations through designing educational policies which open their eyes to the truth of Islam and the essence of its message of good, construction, and the use of the mind for achieving progress, rejecting laziness and dependence, and fostering the values of right, justice and human dignity.”

From His Excellency’s Address to the 36^th OIC Foreign Ministers Summit, (May 23, 2009)