Malaysia’s King HM King Abdullah Riayatuddin Al Mustafa Billah Shah delivers his speech during the opening ceremony of the Kuala Lumpur Summit in Kuala Lumpur on December 19, 2019. (AFP / Mohd RASFAN)
Kuala Lumpur: HM King Abdullah Riayatuddin Al Mustafa Billah Shah of Malaysia expressed today that the glory of the Islamic civilization can be rebuilt, so that Muslims can succeed in facing the challenges ahead of them.
The King of Malaysia, who was giving a speech at the opening session of the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 that carries the theme The Role of Development in Achieving National Sovereignty, that "the time has come for us to broaden our individual efforts to transcend towards the wider ummah."
He stressed on the importance of the unity of the Islamic world, and said that dialogue was the way forward for Islam must also include a stronger understanding of the faith and using that as the foundation.
"When we accomplish this, we will create a new generation of Muslims that can perform their role with wisdom, courage, fairness and justice," he said, adding that they are at a significant advantage in the modern world, with instant access to greater knowledge," HM the King said.
For his part, Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Mahathir Mohamad expressed his regret at the state of the Islamic world, and stressed that the summit was not aiming to discriminate or isolate anyone. He added that the summit is not focused on discussing religion, but instead the state of affairs in the Muslim world.
"We all know that the Muslims, their religion and their countries are in a state of crisis. Everywhere we see Muslim countries being destroyed, their citizens forced to flee their countries, forced to seek refuge in non-Muslim countries," the Prime Minister said.
Mohamad said that Muslim countries have lost the respect of the international community, they no longer produce any valuable scientific work like in the past, nor do they have a role to play in advancing human civilization.
"We have seen other countries devastated by the Second World War not only recovering quickly but growing strongly to become developed. But a few Muslim countries seem unable even to be governed well, much less to be developed and prosper," the Prime Minister said.
