ISLAMABAD, June 29: We need collective efforts. The Muslims, or people belonging to any other religion of the world must not be singled out. All of us have to be together in fighting extremism and fanaticism. This was Saudi ambassador Ali Awadh Asseri’s passionate plea to a group of visiting American scholars who are here on a US State Department-sponsored exchange programme called “Islamic Life in the US”.

In his opening remarks at a luncheon he hosted for them on Wednesday, ambassador Asseri emphasized the need for understanding the true spirit and principles of Islam to counter the growing anti-Islam campaign. He attributed the anti-Islam sentiments to lack of knowledge and understanding about Islam as well as to the negative role played by a section of irresponsible media.

What is required is an objective understanding of the Muslim World and its sensitivities so as to forge a world that is at peace with all people that live here. Peace cannot be achieved at the cost of either the Muslims, or the Christians, or the Jews, or the Hindus, or any religion of the world, the ambassador emphatically declared.

“Peace will come when all of us learn to live together, accepting each other as equally good, and equally committed to the cause of forging peace in the world”, he added.

Noting that religion was never such an issue till September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, he regretted the fact that since then Islam had unnecessarily been targeted because the perpetrators of the crime happened to be Muslims.

The Saudi ambassador maintained that extremists were in every other religion and we had the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ amongst us. In this context he underscored that it was the collective responsibility of the entire world not to create conditions that were conducive for the growth and promotion of the ‘bad’ at the cost of the ‘good’.

Addressing the American scholars as ambassadors of the West, the Saudi envoy emphasized that scholars had a big responsibility to ensure that deviant individuals belonging to any religion did not lead people astray.

We should all evolve a joint strategy to deal with them, he stated, adding that Saudi government had been very successful in dealing with such individuals.

The ambassador urged the West to invest more time in understanding Islam and Muslim culture, just as the Muslims had in case of other religions. He warned that unless the West took remedial steps to change the warped perception of Islam, the world would remain divided in areas that were at conflict with one another.

In a veiled reference to the West’s repeated calls for democracy in the Arab world, the Saudi ambassador said the world must not impose on others any thing that does not come to them naturally, does not reflect their values and traditions, their ways and preferences.

We cant imitate you in order for you to love us, ambassador Asseri told his guests.

Advocating the moderate path, he asserted: “We cannot afford to leave moderation for extremism”.

During a candid discussion on Islam and the West that followed, the Saudi ambassador was asked pointed questions by the American scholars on the status of women and democracy in Saudi Arabia.

We are only 74 years old, change will not come overnight. It is a process and it took you a long time as well, was his response to these questions.

Democracy is slowly coming to Saudi Arabia but we can’t have your kind of democracy, ambassador Asseri told his American guests. In Saudi Arabia democracy will not be at the expense of religion and culture, he made it clear. His explanation was: “We can’t remedy a problem by creating another”.

Responding to a question about women in Saudi Arabia he said Islam was not against the participation of women and things were slowly but surely changing in the kingdom. He pointed out that Saudi women had recently submitted a signed a petition to the human rights organization that they may be allowed to drive cars.

An American Jew scholar resented the fact that all Jews were equated with Israel and said a distinction ought to be made in this regard.

The visiting American scholars agreed that the misperceptions about Islam were due to the lack of knowledge about the religion and believed that this vacuum was filled with negative stereotypes. They said after 9/11 a majority of the non-Muslim students in American universities linked Islam to extremism, terrorism, and mistreatment of women.

When the visiting scholars solicited the Saudi ambassador’s support for a visit to Mecca by a group of Christians and Jews, he was non-committal and merely smiled.

The group of seven US-based scholars is led by the director of “Islamic Life in the US” programme, Dr Riffat Hassan, a professor of Humanities and Religious Studies at University of Louisville.

The trip marks the final exchange visit of the three-year programme under which selected Muslim scholars and religious teachers or preachers from South Asia visited the US and vice versa.

The objective of the programme is to increase the participants’ awareness of, and appreciation for the serious study of Islam that is conducted in the US and co-existence among diverse religious communities in the US and in the world, notes Dr Hassan.