In this issue we publish first part of the report on the Third Islamic Summit recently concluded in Mecca. The response to the summit has not been entirely unusual. Muslims over the world received the news with caution and mixed feelings of hopes and fears. Rather, to be precise, with more hopes than fears. They hoped that their leaders meeting at Mecca in the shadows of the Ka’ba will not forget the role they can unitedly play in a world fast in decline---morally, spiritually and even materially.
Outside the world of Islam, the reaction varied from though-concerned-but- indifferent’ attitude to outright hostility. Funny cartoons, sarcastic comments and articles ending on pessimistic notes greeted the conference. Some circles were deeply disappointed of the results even before the summit began its deliberations.
But, as our reporter has pointed out, this is no moment of anger. It is time people did some self-questioning. They must ask themselves if they have not been taken in for a ride by their politicians, philosophers and thinkers. Have they not been chasing mirages of development and progress --- carrots that the donkey will never get? Are the systems, Eastern and Western, communist and non-communist, working to satisfaction ? Have they produced the results they have been promising ? Can they usher in the promised age of peace and plenty? What has been the fate of great majority of nations following these ideologies. And, finally, what future do the system-manufacturers themselves predict ? These are some of the questions that people should ask themselves. And if the answer to these questions does not leave much scope and material to argue in favour of these systems of life and politics, then why be angry at those trying to work out an alternative?
Or, is the anger merely because the alternative happens to be Islam ?