Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen Speakers of the PUIC Member Parliaments,

Excellencies ladies and Gentlemen Members of the PUIC,

Ladies and Gentlemen Representatives of Regional and International Organizations,

Ladies and Gentlemen Members of the Diplomatic Corps,

Ladies and Gentlemen Ministers,

Excellencies,

I have the pleasure to wish you again a happy stay in your country Morocco. I am also happy to express to all of you our welcome infused with hope that the Sessions will achieve, a reasonable level of its objectives for all the Islamic World in terms of enhancing the bonds of cooperation among the Parliaments of the States which constitute our organization, and strengthening consultation at various levels on issues of common concern.

You are aware, ladies and gentlemen, that the 14th PUIC Session is convene in highly critical and sensitive circumstances, not only for our countries, but for the entire world.

The defeat of the remnants of DAESH, which is taking place under our very eyes has constituted a major point, which needs a pause to learn its lessons with great reflections. Those people tried to plunder the tolerant Islam, doctrinally, politically, symbolically and informatively. They acted to devitate it from its objectivates and purposes in terms of upgrading the status of Men, promoting coexistence and cohabitation among nations as well as competition for benevolence and piety among human beings. This foolish adventure and its grave consequences, regrettably for the image of Islam, put us today face to face with the challenge of erasing such a bloody outcome. This can only be done through projections of the bright face of our tolerant religion concomittantly with drawing up appropriate strategies in the fields of education, media diplomacy, etc. The ability of our countries to convince the countries of the world and the decisions makers, about the legitimacy of our causes in development, democracy as well as liberation from the Israeli occupations, for our brothers the Palestinians, is embodied in our ability to develop and deepen our common interests, purposes and references with all the peoples of the earth without exception.

As regards Palestine, we see with naked eyes everyday how our people there suffer extreme injustice in terms of the continuity of the occupation of their good land in addition to the continuing occupation of other parts of the Arab-Islamic homeland, such as Lebanon and Syria.

The injustice which the Palestinian people suffer is going without deternent. The logic of occupation has gone as far as building the abhorrent separation wall, which has led to the burst of Palestinian protest.

This situation does not allow slowness or backing down. For us this means action on regional, continental and international levels to restore the momentum which characterizes the just Palestinian cause for years because of the sacrifices of the Palestinians and the solidarity of its natural allies i.e. the Arab and Muslim peoples and all liberals and peace-loving people of the world. The objective, which we will not give up, is the establishment of the independent Palestinian State with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital according to the relevant UN resolutions, together with affirming the right of the Palestinian people to return and resist occupation and foreign aggression.

Of course, this takes us back to express, once again our collective rejection of any alternation of the legal status of Al Quds Al Sharif, under any pretext, waiting for the malerialization of the respect of international legitimacy. It calls on us to affirm the necessity of rescinding the decisions taken recently by a number of States in this respect. It also invites us to review the US decision on stopping the financing of the UNRWA.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The world around us is witnessing today polarizations, blocs and the formation of new alliances which are unprecedented in their varieties, intensity and acceleration since the middle of the past century. This situation requires the PUIC, considered an expression of sovereignty in our countries to recall the transformations in order to design long term strategies aimed at preserving the Islamic entities in today’s world, in preparations for events that may take place in several regions where Muslims live – regions that suffer from epidemics, famine, civil warfare, foreign intervention or liquidation on the basis of religions, as for example and not exclusively, in Kashmir, Burma, Yemen or Syria.

This situation necessitates, now more than ever before, support, strength and develop relations of coordination and cooperation among our States in all levels of thinking, forecasting and deciding in order to protect against any possible impacts of these transformations which come mostly, as a result of the policies of the great powers in today’s world. This necessitates also confirmation of the importance of the role assigned to our parliaments as an expression of the popular wills in our countries, and as institutions to enhance national integration, and as effective tools to consolidate policies that would protect our national entities, the stability of our countries and the religious and spiritual security of our peoples.

It is incumbent on us to stand up to all mongers of extremism, excessiveness and hatred, as well as results of their practices and crimes in terms of obliterating the image of Islam and Muslims. We must stand against any defacing or attack on Islam, as a divine religion, that constitutes an essential dimension in our identity, and which consequently targets followers of Islam in all world countries. We have followed action of certain categories and forces in the media of a number of countries to incite racism, and encourage attacks on Islam in the framework of systematic camaigns. There are those who even call for “purifying” those communities from Muslims. Regression from the principles on which the United Nations system was established as a cause of great concern which ought to augment our resolve to call for and work to establish coexistence-based parity, and tolerance based respecting humanitarian values and principles without which no international community can be established or continue now or in future.

In this respect, the media leap has shown the strategic importance of all contact means, inside our countries and in relations with the world around us. This leap has led to the fall of several restrictions between countries of the world and between individuals and groups which necessitates our countries to ensure the optimum environment for facilitating the participation of our citizens in information and knowledge exchange among our peoples, and between the latter the peoples of the rest of the world. The huge tools which are created by the information and data leap must be invested in the restoration of our image as Muslim peoples to their previous era as a space based on the principles of tolerance, coexistence and interdependence, while avoiding opening the intra wounds, and moving towards performing the tasks of priority to our peoples such as achieving development and democracy for all categories, primarily women, considered as constituting half the society. This society ought to walk on two feet and not on one foot in order to keep abreast of those peoples who realized progress and developed science.

Our destiny today is to give clear signals – as the world is observing Women Day - of our resolve to energize our commitments made towards this crucial subject.

Women, as we all know, are not a social “category” of the categories concerned with our public policies. Women are half the society. From this angle, the matter should not be addressed to limited category approaches. It requires comprehensive approaches which derive their legitimacy from the right of women to be present in all the social, institutional, economic, cultural, diplomatic and sports, etc., spaces. This necessitates qualification of our educational, legal and administrative systems in order to open doors for women to rise to their rightful positions at all levels of decision-making, whether legislative, executive, judicial, etc. Promoting the conditions of women enables our societies to enhance the welfare of the family, considered as the primary social cell and the founding educational space.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I will not unnecessarily prolong my speech. We have to crystallize resolutions that are required by the present moment in preparation for the future, through the work of committees whether at the political, economic, environmental or legal levels, or in the field of human rights or those relating to the dialogue of religions. All of these are workshops of great importance.

I express again my thanks and welcome to you. I wish our session to be crowned with total success and prevalence.