Muhanna AlHubail message to the Secretary General of the United Nations, to save the life of the Islamic thinker Salman al-Awdah.
H. E. Antonio Guterres
Secretary General
United Nations.
Shaykh Salman al-Oadah and the Conscience of World Peace
Best greetings,
For a quarter of a century, the advocates of Islamic Enlightenment have been striving to establish a complete humanitarian code of living to operate in the Arab World. This code of living is based on the overall aims of Islam. It aims to replace the false religious concepts that serve dictatorships and selfish international capitalism. Unfortunately, the unfavourable attitude of the West towards Muslims has made the task even more difficult. The advocates of Islamic Enlightenment have played a significant role in facing up to the culture of hate which is promoted by classifying people into different casts, in flagrant disregard of common citizenship and equal human rights to people of all races, cultures and religions.
Dr. Salman al-Oadah is one of the leading figures of Islamic Enlightened thought who have undertaken the task of peaceful social liberation, strengthening the philosophy of peaceful human coexistence, channelling the feelings of victims of oppression and injustice into the peaceful pursuit of justice, keeping the doors of world peace wide open to all and standing firm against all forms of extremism. Thus, Dr al-Oadah’s address has become a prospective cultural and religious constitution for a new Arab World. As such, he is one of the Muslim World’s most prominent advocates of this central task of international justice in the modern world.
As one who believes in the values of peace and human coexistence, I have followed his struggle, recognized his great positive effect on the Muslim world and tried to devote my humble efforts to support the task he strives for.
Your Excellency are well placed to realize the dangerous setback to the goal of peaceful community living that will result from the continued detention of Salman al-Oadah. It is no secret that he is a victim of a process of slow killing in Saudi jails.
It is to stop such injustice that I am sending this appeal to Your Excellency, calling on you to undertake the fulfilment of your moral and professional duty to intercede with world leaders to put pressure on the Saudi authorities to release Dr al-Oadah immediately. He needs urgent medical care, after several years of arrest. He is indeed a prisoner of conscience, deprived of his freedom and family and prevented from pursuing the task of enlightenment he has undertaken.
I hope that my appeal will receive your kind and serious care to ensure cooperation by all concerned to protect the lives of influential advocates of peaceful living in our world. To leave such advocates to be unjustly killed will have serious negative effects on all world communities.
Our task in Islamic Enlightenment is to break the chains of injustice, so as to bring about a dawn of hope for the youth of oppressed peoples in countries of the South.
Muhanna al-Hubail
Independent Arab author,
Resident in Canada
