Is Islam Compatible with the West? 
Addressed to the Oxford Union 
by Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto 
February 20, 2000 

Honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.

I thank you for the invitation to return to the oxford union and for the warm welcome.

I am no stranger to this house. And it gives me great pleasure to be the guest of yet another woman president. 

I spent some of the happiest years of my life as a student at oxford.

I was in England when Margaret Thatcher was the first woman to head a major political party, threatening to overthrow a male dominated preserve.

I was determined to do the same in Pakistan.

I was told that the oxford union was a mini house of commons. So I joined the oxford union.

I was told that politics, everywhere in the world, was summed up in two words: push and pull.

So I did and became president of the oxford union. And then I went on to become Prime Minister.

I see the deputy leader of the Conservative Party. Mr. Alan Duncan, in the audience. We were both at oxford at the same time. I am grateful to him, and other oxford friends, who together had my portrait painted for the union.

And I see Dr. Charis Waddy, a dear and wise friend and mentor. Her works on Islam and women in Islam remain as my prized possessions.

Madam President,

Every generation has its secret of success. When I was at oxford, our motto was, try and try again, unless it’s a game of Russian roulette.

It seems just like yesterday when I was here and I am tempted to say: madam president, what are you doing in my chair?

You, madam president, have been unfairly criticized for inviting the famous designer, Stella Mac Carteny as a guest to the union.

I, madam president, was criticized for holding a debate on the topic that this house would rather rock than roll.

By drawing up a menu of serious and lighter debates, madam president, we have shown the common thinking, the compatibility between two women, of different races, of different cultures and of different continents.

Honorable members:

The last time I spoke at the oxford union, it was nearly twenty-five years ago. 

I spoke from the cross benches in my farewell debate on the motion that “this house likes dominating women.”

Today I return to speak on a much more serious issue.

The motion before us, that this house believes that Islam is incompatible with the west, is an important one.

Six years ago, a Harvard professor began the debate in a city called Davos.

I was there when Samuel Huntington shocked the world with his thesis on the clash of civilizations.

I didn’t believe it then. And I don’t believe it today.

For fifty years, Islam and the west joined hands in their common struggle against communism. They were united in a common and compatible belief that state control was unacceptable; that the denial of individual liberty was unacceptable to the world community.

They were united in a common and compatible belief for a free world and for free markets.

My country, Pakistan, was in the forefront of this battle. When the soviets occupied Afghanistan, Pakistan became a front line state in the battle against communism. Our cities were bombed and our country flooded with refugees. But Muslim Pakistan never wavered in the fight for freedom.

Honorable members, I oppose this motion. And I oppose it for three reasons.

First, both worlds are built on religious faith and submission before god.

Both religions share common features binding followers together: the belief in the day of judgment, in Jesus Christ, in the angel Gabriel, in Moses, in fasting, in meditation, in praying with beads, the rosary or the Tasbee.

Both religions exhort followers to follow common commandments of good behaviour: to give charity, to stay clear from lying and cheating, to refrain from adultery, to show kindness to those who are disadvantaged. 

The difference is that the Islam and west are at different historical stages.

Your battle between church and state has been resolved. 

Our battle is still to be won.

And one billion Muslims are fighting that battle.

The second example I give of the compatibility of the west and Islam is the commitment to democratic values.

Yes. To democratic values.

I know my country Pakistan has fallen under the shadow of the military. I know that the military regime, like other dictators, is refusing to give a date for elections.

But that has nothing to do with Islam. It has everything to do with despotism.

Autocrats rule many parts of the Muslim world. But those autocrats reflect their own ambition and power. They do not represent, and cannot reflect, the sentiments of the people of the Muslim world.

Human dignity and respect is at the heart of Islam. If there are political prisoners in Pakistan and elsewhere, if there are witch-hunts against women and minorities, that is not Islam. It is discrimination.

The west cannot turn its back on the world of Islam. The west must support Islam in its battle for political emancipation just as Islam supported the west in its battle for a free world.

The oxford union is a prestigious debating club. Its name is known far and wide. Tonight the oxford union can send a bold message across, by rejecting this motion.

The third argument I place in proving compatibility between our two worlds, the world of the east and the west, is our common approach to social issues.

Issues of divorce, of child custody of inheritance are as important to family in the west as in the east.

In fact, Islam was the first religion to give the right of divorce to women and to ensure that daughters inherited alongwith the sons.

The west came later in giving property rights to women and in recognizing divorce.

Now we lag behind. Poor literacy rates breed ignorance and with ignorance comes fear and superstition. We need the support and understanding of the west in meeting these challenges. 

In Pakistan and Afghanistan and other parts of the Muslim world, men still kill women in the name of male pride. Our women need the help and support of the west in securing their rights.

The Taliban in Afghanistan do a great disservice to women and Islam when they ban women from working.

Their ban has nothing to do with Islam. Their ban has much to do with ancient tribal customs and patriarchal values.

The women of Afghanistan, and women in other parts of the Muslim world expect moral support from the rest of the world community in their struggle to work and to free choice.

The Afghan clerics and clerics elsewhere tell us that women must be locked behind four walls. 

But the prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him, set the example by marrying a working woman. His wife was a successful businesswoman.

Clerics tell us that a man can take four wives. They ignore the example of the prophet Mohammed who took but one wife until wife Khadija died.

They ignore the example set by Hazrat Ali, who whilst wife Fatima lived, never took a second wife.

The Taliban are wrong when they drape women from head to foot forcing them to wear the purdah.

 Those who force women into purdah forget that the holy prophet said that the best is the veil in the eyes.

I, as a Muslim woman, dispute those that say women are inferior to men in Islam.

Like millions of other Muslim women, I place faith in the saying of the holy prophet that men and women are as equal as the teeth in a comb.

I ask this house not to listen to the clerics.

I ask this house to reject a shrill minority that would launch a new crusade.

Honorable members: 

This house would shrink in horror if Milosevic was described as the face of the west.

Muslims shrink in equal horror when Osama bin laden is described as the face of Islam.

Muslims are affronted when they are rashly called terrorists.

There is no such thing as a Muslim terrorist or a Christian terrorist. A terrorist is a terrorist irrespective of race or religion.

Now there are peace talks breaking out in Northern Ireland.

But when I was studying here, all I heard was that the Ira were terrorists.

Causes of conflicts arise when people of the same faith fight. They arise when people of different faiths fight.

But we don’t say that Catholics and Protestants are incompatible.

We don’t say that Germany and France are incompatible or Germany and Britain because they once had a conflict and fought a war

When I was a student, I didn’t hear Protestants call Catholics terrorists. And I don’t like it when I hear Muslims called terrorists.

I am a Muslim who risked her life with Christians fighting terrorists. I did that because I saw no incompatibility between us in building a world free of violence.

I was Prime Minister when Ramzi Yusuf, the man who bombed the world trade center, was extradited from Pakistan.

Ramzi Yusuf, the man who bombed the world trade center, twice tried to assassinate me.

He didn’t make a distinction in trying to kill someone from the Islamic world or the Christian world.

He would not need to do that if Islam and the west were incompatible.

Honorable members: throughout my life, I have subscribed to universal values of love and brother hood and harmony.

I have friends in the east and the west. I see myself as a bridge between two cultures and two worlds. 

My world is a world united by common concerns. I see a world worried about gender issues, education, crime. 

And when my friends and I meet over coffee, whether in the east or in the west, we talk about the same issues: our children, our expanding waistlines, our rising blood pressure and other such important issues.

Whether we like it or not, we are all cut from the same cloth. 

Whenever we live, our concerns are the same.

Of course there are strident voices that we hear all too often in the media. But these are the voices of the extremists. These are not the voices of men and women of good will. 

I see Muslims here in England sit in the House of Lords and in the House of Commons. Would that be possible if Islam and the west were incompatible?

I see Labour and Conservatives woo Muslim votes in Bradford, Birmingham, Manchester, Luton, Newham, Blackburn, London. Would that be possible if the two were incompatible?

I do not believe that we are incompatible. We are created by the one god.  Our religions tell us that we are the common descendants of Adam and eve.

Our love of Jesus and his mother Mary are a shared love.

The prophet of the Muslims, Mohammed, peace be upon him, preached the message of tolerance. 

Muslims are enjoined to greet each other with the words, peace be upon you.

The search for peace is a universal search. It is your search and my search. It is a sign of our compatibility.

Those who seek to construct walls of incompatibility do a great disservice. 

They are prisoners of an ugly past.

This house is not. 

This house can, and should, pull down the walls of bigotry, intolerance and prejudice.

And this house can do it tonight by rejecting the motion that Islam and the west are incompatible.

I urge you to do so.

Thank you.