Prince of peace

Spectator, The, Jul 30, 2005 by Davis, Douglas

Douglas Davis talks to Prince Hassan of Jordan about his frustration at Muslim failure to integrate with Western society

Prince Hassan bin Talal is the almost-man. After 34 years as heir-apparent to Jordan's Hashemite throne, the crown was snatched away in 1999 by his dying brother, King Hussein, and handed to his son, the present King Abdullah II. Never mind; Hassan has other fish to fry. And so I visit the direct descendant of the Prophet Mohammed (separated by a 42-generation blip) to discuss the terrorist attacks on London.

In an elegant reception room at his West London home, the desert prince is wearing a pinstripe suit (his tailor would call him 'portly'). He surrounds himself with family snaps, memorabilia (which include a brace each of sheathed Bedouin daggers and Samurai swords) and his 'overflow' book collection (including the memoirs of such former enemies as Moshe Dayan and Yitzhak Rabin).

The absence of high office has not diminished Prince Hassan's appetite for solving global problems. He spends his time, and his considerable intellect, on a relentless round of interfaith dialogues, human rights commissions and conferences on poverty and injustice, religion and peace.

Unlike many of his co-religionists, his response to the London bombings is categorical: 'I have a very firm position on wanton killing and suicide bombing - a clear and unequivocal condemnation of it, wherever it raises its ugly head.' He cannot understand people like Sheikh Yusuf alQaradawi, the sometime guest of London's mayor Ken Livingstone, who condemns suicide bombings in London while defending them in Israel. Such people, says the Prince, hunt with the hounds and run with the hare. He is particularly irked that al-Qaradawi refuses to speak to Jews.

Prince Hassan, by contrast, is intent on dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. One recent project was the creation of the Middle East Citizens' Assembly, with representatives from all over the region. 'Israelis and Arabs can scream at each other or cry on each other's shoulders. I don't care what they do as long as they talk. Let people talk to each other. . . .'

It seems ungracious to interrupt the articulate flow of this highly civilised prince and return to the hard questions on terrorism: what is the connection between the suicide bombers and Islam? 'I personally don't see a connection. I see complexes that must be studied.'

But the bombers come out of the mosques, their language comes out of the Koran, their symbols are Muslim and their objectives are Islamic. They're connected to a tribal understanding of Islam. Their grouping has to have some tribal name, and that tribal name is Islamist. But to be a Muslim implies a certain value system that these people do not represent.'

Well, they use the Koran to justify their acts. 'A selective reading, obviously. If you go to some Muslim capitals and come back six months later as a wild-eyed fanatic, then some brainwashing has obviously been done. And that brainwashing not only teaches you how to pull a trigger or detonate a bomb. It instils a new value system.'

Others are more robust. For example, Ziauddin Sardar, a leading Muslim writer, says that it just won't do to say that Islamist radicals are not Muslims. 'We must acknowledge that the terrorists . . . are products of Islamic history. Only by recognising this brutal fact will we realise that the fight against terrorism is also an internal Muslim struggle. Indeed, it is a struggle for the very soul of Islam.'

Like it or not, Prince Hassan is in the vanguard of that struggle. He says people constantly ask him about 'the Islamist view' on various issues. 'I say, "I'm a Muslim, not an Islamist." As a Hashemite, with my lineage, I don't have to proclaim myself an Islamist.'

He does, however, acknowledge the danger and sophistication of the new Islamist structures. 'We are told that these people are compartmentalised, that each compartment doesn't necessarily know about the other and that they are led by some central controller. The controller has an agenda, but the controller isn't doing the killing or the dying - particularly not the dying. So presumably these individuals have been bought up.'

How should the authorities respond to the phenomenon? 'I think a multi-ethnic, gender-balanced security response is absolutely essential. There has to be an interactive discourse within Britain. You have to follow the path of inclusion.'

It is a mistake to assume that people integrate just because they are thrown together. They don't. 'And that's where these fanatics find a captive audience. They have taken the first step in communicating - not in a manner that I would agree with, but they have stepped out of the box.' The mosques also have a role to play - as 'inclusive, interdisciplinary social centres which open their doors to people of other faiths and promote "the noble art of conversation".'

Rebuilding civil society with a view to promoting reconciliation is as necessary as kitting out the police and military. And such reconstruction, he says, can be accomplished for 'an nth of what has been spent on militarisation and the maintenance of forces in different parts of the world. We're always fighting against something - whether it is a tribal or a moral issue. Why don't we fight for something? I can't think of anything better than to fight for a law of peace.