Prince of peace

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

'I sometimes feel that people like myself are the real radicals - not Abu-this or Abu-that. They are promoting polarities all over the world which actually benefit the arms industry and create the instability that increases the price of oil.'

Prince Hassan is cautious about whether the reaction to Islamist radicalism has produced the first shoots of an Islamic reformation. The Muslim world is not homogenous and some communities might be slower to adapt than others. 'In an Afghanistan situation you might have to go more slowly, given the level of literacy, than you would in another country.' But, he notes sadly, 'The reformation of ideas, whether lay or religious, can develop only on the basis of a discourse. And today, there are no mechanisms for a sustained discourse.'

Nor does the Arab world possess the political and social structures to unleash the human creativity and innovation that could generate wealth beyond the oil gushers. And there is no sign of the 35 million jobs which, he says, will be needed over the next decade in an area stretching from the Middle East to west Asia. 'If Muslim rulers continue the way they are, sooner rather than later they will face revolutionary movements inspired by balkanisation, sectarian hatred and the Shia-Sunni conflict.'

The Hashemite prince sits comfortably in leafy London producing a stream of originality and creativity, ideas and initiatives that are designed to frame a new peace in the name of religion. A few miles away security officials are frantically scouring the streets for those who are determined to deliver death and destruction in the name of religion. The Prince and the bombers are polar opposites, separated by a millennium of political culture, locked in an existential battle of fantastic consequence.

'My frustration,' says Prince Hassan, 'is that I'm involved in a network of so many different organisations, but there's no feeling that the moral majority is making progress or that the intellectual input is having any effect.'

That, for all our sakes, is a real shame.