Tariq Ramadan – Ramadan Chronicles #16 Uniformity

Tariq Ramadan
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AI: Summary ©

The speaker discusses the importance of unity in achieving their goal of achieving diversity within the community. They explain that diversity is not about uniformity, but rather about finding a stable way to achieve it. The speaker emphasizes the need to celebrate diversity and not simultaneously pursue uniformity.

AI: Summary ©

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			There is one notion
		
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			that we keep on repeating because it's an
		
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			ideal that we want to reach, and we
		
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			know how important
		
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			it is. And it's the notion of unity.
		
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			What we need and what we need to
		
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			achieve within the community
		
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			has to do with unity. The problem is
		
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			that we are confusing
		
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			unity and
		
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			uniformity. This is the problem, and this is,
		
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			where some people who, in the name of
		
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			unity,
		
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			uniformity. Uniformity. We have to understand that the
		
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			the cosmology, the Islamic cosmology,
		
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			it's not about,
		
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			uniformity. It's about diversity.
		
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			It's the very essence of everything. When you
		
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			have, for example, yes, the unity of humanity
		
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			is.
		
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			Oh, you people, we have,
		
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			created you,
		
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			from a male and a female.
		
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			So the origin is the same. This is
		
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			the unity of, humanity.
		
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			But
		
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			we made you nations and tribes.
		
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			So meaning that there is a diversity
		
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			here. And this diversity, it's everywhere in the
		
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			universe. Nothing in the universe is about uniformity.
		
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			And even
		
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			saying from by,
		
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			from everything,
		
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			we created a couple, meaning that there is
		
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			diversity. It's that this unity unity is about
		
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			trying to find a stable way,
		
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			completing
		
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			one another and trying to get this unity
		
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			out of diversity.
		
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			To the point that when it comes to
		
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			religions and when it comes to tribes and
		
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			nations,
		
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			what we have in the Quran is
		
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			If we have, we would not have put
		
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			people and a set of people resisting
		
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			a set of other people, the other the
		
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			the the world would have been corrupt. And
		
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			we have the same verse starting exactly the
		
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			same and and ending by
		
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			If that you you would have,
		
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			synagogues and places where the people are praying
		
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			and temples and mosque would have been destroyed.
		
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			So meaning that the diversity
		
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			of,
		
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			religion is going to be protected by the
		
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			diversity
		
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			within humanity
		
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			among religions, among cultures, and among tribes.
		
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			So we need to celebrate
		
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			diversity,
		
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			and we need to get it right.
		
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			Unity is about accepting this diversity,
		
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			celebrating this diversity,
		
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			and not imposing uniformity.
		
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			No uniformity
		
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			in the way we think. No uniformity
		
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			in our nations. No uniformity
		
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			even within the Muslim tradition.
		
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			And this is why, for example, it's a
		
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			pity to see, for for example, today, Sunni
		
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			and Shia,
		
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			struggling and and and not being able even
		
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			to accept and to acknowledge that both are
		
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			Muslims. This is one Islam and with the
		
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			diversity. And even among the the the the
		
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			the schools of thought or the trends, when
		
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			you are rationalist, when you are traditionalist, or
		
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			when you are,
		
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			madhhabie, or,
		
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			following a very specific school of law, or
		
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			when you are reformist.
		
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			This is a diversity that you have to
		
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			deal with. You cannot just in the name
		
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			of uniformity
		
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			and unity, for example, destroy
		
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			all these trends. They are part of our
		
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			community.
		
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			No way.
		
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			No way to get unity if we are
		
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			not able
		
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			to deal with diversity, to respect one another,
		
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			and to try to work together. This is
		
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			the starting
		
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			point, and it,
		
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			it takes effort, understanding,
		
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			and openness
		
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			to get it right.
		
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			Remember to tell the people you love that
		
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			you love them, and never forget.
		
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			Never forget. Life is fragile.