There had been a significant stirring in the international community by the prospect of this meeting, especially from the Rosari faith. It amused Imam Mansur Karimi that someone like a Grand Maester would even suggest that it was possible for a faith like Islam, rather conservative in its outlook, to be able to be worshiped while also worshipping the vast number of deities that faith had as false idols. The most recent interview where they had seen this conference as a threat in some manner did confuse him. No one had threatened the Rosari, or any other faith, merely pointing out that there were differences in opinions on many key issues, something even a blind man could see.
The Emir had handled the logistics of the day. The
Mosque of the Emirs had been selected for the venue initially as it had ample room for setting up and hosting conferences. That had however brought its only complexities, what if one of those attending did not wish to enter a mosque, or worse would enter but would not follow the rituals of doing so. To avoid that the Emir had selected the plaza of the mosque, a large sideless tent had been erected and for today worshippers would be arriving via the North entrance only, not the majestic southern one with the marble plaza.
Prince Talaat Muhsin, the Emir's younger brother had been dispatched to help guide the various dignitaries the short distance from the airfield to the mosque and several of the Emir's fleet of vehicles had been assigned the duty of ferrying them to the Mosque. Emir Sulaiman waited patiently dressed in white robes topped with a red keffiyeh. If it hadn't been for the exotic wrist watch and gold pin holding the Keffiyeh's tie together you would have been hard pressed to pick him out from other worshippers. "As-Salaam-Alaikum" he greeted each delegate with a two handed shake and a slight bow. "We are so grateful that you have come to join us today. Please let me introduce my friend and my esteemed guide in our faith, Imam Mansur Karimi."
Mansur was a rather young man to be such a respected Imam, at just 38 years of age his style of at times bombastic messaging had appealed to many young people across the nation and his willingness to mobilise his listeners into social action earned him respect. Older Muslims found his defence of conservative values reassuring and so Mansur had found himself becoming a leading member of the nations clergy. "I am just blessed to have people willing to listen to Allah within earshot of me." He too greeted everyone.
"Now if we can all take a seat." The Emir waited for everyone to get settled before addressing everyone, not from the head of a long rectangular table, he'd purposely put no one at the ends, but by wandering around the edges, he always found himself more at ease speaking while on the move. "I called this conference because I have several concerns. So many nations of the more established world order put faith in international agreements as "International Law", however none of us around this table attended, nor did any of our nations. At least as far as I know. We therefore are often seeing a case of these agreements being utilised to put nations under economic pressure or trade restrictions or a host of other actions. Liberalisation of the world seems to be required to open some trade doors, but I don't see why. Look at the histories of our faiths, Jews, Christians, then Muslims, each of us have tales in our faiths connected to trade." The Emir stopped and looked at Patriarch Alexy, "Genesis of the bible states "Thus you shall live with us, and the land shall be open before you; live and trade in it and acquire property in it.” it is clear then that it is possible to trade and hold our values given to us by God. Now the head of the Rosari faith would have us believe that it is possible to be Muslim while also serving their Goddess, that you can worship a God of Justice when we all know that it is God who is the arbiter of justice. Our own Quran states ""O People of the Book! Come to what is common between us and you: That we worship none but God, that we associate no partners with Him, that we erect not, from among ourselves, Lords other than Allah. " It is clear Allah is not permitting a combination faith. We see the Rosari faith, and to some extent the Bene Gesserit attempting to guide our faithful to misinformation. I am though inclined to welcome the words of one not from within our faith, "A man who chases two rabbits catches neither" Miss Maddix is indeed correct. I myself will take no action against someone chasing the wrong rabbit, I will respect their attempts so long as they do not interefre with my own faith and that of others, nor use their faiths liberalisation to be vindictive against other peoples, there can and should be no compulsion in faith. It is clear though we must battle this misinformation the same way the Cult of Helus is and send a clear message that while we respect people's right to follow a faith they can not pick and choose as from a menu, it is all or nothing. This is enough though about differences, we are here to celebrate and build upon are similarities. Each of us here in some way gives respect to Abraham, we all recognise Adam and Eve as the originators of mankind. I am therefore happy to call you all my brothers and sisters for whether we attend Synagogue, Temple, Church or Mosque we all have the same ancestor. What I intend to do here today is two fold. One was my original plan. I believe that we should recognise as a group of connected faiths some fundemental rights our people's should have protected. These rights are given to us by God and not by some man made documents, while our faiths differ in some ways we can find common ground. The second is perhaps a better place to start following the recent issues with the Rosari faith. That of helping guide our faithful in nations they are a minority. With that in mind I wish to begin a newspaper. I will fund it for the first year as a trial. I'm thinking we should call it "The One Word" and allow contributions from journalists and scholars of faith in our nations. Naturally at times our journalists may differ on their views but this can be healthy as it shall promote debate about faith and this can help our people educate themselves. It can also be made digital so that for example a Jew living in Rokkenjima can see what a real Rabbi uncorrupted by a view that a Rosari-Jewish hybrid can exist. I though may have already spoken to much. I am here merely to ensure you have enough tea and cake." He stopped wandering and took a seat, interestingly behind the Imam and handed proceedings over to the scholar.
"Thank you Your Majesty." Mansur said as he leaned forward to begin speaking. "I believe before discussing matters so significant as these it best to seek spiritual guidance, I intend to offer a quick prayer and I hope you too will feel free to do so.
O Allah, I seek Your counsel through Your knowledge and I seek Your assistance through Your might and I ask You from Your immense favour, for verily You alone decree our fate while I do not, and You know while I do not, and You alone possess all knowledge of the Unseen. O Allah, if You know this matter of working with our spiritual cousins to be good for me in relation to my religion, my life and livelihood and the end of my affairs, my present and future, then decree it for me and facilitate it for me, and then place blessing for me within it, and if You know this affair to be harmful for me concerning my religion, my life and livelihood and the end of my affairs, then remove it from me and remove me from it, and decree for me what is good, wherever it may be, and make me content with it." He opened his eyes as he finished, "I look forward to you praising God in your own way and your views on what the Emir has to say."