Great International Anti-fascist World Festival for a New World is underway in Venezuela

teleSUR English

The great international anti-fascist festival for a new world opened on Thursday in Venezuela with the participation of more than two thousand national and international guests. Our correspondent Yunus Soner provides the details to us.

Transcript

00:00And now, as we were saying, we go back to Yunus Soner, our special envoy in Caracas.

00:06He is currently at the Anti-Fascist International Festival going on.

00:12So we go to Yunus, how is everything over there?

00:18Hello, good afternoon again from the Carlotta Convention Center.

00:22As you mentioned, more than 2,000 delegates have arrived here to this festival,

00:28which has started with Executive Vice President Desi Rodriguez's speech in the afternoon.

00:36Now there are the working groups taking place on different matters.

00:42Women, youth, students, native people, workers, social communication,

00:49as well as the parliamentarian groupings of the Anti-Fascist International are taking place.

00:55And here with me, I'm guessing that I have the guest, the participant,

01:01who traveled the longest time to attend this festival here.

01:07Thank you very much, Mr. Ahmed Nutfi Bin Muhammad Noor.

01:11Can you please explain me where have you come from and how long did it take you to arrive in Caracas?

01:18Well, thank you, first of all, for inviting me.

01:22I'm from Malaysia, so it's all over, it's in Asia.

01:28And in Malaysia, to here, we have to take three transits.

01:32First of all is from Kuala Lumpur Airport to Abu Dhabi, and that took around eight hours something.

01:37And then Abu Dhabi to Madrid, and then Madrid to Caracas.

01:41So overall, with the transiting hours and also at the flight hours,

01:46it was around 44 hours or 24 hours plus 20 hours.

01:5144 hours of travel.

01:54Yes.

01:55Okay, so how is your impression of the event's first day?

01:58It will continue until the 11th, but what's your first impression here?

02:02Yeah, my first impression is it's a very great and grand event

02:06because it actually unites a lot of delegates around the world.

02:10We have here, from what I observed, we have from Cameroon,

02:14we also have from other African regions and countries,

02:17also encompassing of Asia, and also there are certain from Europe.

02:21So I can say that it's almost the whole world here at this program today.

02:26And this is very extracurricular and very great

02:31because it's not easy to actually take in a lot of delegates.

02:36And when I first arrived, what I saw was that from one country,

02:40there aren't necessarily four, three, two or even one delegate.

02:44There must be at least more than four delegates.

02:47So it's an impressive event on how they can get all these people here in this event today.

02:53I would like to talk with you about a certain issue of which I know

02:58that Malaysia rightly is very concerned about.

03:02Now, this Congress deals with fascism, it deals with neo-fascism, it deals with Zionism.

03:09But there is also the other issue in terms of thoughts, if you will,

03:15which is emerging, especially in the West, which is Islamophobia.

03:19What do you think about this?

03:21And should it be included into the agenda of this festival and its documents?

03:28Surely Islamophobia is one of the issues that has been going around,

03:33not just within this generation of the 2000th generation,

03:38even it has been in World War II or even before.

03:42So I believe it's one of the ancient principles or ancient things

03:47that should have been propagated.

03:50And this very much concerns with anti-fascist

03:53Islam is a religion that is practiced by the second largest population in the whole world

03:59and it should be accepted as a religion of peace because Islam itself means peace.

04:04And Islam itself propagates in our Quran for us to not wage war,

04:09for us to be kind to those who are in need,

04:12to give donations to the poor, to help those who are weak

04:15and also to share wealth with those who are needed.

04:20So Islam, if it is understood in a very right and correct definition,

04:26Islamophobia shouldn't be at that.

04:29And also the conduct of the Muslim, from what I believe,

04:32if they are conducting the way that the Quran and Sunnah ask us to do,

04:36it would not complicate others or it would not give a false misrepresentation

04:41of the true definition of Islam to non-Muslims particularly.

04:46And I believe that's for the first part, that is why Islamophobia has been created and formed.

04:52I believe it should, this thing all correlates to understanding of people

04:57because humans, if they don't understand certain things,

05:00they will assume and they will make certain conclusions.

05:04Whereas Islam, even if we see in the past,

05:07in the days of Salahuddin Al-Ayubi when we liberated Palestine

05:11and also in the days of Muhammad Al-Fatih when we liberated Constantinople,

05:16we did no bloodshed, we did no killing of,

05:21bloodshed what I mean was killing of old people

05:27or people who are in the Quran that we cannot actually kill.

05:32So that is what Islam actually truly means.

05:36I have a lot of friends actually.

05:39In Malaysia we have three main races which is Chinese, Indian

05:45and we live harmoniously especially with the most dominant race in Malaysia which is Malaysia.

05:51And why can we live positively is because the values of Islam that we practice

06:00allows us to have that harmonious life and that is evident in Malaysia

06:04how we can pleasure 60 years, more than 60 years of independence

06:08as a majority Muslim people in the government,

06:12how we can lead but also leading in the right way

06:17without breaching any peace or harmony within the population of multiracial and multireligious people.

06:26I would like to ask you specifically about the context,

06:30the regions where Islamophobia is emerging which is mostly the western countries, European countries.

06:38What do you think is the danger lying underneath of it?

06:41Where can that lead to as my final question?

06:44What do you think is the dangerous position there?

06:47Sorry if you mean...

06:49What is the danger that Islamophobia presents to western world specifically?

06:55Islamophobia is mostly misinterpreted as a terrorist movement

07:02or too fanatic Muslims towards their religion

07:08but this imposes fright and also fear in the western community

07:15especially in recent events that has been happening in western or also in Palestine

07:22but if we see the killings happening here today,

07:26most of it is currently happening in Syria and also in Palestine

07:32which are Muslim countries who should be given the opportunity to actually be an equal state

07:39as in Palestine right now, until today a lot of countries do not recognize Palestine as a sovereign country

07:48and they recognize Israel as a sovereign country

07:51so this is a misinterpretation in which from my personal view the western likes to label it as Islamophobic

08:00just to cover up or to blanket the atrocities and also the genocide that has been happening

08:06in Palestine and also in majority Muslim countries

08:12so for me myself I do not condone or I do not support any killings of any kind from any group or parties

08:19but it is important for us to always uphold humanity

08:23and this is the thing that should have been propagated in western

08:26which is the right of living, the principle of humanism

08:30and not to blanket all this under one particular term called Islamophobic or antisemitic

08:37we should move on to the principles of humanity

08:40and that is the goal that all of us should see and should have the common ground on

08:46thank you very much

08:47in that context it is worth underlining that the executive vice president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

08:57Delsi Rodriguez mentioned exactly that

09:01that in her speech she stated that the mission of this anti-fascist international

09:07is to defend humanity against division, to defend humanity against hatred

09:14and here with the contribution of our guest from Malaysia

09:18who flew once again 44 hours from Malaysia to Venezuela to attend this meeting

09:24we see a connection between Zionism, between fascism, between Islamophobia as well

09:31which are different shapes of divisive hatred causing ideologies

09:38so these topics are being discussed and will be discussed

09:41in this world festival of anti-fascist international that will last until January 11th

09:49you have the word, thank you

09:51thank you Junos, it's so good to hear from you

09:55and all the information from the anti-fascist festival underway in Caracas

10:00and so important as an opportunity as you were saying

10:03to discuss all of these issues that are worldwide issues

10:06with such amount of guests, international guests that are here

10:11and this international gathering is underway in Caracas

10:14and that is also another important aspect of understanding what is happening in Venezuela

10:20at this moment, so I thank you and our guest as well of course

Category

Transcript

Recommended