I would like to now introduce our next speaker, who is Dr. Ohtar Babuna.
He is a neurosurgeon, television host, and commentator on science, faith-related and political issues.
He has studied and done research at New York University, the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Babuna has lectured at more than 1,000 conferences in major universities and institutions, including the United Nations, the U.S. Capitol, Italian Senate, European Parliament, and the Gnesset.
As a peace activist, he also participates in promoting the peaceful messages of Islam that stands for democracy, secularism, freedom, and human rights.
He often talks about the positive role of religion in solving political conflicts.
Now, please welcome Dr. Ohtar Babuna to the podium.
Thank you very much.
My name is Dr. Babuna.
I'm a neurosurgeon from Turkey.
I'm also a program host from TV channel A9.
I represent Mr. Adhanohtar.
He sent his greetings and love to everybody here.
And also part of the movement of culture of peace and reconciliation.
Now, everybody knows there are a lot of problems.
Mark actually started his talk.
He said there is more fragmentation in the world more than ever.
The problems are getting worse and more and more conflicts, more wars, more bloodshed, more terrorism, more radicalism, and which is spreading worldwide.
Of course, everybody has the purpose for peace and love in the world.
But how could it be done?
First of all, I would like to start with the language.
Language for peace should prevail the nations.
What is language for peace?
You know, language is a key to open the hardened hearts of the people.
If you use a language for peace with love, that's the only way, actually, to bring peace to the world.
If you use an offensive language and words of hatred, of course, this will make things worse.
And then, of course, things will never get back to where it started.
So radicalism and fanaticism, which is a major problem for terrorism and the violence throughout the world,
It is being thought in the families, in the schools, in many parts of the world.
Their parents, actually, the parents of the fanatics, has learned this fanaticism.
And from generation to generation, they pass this hatred to their children.
So it becomes a vicious cycle.
Of course, there must be a solution for this.
Violence is not a solution.
In the past, we thought violence, military operations would be a solution to radicalism and fanaticism.
And it turned out it only makes things worse because violence generates more violence.
You cannot stop the radicalism or ideas or change the false ideas through bombs, through smart bombs, through airstrikes.
If this would be a fact, of course, then we have the examples of, since 70 years, United Nations Security Council has failed.
NATO has failed.
United States was in Afghanistan and Iraq, $7 trillion were spent.
Taliban is even more powerful right now.
Al-Qaeda is still there.
ISIS has emerged.
And how did this happen?
Through false education.
Before giving the weapons to the people, to these young people, they go through a false indoctrination, indoctrination of hatred, of the fanaticism.
As I reminded you, it's being thought in the schools, in the families.
But there is also documentation in that.
Of course, as a Muslim, from a Muslim's perspective, I can explain what it means.
There are sources of Islamic sources, which is false sources, of course, which document, they are full of documents of the so-called fabricated hadiths against the Koran, full of killing, killing of the people, hatred against Christians, hatred against Jews, unfortunately.
And this being thought, the mentality of ISIS actually exists in the Islamic world, not only peculiar to ISIS or Al-Qaeda.
So to stop this, if they teach this hatred, fanaticism to the people, then we must teach other ways around.
I mean, we have the documentation of the Koran, which actually refers, I guess, stories of the superstitions in the Koran.
It's actually pointed, God pointed that.
So we have to do with the right education.
Violence only generates more violence.
If people see, like in Iraq or Syria, blood, they want blood.
If they see weapons, they want weapons.
There is no way to stop that with airstrikes, with a trillion dollars spending to the weapon industry.
Everybody suffers from that.
The United States also suffered from that.
If they, there are, according to the scientific sources, there are at least three, four million people who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Seven trillion dollars were spent.
And the United States lost also their lives of their own soldiers.
And 50,000 of them living as homeless in the United States.
And every 10 minutes, one ex-American soldier attempts suicide and kills himself because they got psychotic.
They saw these murders.
They saw blood.
And they become addicted to narcotics.
So let's change this, but use the language for peace.
Approach everything with love.
It can be there is a situation where there is an anger and tension.
Even then, we should avoid the offensive language, imposing the ideas, and respect other people and approach them with love.
What love, what I mean by love is, I mean there should be justice, compassion, there should be mercy, and sacrifice.
That's what love means.
So, you know, love is mentioned many times in the Bible, in the Quran, in the Torah, in many other, also in Buddhism also.
But we have to bring it out and use the language of this and teach against the fanaticism and the radicalism which prevails.
There is no other way around.
And there are people who can do this.
And the West should support these people.
For example, we intellectually do this.
But, of course, support is needed.
But what I mean by support, it's not a financial support.
We can open websites all together.
TV channels.
If they have 1,000 TV channels, the radical people, we can open 10,000 websites.
If they have 10,000, let's do it, 100,000.
Distribute books.
Imagine what could be done with $7 trillion.
$7 trillion were spent in two wars.
Can you imagine how many booklets could be published with $7 trillion?
How many websites could be opened?
How many TV channels?
How much educational campaign could be done with $7 trillion?
Why does this money go?
It doesn't make any sense.
But it became a vicious cycle.
Every time there's a problem of radicalism and fanaticism or any crime organization,
everybody thinks about bombing, military attacks, military interventions.
Let's stop this altogether and make this money go into, they can spend their own nation, United States, $7 trillion.
They can use this in their medical help, medical aid for their own people.
600,000 people are homeless.
I lived in the United States for a long time.
I love United States.
Beautiful people are living in the United States, everywhere in the world.
And 600,000 people, I lived in New York.
They were lying on the streets.
And I was a doctor in the Bellevue Hospital in New York University.
I get many times to homeless people for treatment.
If they are about to die, they bring to the hospital.
We treat them.
You know what they do?
They take them when they get better and throw on the street.
If there is, for example, the temperature goes down, in order to prevent, the state collects them, brings them to the stadium.
And if the temperature goes a little bit up, they were left on the streets.
So instead of this, let's open the hearts of the people.
But through education, and then all together, we can collaborate in that.
We are very active, and we are very willing to collaborate, actually, with everybody who's working for peace.
But only with ideas.
Ideas can be changed only with ideas.
If they have this false indoctrination of hatred, we can change it with indoctrination, with, of course, powerful scientific evidences, for love.
I'm not talking only university education.
Some of the commanders of ISIS or al-Qaeda, they went through university education in the Western countries, in the United Kingdom, for example.
Some of them are PhD students, academicians.
That's not what I'm talking about.
A spiritual education, that's what I'm talking about.
It can be done.
It's doable.
It will be done.
I'm not hopeless.
I'm very hopeful.
By seeing beautiful people here, for example, use the language for peace, very lawfully, for three religions, you said, this is a very lawful language.
Of course, this is the key to open all the doors.
We love Israel.
We love Jews.
We love Christians.
We love other Muslims.
So, the world is more than enough for everybody, the resources.
Only 1%, maybe, of the entire land in the world is occupied by the humans.
The rest is by the lizards and the birds and wild animals.
So, with all this money, let's bring peace, security, justice, compassion, mercy, love, through education, but through collaboration.
That's the reason why ICD is so much important, but let's increase the number of the ICD people and organizations like ICD.
Thank you very much for inviting us, of course.
I've been with them since many years.
They do a very good job for cultural diplomacy and changing this hatred in the world with love, intellectually, of course.
But let's do more and use the media, use the intellectual power.
However, good people have to come together, although good people are fewer in comparison to the bad people, but more powerful, because love is more powerful than hatred.
With love, everybody can be happy.
With hatred, nobody can become happy.
It is very easy, actually, to change the world.
It's doable.
God will do it.
And thank you very much.
And I will be more than happy to answer any questions.
Thank you.
Nobody, can I ask?
Of course, yeah.
Okay.
Dr. Baguna, we know each other.
Yeah.
And we know that we share the same views.
And if everyone was like us, so we were set in the world and we could say, happy new, peaceful year, 2018.
Really, the problem is that it's not like that.
You spoke about two important points, education and media, which are, both of them are very influential, that is so important in order to, as a tool for change, change perspectives and bring to a change.
Unfortunately, also, the education is really not only the university level, but more, much more and much more influential and dangerous as well from the childhood and from the school, elementary school education.
Now, I believe, and I wanted to ask if there is something that is done in order for that, because I believe that the change will come as much as we, the private people, each of one, will work.
We alone will not be able to change the world, but if we work hard together in order to change the policies, the international policies, this can work.
So, for example, when we are today facing a system, an educational system that we know that in schools they are actually teaching for hatred or teaching really false facts.
Is there other moves in the UN or in other international, influential international communities that can actually intervene in the national education of a country in order to, so to say, to have the neutral or the good values to be kept that are taught in each school
and to, so to say, somehow, not to control it in a bad way, but to ensure that it's a good educational system and it's not bringing the hatery and so on?
Is there something that is done in this sense?
Yeah, let me actually first be more specific what I mean by this.
For example, there are Islamic sources and there is Koran.
In the Koran...
We'll come to that as well.
This is my second question.
Okay.
Yeah, but so on.
But let me go in first.
Because in the Koran, God says there is no compulsion in religion.
Your religion is yours.
My religion is mine.
And whoever wishes can believe.
Whoever wishes doesn't believe.
God says that.
There is no killing or that penalty for any kind of belief, any kind of religion or belief.
Actually, secularism is in the essence of Islam, actually.
But if you look at the Islamic sources that are fabricated, superstitions, documented, and they call hadith.
Hadith means the saying of the prophet.
These are 200 years after the prophet passed away, generated.
He never said that because he was ruling with the Koran, with compassion and mercy.
There is a Medina constitution treating Christians, Jews, even the unbelievers, equally in the Medina constitution.
This is one of the first constitutions in the world, actually.
He treated Christians and Jews very nicely, respectfully.
He had a Christian wife.
He had a Jewish wife.
The prophet had...
People never talk about that.
It's the radicals.
And the churches were repaired and also the synagogues at this time.
But now when we see there is killing...
They talk about the killing of the Christians, killing of the Jews.
Not only that.
Killing of the other Muslims also.
For example, I don't have a beard.
There is a death penalty who shaves...
They say...
Who shaves.
In the most respect, hadith books.
You see that and accepted by the sects also.
Who doesn't pray?
Kill him.
Who doesn't fast?
Kill him.
Whoever drinks alcohol?
Kill him.
There's killing...
This side...
Stoning of the woman who fornicates, they say.
But there is nothing about that in the Koran.
So if this is being thought in the religious schools, in the mosques, in the families throughout the world,
actually ISIS mentality is much more widespread in the subconscious mind of the people.
For example, there is a religious affairs of Turkey.
The head of the religious affairs criticizes ISIS.
But he never talks about what is right, why ISIS is wrong.
You have to give evidences, of course, from the Koran.
If he does that, he will be rejecting the sects.
And then also another death penalty for him also, according to what they believe.
So it is doable, but only Muslims can do it.
Moderate Muslims.
Islam is a moderate religion, actually.
We do this intellectually.
320 books has Mr. Adnan Oktar.
A TV channel.
A thousand websites.
A hundred million downloads.
Free of charge.
His books.
We don't accept donations.
And a hundred million downloads.
Thirty million books are sold.
He doesn't want to make money from his books also.
But we need, of course, support.
How?
More media.
We have a media power, but BBC should support that also.
CNN can use this material for education.
Of course, it is impossible for Christians or Jews to go and talk to these people and educate these people.
But Muslims who can do it can be supported.
So we can collaborate with that.
It is very easy to change, to stop the ISIS only through education.
There is no other way.
Yeah.
There are two systems of education or influence that you were speaking.
One is the educational system that I spoke about, the governmental educational system.
The schools, the regular schools and so on.
The second one is the second point that I wanted to touch, which is the point of the religious leaders.
Because in order to influence a mass of people, you need to come to the head, so to say.
Because in order really, the religious leaders need to come with a specific message or to show.
This is, if the religious strong leaders will say, this is not good, this is good.
And so the mass will follow them.
Up until today, I didn't see really a strong, and sorry, Sheikh Hamzi, you spoke about it,
a strong really religious declaration from the Muslims about saying, you know, stop, you know, this is not good, this is good.
Because, because you told me, they don't say, you also told, you know, this is, they didn't say what is good and what is not good.
Exactly.
Why?
Because they believe in that, actually.
Many of them believe the sects, the Sunni sects and Shiite sects accept this full of violence documents,
the Islamic documents, so-called documents.
Of course, it's not Islamic, but they accept that.
And these books are published in every Muslim country all over the world.
It's called Qutub-e-Sittah, an Islamic name.
I am one of the leaders from the United Kingdom.
I'm representing the three million Muslims in the United Kingdom, and of course, other parts of the world.
However, what we would like to say here, and ask a question, because at the moment, with all respect, of course,
we're taking one side, one side.
I am an honorary member of the police in the United Kingdom, and of course, advisor to the government on ISIS and the terrorism.
I advise what to do with the terrorists, how we can help them, how we can survive with the government time to time.
But the point is, when I talk, of course, I go with emojis, you know, with all the military leaders, and I talk to them.
I was speaking to one of the military leaders, which is a, what was it called, a C, and what was it called, a Navy.
I was talking to the top Navy, and they are trying to make a four warship, four warship, and I thought it costs a four billion.
I said, how could you get that four billion?
What we need that four billion nuclear, nuclear four billion.
We can be the four billion, we can make many hospitals, we can make four thousands hospitals.
We can cure the disease of the cancer, we can cure the cold, which is, every day we're going to get a cold.
We can do this, how, he said, it's not four billion, it's 124 billion, 124 billion of the people.
I said, for what, he said, security, I said, what security?
He said, ISIS, I said, ISIS is too small.
They can take it just like that if they want it.
They are going to be the donkeys.
You're in some of them, say?
And we are, of course, as you said, we have to advise them as well.
However, what we're going to do, we take a scale after billions of billions of trillion dollars on, they're selling.
And it's just coming names of ISIS, names of the Al-Qaeda, ISIS, ISIS, ISIS, every five minutes.
You know, every five minutes come, and one goes, another will come.
You understand?
What we're going to do, are we going to stop the selling there?
Oh, this is very important.
Yeah.
Let me give you one more example, one more, actually.
For example, there was the leader of the Al-Shabaab, the terrorist organization, was killed.
Right after that, there was another attack when 25 people were in a bomb attack.
So, suicide, for example.
Suicide is unlawful according to Islam, but they say, as you said, if you do this, you will go to the paradise.
So, false teaching is the major problem.
But we can change this only through education.
For example, we invite Mr. Adnan Oktar, the Jewish rabbis, the Jewish politicians.
Many times, TV programs all together, they are beautiful people.
And they have a right to live in Israel.
This is from the Koran, actually.
There are four verses.
God says, children of Israel, I settled them in the Holy Land, and they will be there until the hereafter.
So, as a Muslim, nobody can be against that.
Nobody can hate Christians.
It's unlawful.
But it has to be thought, because they believe that Jews have to be hated, anti-Semitism.
They learn this in the families, in the schools.
And hatred against the Christians, hatred against the unbelievers.
They have equal rights also.
Hatred against the women.
Women are seen as second-class citizens according to their beliefs.
And they have to be beaten.
They have to be kept in the houses.
There is nothing about this in the Koran.
There is ultra-modernity, and they have the same rights with the men.
There is no beating.
It's unlawful.
You cannot do that.
However, education is the only way, not the military interventions.
Violence only generates violence.
It becomes a vicious cycle.
And we have seen this in 70, 80 years.
It has become worse.
Actually, 11 million Muslims were killed by Muslims.
There is a problem among the Muslims also.
So, unity, alliance, and bringing to a goodwill, authority, spiritual leader, and also alliance
with the Christians, alliance with the Jews, and alliance with the unbelievers also, because
God says, whoever wishes can believe.
Whoever wishes doesn't believe.
It's free.
Complete freedom of thought and speech according to the Koran.
But let's do this intellectually.
It's doable.
It's not difficult.
And we can replace the love, because love was taken away from the world.
It's not only peculiar to the Middle East.
It's everywhere in the world like this.
In Europe, the same way.
People live alone, and they die alone.
And the children and the families, there are problems.
People became more egoistic, more selfish throughout the world.
And the love was replaced by hatred against other nations, against other races.
Racism is almost everywhere.
So, we can change this.
It's very easily, it's very logical, it's very rational to become happy.
Everybody wants that, but there's only one way.
Thank you so much.
And of course, I agree.