“My belief is that in each one of us there is a distant echo of the
sense of the sacred, but that the majority of us are terrified to
admit its existence for fear of ridicule and abuse. This fear
of ridicule, even to the extent of mentioning the name of God, is
a classic indication of the loss of meaning in so-called
Western civilisation.
"I start from the belief that Islamic civilisation at its best, like
many of the religions of the East - Judaism, Hinduism, Jainism
and Buddhism - has an important message for the West in the way it
has retained a more integrated and integral view of the sanctity of
the world around us. I feel that we in the West could be helped
to rediscover those roots of our own understanding by an appreciation
of the Islamic tradition's deep respect for the timeless traditions
of the natural order. I believe that process could help in the task
of bringing our two faiths closer together."
Prince Charles, A Sense of the Sacred: Building Bridges Between Islam and the West© Copyright St James's Palace and the Press Association Ltd 1998.