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.
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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