Fourteen centuries earlier, when women had had neither social nor human standing in the world, Islam had recognized the exalted status and human equality of women.

12. To aggravate matters for non-Western States, diplomatic protection or intervention was exalted by the fiction that an injury to a national constituted an injury to the State itself.

First of all, I thank Allah, may He be glorified and exalted, for the opportunity of this moment, as we gather here to deliberate on ways to foster peaceful cooperation and development across the world.

In this regard, it is a duty of the people of Islam to rise up and declare the truth and reveal what is false and to make it known to all humankind that Islam is a religion of righteousness and conciliation, a religion that elevates humanity and leads it from darkness to the light, a religion which God perfected and approved for human beings as the seal of all religions, saying (may He be exalted!): "Today I have perfected for you your religion, completed My favour upon you and chosen Islam for you as a religion".