It was a great honour for the Jagiellonian University to host eminent guests from Jordan – His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal and his wife – Her Royal Highness Princess Sarvath El Hassan. After a meeting with the JU Rector, the Royal Couple visited the Collegium Maius Museum and JU Campus, where HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal delivered a lecture "Illumination and Enlightment. East Meets West".

In the course of his speech HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal's gave insight into the main threats to the West Asia and North Africa region listing water shortage, unemployment, and forced migration. He also referred to the latest uprisings in the Arab world: in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. While commenting on the conflicts, he stressed the importance of the development of the "noble art of listening and conversation" that is an essential prerequisite for a genuine intercultural and interfaith dialogue. According to him the hope for peace and stability in the West Asia and North Africa region lies in the legacy of Orient Illumination and Western Enlightenment; in other words: all kinds of extremism might be prevented not through military actions but through proper education, economic development, prospects of employment, respect for human dignity and diplomacy.
 

HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal also mentioned the significance of making globalization humane. In his view, Western investment in the Arab countries should not be limited to the purchase of oil especially in the case of the region plagued by poverty and water deficit.
"It's important to build on resourcefulness not only resources" – he stressed.

The lecture's main point, that of the necessity of dialogue, was concluded by the words of Mahmood Jamal, an outstanding Pakistani poet:

You speak of Power. I speak of Love.

You search out Evil. I warm to the Good

You dream of the Sword. I sing of the Rose petal

You say the world is a Desert. I say the world is a Garden

You prefer the Plain. I prefer the Adorned

You want to Destroy. I want to Build

You want to go Back. I want to move Forward

You are busy Denying. I am busy Affirming

Yet there might be one thing on which we see eye to eye

You want Justice. So do I.

(YOU and I: To My "Fundamentalist" Friends by Mahmood Jamal)  

The lecture was followed by Q & A period during which students and academic teachers could ask questions related to the discussed matters.