Yet I have never seen a headline that says: "Today Ahmad visited George; had coffee; exchanged a few 'how's your fathers?' and 'Bob's your uncle,' and complained about the taxes and the new national football coach." I have never seen a headline saying: "Auntie Susan visited Grandma Leila; had a nice cup of tea, some stale baklava, and opined that bunions are an underestimated problem." I am joking of course, but you get the picture. This happens every day, everywhere, times 10 million — acts of love — and who knows about it but God? Instead, every day on CNN.com or the like, I see a headline saying: "Mob of angry Muslim radicals in a far place burns X or Y flag, and chants down with W or Z."

A case in point: one month after the Pope's inflammatory Regensburg address in September 2006, 38 of the world's leading Muslim scholars from all Islam's currents got together in an unprecedented way, and wrote him a very cordial letter in which they did their best to accept an apology he never gave (His Holiness just said: "I am sorry you feel bad," not, "I am sorry I did it"), and what made the world's headlines? — the latest outrage from Sheikh Hilali down in Australia. This is not some conspiracy, but results from the inherent nature of television and the media. You see, unless there is conflict (emotional or physical), there is no drama and all you have on the screen is a "talking head", which most producers feel is boring. Love and mercy, which reside in people's hearts, cannot be shown on TV, except extrinsically. Here the centripetal forces of peace are always at a disadvantage to the corrosive images of strife. What is required is a way around this impasse. I believe if it can be found, applied and institutionalized-then our message can be transmitted effectively.

And if these two challenges can be met — and if the true message of our religions can be transmitted effectively — then that, God Willing, might hold the center and turn the blood-dimmed tide; that might make the turning and turning falcon hear. Jesus Christ, peace be upon him, said: And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free (John 8:32). And God says in the Holy Qur'an: Nay, but we hurl the true against the false, and it doth break its head and lo! it vanisheth ... (Al-Anbiya, 21:18).

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H.R.H. PRINCE GHAZI BIN MUHUMMAD is Personal Envoy and Special Advisor to H.M. King Abdullah II. He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought and Chairman of The Amman Message Committee.

The above was the text of H.R.H. Prince Ghazi's welcoming address to the World Economic Forum C-100 meeting at the Dead Sea in Jordan on May 18, 2007.