“Islam, like all religions, is a religion of peace and harmony”, said Tawakkol Karman in her address to the World Forum for Democracy in which she expressed, on behalf of all Muslims and Arab youth, her sadness and anger following the attacks in Paris.

The 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate said that these crimes did not represent Islam, that they were solely the acts of those who perpetrated them and those who had financed them in the shadows.  “Those who engage in terrorism have no nation and no religion”, she said.

Ms Karman drew attention to the close link between terrorism and tyranny: “terrorism draws its strength from tyranny, poverty and a lack of justice, and not only from a misreading of the teachings of religion”.

The war against terrorism with which we are all faced must be complete and just, but it must adhere to the value system on which human civilisation is founded, she added.  “Do not let us violate our freedoms and fundamental rights, do not let us accept the injustice carried out in the name of the fight against terrorism.  Let us remain civilised.”

Ms Karman also lamented the fact that the world was not moving towards greater peace and democracy and that counter-revolutions had stifled the Arab dream in regions which continued to suffer from despotism and corruption.

Faced with the unjust choice of tyranny and terrorism, she called for further efforts to promote a third way, the way of freedom, justice, peace, democracy and good governance.