World leaders seek culture of peace
Thalif Deen
When more than a dozen world leaders meet in New York next week to
discuss "the culture of peace", the primary focus will be the growing
misperception of religion, specifically Islam, and the increase in
racism, xenophobia and intolerance worldwide.
An overwhelming majority of heads of state who will participate in
the high-level meeting are from Muslim countries: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Pakistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Morocco, Egypt and the United Arab
Emirates.
US President George W. Bush is also expected to address the two-day
meeting of the 192-member General Assembly, his second visit to the
world body this year, after September.
"This is going to be a very important conference," Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon told reporters early this week.
Ban said the United Nations is the centre of the world's efforts to
advance mutual respect, understanding and dialogue.
The initiative for the meeting came from King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz
of Saudi Arabia, the custodian of the two Holy Mosques in that country.
With this, and with other initiatives, to promote understanding and
appreciation between religions, as well as faiths and cultures, the
whole international community will be able to promote more dialogue and
harmony and reconciliation, Ban said.
"I am sure this will provide a very good momentum," he added.
The high-level meeting on culture of peace is scheduled to take place
on November 12-13 and is a follow-up to a meeting held in Madrid last
July. The UN meeting will take place amidst rising Islamophobia,
particularly in Europe, aggravated by the publication of blasphemous
caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad by a Danish newspaper, and the rise
in suicide bombings in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
"Islam had nothing to do with suicide bombings - either on the basis
of religion or jurisprudence," says Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu,
secretary-general of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC).
Why would a young man or woman commit suicide? What objective was
more valuable than life itself? And what psychological, political and
social reasons prompt such actions? he asked.
Until such questions were asked, answered and addressed, terrorism
and suicide bombings would increase, Ihsanoglu told reporters at a
recent UN press conference.
Last March Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned "in the strongest
terms" the airing of an "offensively anti-Islamic film" in the
Netherlands. "There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to
violence," he said. "The right to free expression is not at stake here.
Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility."
"We must also recognise that the real fault line is not between
Muslim and Western societies, as some would have us believe, but between
small minorities of extremists, on different sides, with a vested
interest in stirring hostility and conflict." Still, the president of
the General Assembly Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann says this is not a
meeting about religions.
It is a meeting to discuss the common values in different cultures -
whether they are from religions, civilisations, ethics or philosophies,
he added.
Meanwhile a UN report released last week summarises the views of
member states on 'Combating Defamation of Religions.'
According to the United States, the concept of 'defamation of
religions' is not supported by international law and efforts to combat
defamation of religions typically result in restrictions on the freedoms
of thought, conscience, religion and expression.
The United States asserts that from a legal perspective, the concept
of 'defamation of religions' is "deeply problematic since under existing
human rights law, individuals - not religions, ideologies or beliefs -
are the holders of human rights and are protected by law.
"However, the concept of defamation of religions seeks to convey the
idea that a religion itself can be subject of protection under human
rights law, thereby potentially undermining protection for individuals."
Regarding freedom of expression, the United States has also expressed
the view that governments should not prohibit or punish speech, even
offensive or hateful speech, because of an underlying confidence that in
a free society such hateful ideas will fail because of their own
intrinsic lack of merit.
The United States, however, agrees that more should be done to
promote inter-religious understanding and believes concrete action
supporting tolerance and individual rights is the best way to combat
abusive actions and hateful ideologies.
- IPS |