Incidents that have unfortunately plagued the world for decades but
become more pronounced over the last 8 years or so, show an increasing ‘emphasis’
for political violence flavoured by faith, culture and identity where the world
is seen through a singular lens of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and an ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ attitude. This unhealthy uni-polar view, congruent to a
‘Clash of Civilisation’ concept, has led to ambiguities and complexities with
regards the perception of current global conflicts and the pivotal role played
in the popular mobilisations against the West from sections of disaffected
Third World Opinion. In particular, one
key source of trans-national conflict has stemmed from the rise of political
Islam as a force in international relations, the end of the Cold War and the
emergence of distinct tensions between Western countries with a Christian
heritage and countries, around the world, with a distinct Muslim heritage.
Often one of the key catalysts for these global conflicts and the ethnic / faith identity violence that
stems from them, is the issue of poverty
and the process of allocation of
resources, which perpetuates the view through this singular lens and ensures
that a vicious cycle of competition is
generated and maintained. Many will
argue though that in the globalising world of today such rivalry, competition,
conflict and ultimately violence are a necessary tool to preserve the ‘values
of freedom’. However the violence we
have seen to date has been perpetuated from deeply delusive and divisive
assumptions of single exclusive identities by sectarian activists, who want
people to ignore all affiliation and loyalties in support of one specific
identity. Such exclusive
identities are negative, stressing difference rather than belonging and ‘opposition to’ rather than ‘support for’ something. Unfortunately whilst faith may rarely be
the original source, it often becomes
the arena in which conflicts are played out.
The result is that conflicts manifest themselves into rumour, hearsay
and generalization which are the first steps towards the stereotyping of people
(their faith, their culture and identity) and the denial of a diverse, lived
reality, the opposite of respect, understanding and acceptance. As a
consequence, faiths (beliefs, culture and identity) become judged by the
attitudes and actions of small and aberrant minorities.
It is precisely in this scenario with the world
experiencing such kind of turmoil, that
there are calls for new solutions. With
the collapse of socialism, and now with the global financial crisis, an
apparent sign of the failure of capitalism, this search for the new solutions
has intensified, to look for answers outside the box that will address the
turmoil and their causes.
Nobel Laureate Professor Amartya Sen’s premise in his
book ‘Identity and Violence’ is that the key to good citizenship and social
cohesion is the encouragement and retention of multiple identities. People have
several enriching identities: nationality, gender, age and parental background,
religious or professional affiliation. They identify with different ethnic
groups and races, towns or villages they call home, sometimes football teams;
they speak different languages, which they hope their children will retain, and
love different parts of their countries.
It is the recognition of this plurality and the searching for
commonalities within this pluralism that will lead to greater respect and
ultimately understanding and acceptance.
Thus these new solutions will have to challenge people
to accept diversity and create equal opportunities for diverse communities,
ethnicities, traditions, cultures and faiths.
The new solutions will also have to take into account the existence of multiple identities which add
a richness and variety to diversity and pluralism as part of a common wealth
that needs to be celebrated in the global civil society and integrated into
life as a positive force for development.
The role of faith and
spirituality in particular in the search for new solutions will be very
important as it offers a simple and easy access to communities (strong in their
spiritual and faith teachings) and a simple language to express the commonalities
of existence and create the prerequisites for forgiveness, respect,
understanding and acceptance. Whilst dialogues are a beginning it is
important that engagement goes beyond this, engaging practically with faith
leaders and communities, to help resolve and avoid conflict and achieve gains
that make a difference to people’s lives
In Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of
Strangers, Kwame Anthony Appiah writes eloquently of the urgent need for
‘ideas and institutions that will allow us to live together as the global tribe
we have become’ (2006: xiii). The roots
of all global crises can be found in human denial of the eternal principle of
peace. In order to fight this denial
there needs to be self-critical reflection.
Sir Richard Burton once wrote that
‘All Faith is false,
all Faith is true: Truth is the shattered mirror strown In myriad bits; while
each believes his little bit the whole to own’ (The Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi), where he meant that you will find parts of the truth everywhere
and the whole truth nowhere. The
shattered mirror concept enables us to see that ‘each shard reflects one part
of a complex truth from its own particular angle’. Our mistake in the world
today is to consider ‘our little shard can reflect the whole’ (Ibid: 8).
This is the
current problem with all spiritual and religious teachings that everyone thinks
that their little truth is the whole truth.
However if we think in the grander scheme of things (beyond theology and
ideology) to unite humanity with peace, respect and understanding, then each of
us (with our faith and spiritual teachings) have a bit of that shard of broken
glass. This can be pieced together on issues of commonality, as opposed to
focusing on our points of difference. Then we would have made the first step
towards spiritual reconciliation between
communities.
Thus all of
the differences mentioned above represent small shards of glass which, in the
analogy of Kwame Anthony Appiah, require careful positioning to create a
compelling mosaic. The initiatives
described above then offers an antidote to sectarianism, the polarisation of
different faiths in multi-cultural societies and the potentially divisive
effects of selective aid flows to particular faith communities. In particular, the partnership between
Muslim Aid and UMCOR represents a template for a large cosmopolitan mosaic
seeking to piece together the broken shards of a greater truth of serving
humanity. There is a need to remain
committed to engineering the software needed to work effectively in a range of
situation. This will never be easy, but remains vitally important for, as Kwame
Anthony Appiah illustrates, it involves creating the very ‘ideas and
institutions that will allow us to live together as the global tribe we have
become’.
Initially published in The News Hub
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