Ramadan 2019: How Sri Lankan Muslims Can Respond

Each Ramadan, I set myself a challenge: How and what can I improve this year? For me, Ramadan is about setting and overcoming challenges in an attempt to progress spiritually and become a better person serving humanity. I do this as I travel on a path toward enlightenment and happiness in an attempt to connect with the “all spark.” This “spark” enables us to understand the most difficult lesson of our spiritual journey. Our destination is perhaps best exemplified by author Paulo Coelho in The Alchemist: “Go; travel the world, look for the truth and the secret of life — every road will lead you to this sense of initiation: the secret is hidden in the place from which you set out.”

This is the ultimate paradox of spiritual experience whereby the constant effort that we make to purify, control and liberate our hearts is, in the end, reconciliation with the deepest level of our being. The spark that God breathed into our heart (the fitra) is that of humility, the awareness of fragility, the consciousness of limitation and the shoulder of responsibility. Such is the meaning of profound spirituality requiring man to acquire a force of being and doing, rather than undergo despotic relentlessness of a life reduced to mere instinct. Within this space, we marry the purpose of our existence with the purpose of our subsistence.

Being close to the Quran’s light, its words and inspirations, we must comprehend the message: You are indeed what you do with yourself. You are responsible for the actions you take. Thus, Ramadan is the culmination of all worship as an attempt to reconnect with our spark. Ramadan ultimately reinforces our personal effort and commitment and invites us toward the deep horizons of introspection and meaning.

Sri Lanka After the Easter Sunday Attacks

Yet as Ramadan begins, there is an atmosphere of sadness. As a Sri Lankan and a Muslim, the start of Ramadan coinciding with the aftermath of terror attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday casts a huge shadow for what is supposed to be an Islamic holy month of prayer, introspection and spiritual contemplation. Introspection and contemplation now have a whole new meaning.

In the wake of such terrible violence that is anti-Islam yet perpetrated by people who called themselves Muslim, I wonder as to how Sri Lankan Muslims can and should respond. The terrorists who committed the attacks not only do not represent Islam, but with their heinous actions cannot be judged as Muslims. Yet the fact of the matter is that the outside world sees them as Muslims and, therefore, the Sri Lankan Muslim community will have to now answer to people who are hurt and angry. Doing so within the month of Ramadan brings with it challenges but also opportunities for Sri Lankan Muslims with questions they have to ask themselves.

How can we relearn the universal values of peace, compassion and justice as articulated by Islam, reinforced by Ramadan and binding in the brotherhood of humanity in the face of such aggression? How can we develop the concept of forgiveness and compassion? What should our response be? How can we move forward?

In asking these questions, one realizes that there are three possible answers. The first is not to care and go about your daily business, which negates the purpose of Ramadan. The second is to get upset and vindictive and start to hate and often to lose hope. The third is to get upset and channel that into something that is positive and to respond in the face of fear and uncertainty.

The second option again negates the purpose of Ramadan and of religion. We can’t afford to lose hope and faith. In the face of the greatest oppressions is the testimony for our faith and how we respond. If we truly believe that we as people of faith are the inheritors of the prophets and the conveyors of spiritual wisdom that has been passed down to us, we cannot lose hope. However, what we can do is redouble our efforts to call for and act for peace and justice. In doing so, we can also realize that there are things we are concerned about and that we have influence over.

Whilst we have a range of concerns — our health, problems at work, national crises, the security of the nation — the fact is that we have no real control over some things that happen to us. Yet there are other we can do something about in our “sphere of influence.” This sphere is what a Muslim is considered directly responsible for, whether as an individual or a collective. By determining which of these we focus most of our time and energy on, we can discover more about what we can be “activists” in.

In Islam, we know that God does not hold us responsible for anything other than our sphere of influence. The best expression of faith is to do one’s utmost in the enjoining of right and repelling of wrong within that sphere and speaking for justice, being a mercy to mankind. However, to refuse to use one’s power to change a wrong or to exercise influence on others to make a change is considered a manifestation of weak faith. A case in point is a hadith (saying) of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): “Whoever sees something wrong, let him correct it by his hand (with the power vested in him), and if he can’t (do that), let him correct it by his tongue, and if he can’t (do that), let him hate it with his heart, and this is the weakest of faith (if one can do more).” Correcting “by one’s hand” must be done with wisdom, calmness and justice.

Thus, we need to be speaking out against the injustices happening locally. We need to ensure that people in Sri Lanka (from all faiths) feel safe and secure, through forging alliances with like-minded people. However, it has to be more than that. We need to use the opportunities that are given to us, like Ramadan, to develop a greater social policy that empowers people, recognizes their differences and that searches for commonalities that will lead to greater respect and understanding.

This is our challenge as Sri Lankan Muslims this Ramadan: to go beyond our comfort zones and work on a local and national scale for the common good, with allies so that our country’s future is safe and prosperous. Ramadan has to reinforce in Sri Lankan Muslims our sense of purpose and responsibility, whilst nurturing the inspiration from the Quran that “God will not change anything for the good if you change nothing.”

Call for Unity in Ramadan

As the blessed month of Ramadan teaches us, we share the burdens of others — especially those who are suffering and in despair — and we remember our responsibilities toward them. Identifying with others in different ways is important in our role of living in society. Thus, we should remember that we are much more than a label and that our plurality and diversity are not divisive elements, but are a cause for celebration — and within that celebration is an understanding of common humanity and universal principles. This is a call for unity of the Sri Lankan Muslim community amidst the wider national society during this blessed time, but also at a crucial moment in Sri Lankan history.

This call for unity is founded upon a universal humanitarian principle based on the following verse from the Quran: “If anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind.” Unfortunately, the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday attacks violated this principle. But this means the call is doubly strengthened as responsibility is placed upon the shoulder of the individual to take the lead in becoming a true citizen of their country.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “You shall not enter Paradise until you have faith, and you cannot have faith until you love one another. Have compassion on those you can see, and He Whom you cannot see will have compassion on you.” Thus we learn our purpose of existence. The true lesson of Ramadan is to stand by justice and to portray the humility and compassion of the prophet toward the downtrodden, the distressed and the oppressed regardless of who they are.

So, the lessons this Ramadan for Sri Lankan Muslims is to recalibrate their ethical and moral compass at a time when their country needs healing and support.

This orginally appeared on Fair Observer

Remembering the fallen from the Easter Sunday Attacks in Sri Lanka

Over the past two weeks I have not really made any public direct comment on the horrible Easter Sunday Attacks in Sri Lanka.  It has been too shocking and stressful to even write about this.  I took time to console friends and family directly and indirectly affected by this and took time to discuss with associates how to avoid the situation getting worse.  I even argued with people on social media who were lashing out painting the whole community as being responsible  Yet the truth of the matter is that this was a deflection from my own true feelings and emotions about the subject.  After all, what do you say at times like this?  How can you reassure people who are scared that what took place is against Islam and those  'Muslims' who perpetrated this are not followers of the faith because they justified violence against innocents?  How can you talk to people who you have worked with and be friends with, and who are now turning out to be racists and bigots, when they are scared and mistrustful?  how do you reassure members of your community and family who are scared of the backlash that is coming and who remember '83?  So i deflected, trying to find the right moment and the right time and to process what happened and what will happen.  I tried to find peace within me before i could preach peace to others.  I was hoping that ramadan would allow me the time and space for this to happen.

Unfortunately, i was asked to say a few words at an interfaith memorial that took place this afternoon (May 5th) in Geneva to remember and pray for those who have passed away.  So i had to write and in writing i penned down some cathartic words which i think should be shared as my way of healing and dealing with the process.




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The Venerable Members of the Maha Sanga
The respected religious leaders and members of faith communities.
Your excellency the Ambassador A.L. Azeez of the permanent mission of Sri Lanka to the UN and the Ambassador of Sri Lanka in Switzerland
Colleagues from the Sri Lankan Mission
Ladies and Gentlemen from the community
Aybowan, Vannekam, As-salaamu Alaikum, A very Good Afternoon to you all.

I have been asked to say a few words as a means of a welcome.  What does one say at such a sad and sombre occasion? Its been two weeks since this terrorist attack on our country and our people.  Yet after two weeks, I like many of you are still in pain.  My heart weeps at the violation of the innocent in the most safest and sacred of places during a holy day; remembering God in His House.  They were not allowed that respect or the safety and security that comes in being in a place of worship.  Nor were those guests in the hotels, afforded the basic of respect that a host offers a guest, that you are safe in our paradise island.

However, I am spiritually comforted by the fact that those innocents who were killed on 21st of April are in a better place than those terrorists who perpetrated this vile act because they went against the teachings and the basic spirit of the Divine: to know and love each other and to enjoin the good.  Those terrorists will not know the peace that the innocents will feel.

Over the last few weeks we here in Geneva have been meeting quite frequently at different places of worship to pray and remember those who have passed.  It is in the prayers and companionship of others that we find solace and in fact it is such strength of inter faith cordiality that our country Sri Lanka has not yet managed to blow up, because the faith leaders have come together to hold the peace.

Coming together in prayer  is the minimum we can do from where we are in Geneva and we should do not only to be a support to each other during this time but as a comfort and a beacon of hope for the future in Sri Lanka, a future that is uncertain and fearful, and a future where we need to and want to  ensure mistakes are not repeated as in the past because we know how bad these can turn out to be especially as the emotions of grief evolve to the emotions of anger.  That anger needs to be channelled constructively because in the fog of terrorism we hear and see things that are done in the name of national security that challenge the notion of human dignity, as there are calls for introspection and accountability.

The Muslim community (and I say this as a Muslim) is going through this introspection as well as accountability; hurting, scared and fearful and collectively thinking that we did not do more to remove those weeds of hate and we need to do more.  This will forever live with us as a badge of guilt of what if?

Yet there is a collective introspection and accountability that we need to do as a society and country as to not only why we didn't more to prevent this type violence; or do more collectively to tackle conditions for young men and women who are capable of such hate and do more to tackle the incitement to violence and hate.  Our history in Sri Lanka shows us that young men and women have continuously been the victim of and perpetrators of such type of violence fed by the context of that time and this is something we need to really and honestly reflect on.  History keeps on repeating itself and we seem to not have learned.

We  realise that calls for introspection and accountability needs to be done also within the paradigm of humanity.   if we want to avoid the radicalisation of another generation of youth who are angry at the injustice and inequality they, then we need to be humane and just in how we deal with this sensitive situation and with the communities who have suffered as well as those who might be suspect.

As members of dialogical  faith traditions that have a lived experience in Sri Lanka we need to hold onto that notion of rising together like a phoenix.    We need to collectively ensure that voices for  tolerance and inclusivity are not silenced; that our democracy and decency are not broken or that we are unable to turn this moment into co-existence and not disharmony.

This is the hope that we must give Sri Lanka especially from living outside.  This is what we need to do collectively as the community here in Geneva and the message to be sent to Sri Lanka to break out of the silos of parallel communities.  We have met more times in the past week than perhaps over the last year.  This needs to change as we need to come together at all our cultural and religious gatherings to know each other, to understand each other and to respect each other that in our diversity we have many commonalities that unite us as Sri Lankans, because if we do not know each other then we will not be able to understand each other.  It just requires one person to stand up and walk across with the hand extended.

This is the hope we offer to those who were killed on Easter Sunday that we will not allow their deaths to be used to justify exactly what the terrorists wanted. We will not allow divisive forces to break us

it is the responsibility on those of us who survived is not to allow your deaths to be in vain.   This is the legacy we owe them.

As Muslims embark on the Holy Month of Ramadan which embodies the spiritual need to empathise with the downtrodden, the victims and those who have suffered whilst praying for peace and compassion, our prayers for this Holy Month is for God to bless those who have passed and to protect those who have survived; we pray for peace and justice to be brought to the country and for sanity to prevail;  we re dedicate ourselves towards working for peace and justice for all communities.

in ending my speech, i just want to remind myself and others that for us to truly build from the tragedy of Easter Sunday, we need to remember these words from Martin Luther King Jr:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Thank you.

The Future of Protection

We are in a period of the globalisation of fragility. The definition of protection, its scope and limitations, the role of humanitarian agencies, authorities and other actors has been and continues to be debated. Within the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, interpretations and practice on protection is also diverse and varied but the aspect is to explore it in a wide perspective around Do No Harm and keeping people safe, considering how National Societies (NS) have always engaged in wide range of protective actions, and in response to increasing conflict, displacement and migration, some are increasingly active in certain fields.

DRIVING TRENDS

A cursory glance at the 2017 Global Peace Index (The 2017 Global Peace Index) makes for very interesting reading. Though it shows a slight improvement from 2016 due to gains in six of the nine geographical regions represented, the Index records a less peaceful world over the past decade. Since 2008, the global level of peace has deteriorated by 2.14%, with 80 countries improving while 83 countries deteriorated.

One of the major trends recorded over the last decade and attributed to this decline has been the growing inequality in peace between the most and least peaceful countries. These trends show that the growing inequality in peace is largely attributable to the rise of conflicts within states, the rise of terrorism and increasing levels of criminality. As desperate people flee conflict zones, the impact of forced displacement is hitting neighbouring countries hardest and they are coping as best they can.   The number of displaced people and refugees is the highest since the end of the Second World War. While the first half of the 20th century was a major period of inter-state warfare and wars of decolonisation, the second half gave way to an era of predominantly civil conflicts. A little over 20% of the world’s population live in countries under the threat of large-scale, organised violence, according to the World Bank’s 2011 World Development Report.

Experiences over the last decade in many parts of the world illustrate the challenges that the changing nature of armed conflict poses for peace as the landscape and nature of conflict change. Challenges to the established order in different places around the world are rising, linked to diverse causes – political change, regional and national autonomy, urbanisation, climate change, faith and cultural identity, or securing the basic conditions of life. Underlying some of the causes for current conflicts are some cross-cutting characteristics, including the rise of violent non-state actors and the prevalence of civil wars; deep socio-political and ethno-religious conflicts; huge levels of mistrust and intolerance; constantly changing alliances, loyalties and relationships; changing frontlines and territorial control; destruction of social infrastructures and services; and links to natural resources.

We are moving into a period of globalisation of fragility.  For all the relative calmness and progress of the second half of the 20th Century and the early years of the 21st, we still see a world that is hurting due to increased fragility – fragility that is globalising at the pace of our fast-evolving world.

HOW WILL THIS PLAY OUT IN THE NEXT 10 YEARS?

Understanding how the different elements of risk interact with each other is fundamental to looking at the future of protection. The capacity to respond to challenges is necessary but not enough; and relying on crisis response is truly inadequate. It is essential to meet emerging problems upstream. We need to build systems that minimise risk and improve the human condition holistically.

As we look forward, we need to explore some key issues which raises questions around challenges for the concept of protection and the future of peace for the Red Cross and Red Crescent:

• The scale and character of conflict is changing.  The distinctions between war and peace and who is a combatant and non-combatant are becoming uncomfortably blurred.  The battlefielf is both local and global. Modern conflict is hybrid in nature, combining traditional battlefield techniques with elements that were previously mostly associated with armed non-state actors. The Fourth Industrial Revolution offers individuals increasingly diverse ways to harm others on a grand scale such as cyber warfare / autonomous warfare. Current trends suggest a rapid and massive democratization of the capacity to inflict damage on a very large scale, challenging existing legal and ethical frameworks.  All of this raises questions around
  • What do we mean by peace? What is the definition of peace and what is a holistic version of this?
  • What do we mean by violent extremism and should we be dealing with it and if so what should our role be?
  • How can we work for conflict resolution and peaceful change in an era of renewed geopolitical division? Should we be playing a role?
  • What are the new ideas and initiatives on how to mediate conflict, but also in terms of fixing the relationships between the parties that stand behind those who are fighting?
  • How we remain true to an agenda that will transform people’s lives require supporting and working with those who work for peaceful change – in and out of government, in civil society, and including women and youth to help them:

1. call for peaceful change;
2. survive during conflict and maintain cohesion across conflict divides;
3. rebuild their lives and their institutions after the guns fall silent;
4. get involved fully and meaningfully in peace and reconciliation processes so that they can influence and live with the peace settlements that emerge.

This is a time of fundamental technological change. These rapid advances in technology are providing more than new capabilities – they are changing the way we live, work and relate to one another. The future (and the present) is digital: Humanitarian organizations are progressively becoming more digitally present, and able to leverage larger amounts of data from both offline and online groups of affected people.  What does this mean around protection and the future of peace? Do we need to talk about new norms and conventions that will protect civilian and affected community interests: a ‘Geneva Convention’ for the digital world which will be a critical first step to addressing a greater set of challenges around digital freedoms? In 2018, we’re only just beginning to understand how the digital revolution will alter the make-up of our societies and lives. We need to be asking ourselves what a free society looks like in a digital world and what forms our democratic rights take online. It’s no longer just our right to assemble peacefully offline that needs to be protected, it is also our right to assemble and mobilize online.

How can we learn how to build and develop trust with affected people, including in the digital space? Arguably, trust can only be achieved with some level of delivery, a degree of openness, transparency and a predisposition to learn. This includes more willingness from us to take criticism on board, reflect and act on it. However, what trust really means in the context of relationships between affected people and humanitarians, particularly in conflicts and situations of violence, remains poorly understood. Similarly, how it is to be built and developed, including in the digital space, is lacking. We need to examine and consider how to build “virtual proximity” and “digital trust” to complement our physical proximity.

How do we continue to ensure to build credibility and trust from the public that is fatigued by crises? How will we sustain operations in a large number of ignored or forgotten crises where human suffering may be at its greatest? If fragility and extreme poverty continue to concentrate in certain countries/regions, how do we better allocate our resources/efforts globally to support this? How do we structure and prepare our organisation, its people and skills for a scale up of activity to address needs in these contexts? 
How will RCRC manage complex cross-border responses with national organisational models? 
How will RCRC support displaced populations and those moving back to home countries with tailored 
and targeted support services that incorporate reintegration, livelihoods, health and education?

IMPLICATIONS FOR RCRC

As the IFRC, we are not necessarily a peace building organisation or are mandated to work in conflict areas. As a membership organisation whose members are there before, during and after any crisis, we have a duty to work on building trust between communities and looking at the long-term provision of a culture of peace and non-violence. Within the IFRC, there is considerable experience illustrating clear and significant roles in preventing, mitigating and responding to interpersonal and self-directed violence. As the IFRC we are using this premise and experience to coalesce around the concept of protection in humanitarian action which is about keeping people safe from harm. 

 This changing protection landscape and the overall landscape around conflict raises the importance of protection (as a wide perspective) as part of IFRC’s action, and increased the need for clarity on the role and priorities of IFRC and its member National Societies in protection, especially as it relates to the work of ICRC and other specific protection-mandated organisations as well as the role in community violence prevention and in conflict.

To be prepared for the emerging future, the question is where can we situate the work of the IFRC and National Societies to identify and future current trends on protection-focused work of National Societies and support by the IFRC Secretariat, and situates those practices and approaches within the international standards and practice on protection?

This originally appeared here

The Role of Interfaith Harmony in Today’s World

In his book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari laments that traditional religion is the “handmaid of modern nationalism.” It divides humanity into different camps, he says, and there is not much hope of religions offering solutions to global problems. This might be a hugely pessimistic attitude to consider, but as the UN’s World Interfaith Harmony Week takes places from February 1 to 7, these sentiments are not in isolation and should be disregarded at one’s own peril.

Originally conceived in 2010 as a chance for the global community to promote harmony between all people and to establish dialogue amongst different faiths and religions, it has long disappeared from the world’s agenda. Only the “converted” go about celebrating interfaith week with platitudes and statements. However, the mere fact that it hardly registers on anyone’s radar is testimony to not only the impact that the week has, but to a greater affliction affecting the faith community worldwide akin to what Harari alludes to in his writing.

Today, there is a loss of trust and hope in institutionalized religion providing some respite to tensions in global politics. At a time when there is a need to unite to address international problems, faith is plagued by local challenges creating a crisis of values, morals and, ultimately, interfaith engagement.

These challenges arise as we are increasingly living in an age of disruption that affects the way we communicate, do business, and how we relate to each other. Thanks in part to globalization, we are now experiencing the disruption of the social fabric that helps individuals define themselves and assess their social roles.

In one sense, that doesn’t seem to be such a bad thing because we have seen the upending of traditional structures of authority, the relocation of centers of power and the emergence of a flood of perspectives on how life should be lived. Yet primarily because of these disruptions that have unanchored lives and challenged traditional structures and networks, we see a backlash of increased racism and xenophobia amidst a wave of nationalism incapable of dealing with globalization. In addition, we see a growing globalization of fragility that is creating new forms of vulnerability for communities.

With migration, climate change and mental health all being seen as top priorities for 2019, the battlefield for tackling vulnerability is not defined by geography. It is on our streets, in our hospitals, in our schools and in our places of worship. In 2019, vulnerability will be easily defined as the rise of pandemics, along with greater disparities between rich and poor, men and women, rural and urban communities, and even this generation and the next.

Our search for a social identity has become a paradox remaining fluid in the midst of the increasing mobility of people, as well as the ease of global communications that make it possible for everyone to live everywhere. As a result, huge new multicultural populations are emerging around the world that have mixed identities shaped by multiple competing factors.

The loss of the moral compass from those in charge is compounded by a general loss of authority as it is no longer clear who is in charge. With the loss of authority comes a threat of security, compounded by the challenge on national unity by division based on religious, ethnic and tribal identities and new ideologies of nationalism. This is what Harari talks about and precisely what this week should focus on in terms of creating a space for dialogue around interfaith harmony.

Whilst faith is seen as a cause of turmoil and exclusion, it can be used as an antidote. New solutions can be developed to challenge people to create equal opportunities for diverse communities of ethnicities, traditions, cultures and faiths. As sociologist Ali Shariati put it: “Religion is an amazing phenomenon that plays contradictory roles in people’s lives. It can destroy or revitalize, put to sleep or awaken, enslave or emancipate, teach docility or teach revolt.”

Why faith? Why now?

In his talk around the future of education at the World Economic Forum in 2018, Chinese billionaire Jack Matalked about the need to revisit the teaching of values in the face of increasing automation. This is an inherent USP for religious teachings and institutions to make themselves more relevant again. Religious practices and perspectives continue to be sources of values that nourish ethics of multicultural citizenship, commanding both solidarity and equal respect. Historically, spiritual heritage has often provided humanity with the capacity for personal and social transformation. Simply put, for many people around the world, faith is embedded in cultures, practices, traditions and community values.

Thus today, as we experience dark moments, religion can appear to shine like a beacon of hope and reliability. Hence, interfaith week should once again discuss this idea that religions provide trusted institutions that have their bases of legitimacy in the divine order of the universe and in the societies they have nourished and been nourished by. As a repository of symbols, a system of belief, a convergence of cultural rights, a structure of morality, an institution of power and one that challenges old systems, faith should once again explore how it can offer people a sense of community, a trusted authority and meaning for their lives.

Religious institutions need to become mediums for inclusive engagement, as they offer simple and easy access to communities, as well as a simple language to express the commonalities of existence through the expression of common values, the invoking of social responsibility and working together on issues of social justice and ethics. Thus, rather than just discussing interfaith engagement, we need to speak about action that speaks to a concept of inclusion around religious identity. One that works on the premise of building an understanding of religious pluralism, founded on common features in a language spoken by most people, setting the agenda for creating a new, improved environment.

As religion can cut across class, ethnic, geographic and cultural lines, religious leaders can serve an important — if sometimes informal — representative function. Members of a religious community have an enormous capacity to increase their cultural, social and economic links with one another and with other religious and secular partners in other parts of the world.

Religious identity can thus serve as a powerful bond amid the vicissitudes of globalization, and one reinforced by ethical commitments embedded within a particular tradition. Working on a diverse shared polity of pluralism means you can tap into a hidden channel for creating engagement between people. This can allow us to find new ways to anchor ourselves in a connected world. In the turbulent waters of the global era, religion, which has its basis in the past, can provide solid ground and protection.

World Interfaith Harmony Week offers us an opportunity to do so. We have to address the challenges and the polarization that is tearing apart the fabric of the global community. This will never be easy, but it remains vitally important. Given the uncertainty we face in 2019, there is a greater need for such spaces to pause and reflect on how to create a new environment for the promotion of inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, as well as understanding and cooperation for peace.

Everyone’s Responsibility

Incidents around the world — whether violence in the Middle East, anti-immigrant sentiment in Europe, the rise of racist nationalism in Asia or xenophobic rhetoric worldwide — emphasize the need to build societies that are shared by everyone. These “shared” societies are uniquely imagined as places where durable peace is maintained through values of compassion and solidarity and by encouraging the promotion of dialogue amongst the different forums available in all cultures.

This is of course the idealistic aspiration behind World Interfaith Harmony Week, but with a realistic recognition that it requires real work from all stakeholders that constitute society as a whole. In other words, it is not the purview or responsibility of one component but rather everyone. There needs to be real and fruitful conversations that involve talking to people and understanding how to address the misperceptions that exist about the “other” within all of us. We need to have honest and open discussions about faith and its role in society and what exists within the faiths of mutual coexistence. This centers around common values that espouse the notion of a shared humanity, social responsibility, social justice and ethics.

In essence, we have to rediscover a spirituality of commonality that will allow us to recognize the common space and substance amongst all doctrines, which will provide the fuel for social change and trigger action for the unity of humanity. This shared language will enable us to develop a set of ideals that continue to stir our collective conscience; a common set of values that bind us together despite our differences; and a running thread of hope that makes this improbable experiment of reconciling and rehabilitation of vulnerable communities possible.

These values and ideals will have to be living, which cannot find expression on paper or monuments or in the annals of history books, but which remain alive in the hearts and minds of people inspiring us to pride, duty and sacrifice. These living values will have to help us build on shared understandings and should be the glue that binds every healthy society together. However, whilst dialogue is a beginning, it is important that engagement goes beyond this. Interfaith — and increasingly intra-faith — dialogue must produce something tangible for communities on the frontline

We are now living at a time where increasingly across the world, political violence flavored by faith, culture and identity is being used to justify positions of power. This often leads to misconceptions and misperceptions about certain faiths and its followers. The tragedy will be if we lose this battle. Faith identities will continue to be part of the picture and faith will be a strong rallying point for global communities. As people of faith and spirituality, we have to retake the reins and change the paradigm.

This was originally published in Fair Observer