C-100: Intercultural Dialogue
C-100 stands for the “Council of 100 Leaders”, an initiative of the World Economic Forum (WEF) meant to promote and sustain inter-faith dialogue. The co-chairs of C-100 are Prince Turki Al Faisal of Saudi Arabia, presently Ambassador Royal Embassy of the Saudi Arabia in the US, and Lord Carey of Clifton, Former Archbishop of Canterbury, UK. It will be a unique privilege to moderate the Session “C-100; Taking Stock of Intercultural Dialogue” in the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul on Friday 24 Nov 2006. The panelists for the Session viz (1) Khalid Abdulla-Janahi, Chairman Executive Committee Shamil Bank of Switzerland and Vice Chairman Arab Business Council, Prof Mehmet Aydin, Minister of State for Religious Affairs of Turkey, Hany El Banna, President, Islamic Relief, UK, Prof John L. Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs, and Founding Director, Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, USA and Chief Rabbi David Rosen, President, International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Relations, USA, are all men of substance.
There have been many problems between culture and civilizations, over the centuries most of these difficulties can be traced to inadequate and/or manipulated information. Since most misunderstanding stems from ignorance, the processing of correct facts is extremely important. Most of those who engage in debate have little knowledge about their own religion, what they know is sometimes liable to misinterpretation. The knowledge of religions, at least a cursory understanding at the general public level of all the major ones, is extremely imperative. Education provides better understanding, we have to modify the content of education in developing a more comprehensive knowledge of the tenets associated with different religions.
One finds the commonality of the beliefs in the main religions is far more than one is normally aware of. The perception the public forms is on the basis of the cultural part of the religion which is on display rather than the content of the religion itself. As Professor Dr Bettina Robotka of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi, who helped me prepare arguments for the Session on “Intercultural Dialogue” says, “it is the cultural climate of the religion which we notice and resent more easily, like the “headscarf of women” in Islam of the “half-naked” women in the west”, unquote. She adds that when we talk about different cultures and/or different civilisations, it is nothing new, it has always been there. With globalisation reaching a stage where the world is becoming a village, people have become more aware of things they would never have been aware before. It is only natural they are comfortable with what they see at home and since they cannot understand what they see in other places, they want everything everywhere to be like at home.
There is a universal perception about Turkish success is bridging civilizations. While Turkey is very much a secular State, Turks in Europe tend to feel themselves not to be secular. In Turkey itself the revival of the Islamist parties and their widespread popular support throughout the country is a contradiction that is increasingly being debated in the European Union (EU) in resistance to Turkey’s entry. Given the fact that Pope Benedict, who inadvertently made a remark recently that was offensive to muslims everywhere, is visiting Turkey soon, the Turkish model will come up for detailed scrutiny.
Dr Robotka says that globalisation is one of the reasons for our troubles. Globalisation actually started when the Portuguese, Spanish and British seafarers discovered and conquered the world in the 15th and 16th centuries, creating a world market on unequal terms, the colonies entering this market in a dependent and disadvantageous position. This unequal status has lasted throughout the process, viz (1) of formal colonisation, (2) the elimination of the physical presence of the colonisers and (3) even after the political independence of the formal colonies was achieved. With the advent of technology distances have disappeared because of communications information has been revolutionized. The minds of the people living in the formal colonies have not kept to the pace of globalisation, in fact one can say the perception of contrast between what one views at home and compares with abroad is so much, it has created a mind-block of sorts. The people of the third world are afraid of and reject what they do not know of the first world and it is so vice versa, one has to learn to accept and live with it.
According to the west democracy means progress, the west dominates the international debate because it is more progressed. Dr. Robotka says that we must define progress is progress, all material? More productivity, more sophisticated weapons and more consumerism? Is civilization all material? The west believes that progress is the western way of social and economic life and even of political life! People forget that progress can only be exported partly, everybody has to find his (or her) way towards what he (or she) thinks is progress. Democracy in the west may differ in concept to that in developing countries, being dependant in each region on the genius of the people in that region. It cannot be imposed lock, stock and barrel in the form it exists in the West.
Being different is normal, it is everyone’s right. There are different civilizations in the world, they not only differ in how they look, they differ in their mode of thinking, understanding and their social system, their history is different! Since the world is the creation of one and the same God, there can be no impossible differences which cannot be bridged. God would have made all the people same but in his infinite wisdom, He made them different, it is incumbent upon us to come to terms with this.
Dr Robotka’s holds that ancient Greece and Rome followed a philosophical heritage which emphasized the power of the man to change and dominate the world. During the Dark Ages, a church dogma was sought to be imposed on the world. Being contrary to the nature of man, the Reformation tried to rectify the Christian Church. When that was found impossible, the “Protestants” broke away. A period of 100 years saw a devastating war destroying Central and Northern Europe and bringing the Christian civilisation almost to the verge of collapse. The only way to prevent a disaster was to have a division between Church and the State, thus was secularism formed. The replacement of religious values with secular ones (mostly materialistic) resulted in a second phase of secularism in the 19th century, secularism thus became to mean irreligion. The Islamic world has a different philosophical heritage but it has to co-exist and accommodate followers of other religions. A form of neutrality of the State towards other religions is necessary.
Dialogue is an inter-action when all participants who present their own point of view are ready to listen to the other arguments as well. This possibility includes accepting a different solution for a problem then what we devise as our own.
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