Dear Friends of the Human DHS
Please find below the 20-26 June Bulletin from the Common Ground News Service
Kind regards
Brian Ward
Common Ground News Service
Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH)
for constructive & vibrant Muslim-Western relations
20 - 26 June 2007
The Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) aims to promote constructive perspectives and dialogue about Muslim–Western relations. CGNews-PiH is available in Arabic, English, French and Indonesian.
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Inside this edition
1) It’s not about religion by Dalia Mogahed
Dalia Mogahed, director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, digs deeper into the results of recent polls of European Muslims that show that many Muslims in Germany, France and the UK would choose to identify with their faith before their citizenship. Arguing that any alarm caused by these results is based on an assumption that “Muslim religiosity is a threat to Europe”, she looks at new polling results that suggest “that continuing to push cultural conformity as an antidote for radicalisation misses the real drivers of extremism, and risks alienating the moderate majority.” (Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 19 June 2007)
2) From religious extremist to peacemaker by Renee Garfinkel
Renee Garfinkel, clinical psychologist and member of the faculty of the Institute of Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at The George Washington University, recounts the findings of her recent study on “the dynamics of transformation from religious extremist to proponent of peace”. She highlights some of the key findings from the interviews that contributed to the report, noting the obstacles, limitations and opportunities leading to personal change.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 19 June 2007)
3) For Better or for Worse, for Christmas or for Ramadan by Rosette Elghossain
Rosette Elghossain, a pre-med student at the American University of Beirut also majoring in psychology, looks at the challenges of accepting religious difference on an individual level, particularly when it comes to accepting inter-religious romantic relationships. Using her Beirut campus and surrounding neighbourhood as a case study, she points out evidence of religious co-existence.
(Source: Outlook –American University of Beirut’s Student Newspaper, 5 June 2007)
4) From Jakarta to Kosovo - what’s the big attraction? by Mohammad Yazid
Mohammad Yazid, staff writer at the Jakarta Post, looks at how, and why, it is easier to advocate solutions to problems abroad than it is to deal with similar problems in one’s own backyard. He considers Indonesia’s position on the Balkans and the Middle East, and suggests instead that the real lesson for Indonesia is that “the majority needs to promote tolerance, mutual respect, protection and empathy for ethnic, religious and political minorities.”
(Source: Jakarta Post, 5 June 2007)
5) Dedication to Arab Literature in English by Volker Kaminski
Volker Kaminski, a Berlin-based author and freelance writer, describes the work of London-based publishers of the journal BANIPAL to make the works of prominent Arabic writers available in English in an attempt to bring cultures closer together: “their efforts toward dialogue centre on aesthetic pleasure and enjoyment of literature.”
(Source: Qantara.de, 7 June 2007)
1)It’s not about religion
Dalia Mogahed
LONDON - One of the most pervasive underlying assumptions in the discourse on European Muslim integration is that Muslim religiosity is a threat to Europe. The results of several recent polls have therefore set off alarm bells in a tense Europe still shaken by the Madrid and London bombings. For example, a Pew poll found that given a choice of identifying themselves as Muslim first or as citizens of their country first, the majority of British, French and German Muslims chose their faith. Some regard these results as proof of the danger of accommodating religious differences and have advocated that Muslims in Europe be made to forsake their Islamic identity.
Those who believe in the irreconcilability of Western and Muslim identity generally argue that Muslim piety, expressed in religious symbols and moral conservatism, is a recipe for increasingly insular Muslim communities and profound alienation from European national identity. These isolated communities, the argument continues, are a “cesspool” for radicalisation. Integration, defined as conformity with majority culture, is therefore seen as a vital security measure.
However, a new Gallup study paints a very different picture. While Muslims in three European capitals are indeed highly religious, this neither leads to an intolerance of other faiths, a lack of national loyalty, nor sympathy for terrorist acts.
Though religiosity is often assumed to lead to an exclusivist worldview and a negative opinion of non-believers, the Gallup study found the opposite trend. Muslims in Paris and London, found to be more religious than their general public counterparts, were much more accepting of Christians than the general public was of Muslims. Muslims in these capitals were more than ten times more likely to express positive opinions of “fundamentalist Christians” and Catholics than negative ones. On the other hand, the general public in France and Britain was essentially as likely to express positive opinions as negative opinions of Muslims, while the German public was almost four times as likely to express negative as positive views of Muslims. Muslims were also as likely to support the right of non-Muslims to display their religious symbols as they were to support that right for Muslims.
Nor did a high regard for Islam erode Muslims’ national loyalty. Rather, the data shows that religious and national identities are complementary, not competing concepts, undermining the foundational assumptions of the Islam-versus-the-West thesis. Not only do these urban Muslims identify strongly with their religion, but are at least as likely as the general public to identify strongly with their country of residence—and Muslims in London are slightly more likely than other UK residents to do so.
Also defying conventional wisdom, a high level of Muslim religiosity and the corresponding conservative moral outlook did not translate into a sense of threat from the “sinful West” and therefore a desire by Muslims to withdraw to protect their identity. Instead, Muslims in each European city were slightly less likely than the general public to feel that people with religious practices different from their own were a threat to their way of life, and slightly more likely to say they would prefer living in a mixed neighbourhood.
Nonetheless, at the heart of the integration question is security: are culturally-distinct Muslim communities relatively tolerant of violence, and therefore potentially hospitable as a social environment to radicalisation? According to the data, the answer is no. Though the world is still far from a definitive answer as to what makes a person turn to terrorism, the results from the Gallup study challenge the common dogma on radicalisation and show that Muslim communities are as likely as any other to reject terrorist activity. Muslims in these three European cities were at least as likely as the general public to condemn terrorist attacks on civilians and to find no moral justification for using violence, even for a “noble cause”.
Moreover, after analysing survey data representing more than 90% of the global Muslim population, Gallup found that there was no correlation between one’s level of religiosity and sympathy for terrorist acts. The real difference between those who condone terrorism and the vast majority who condemn them stems from political, rather than religious or cultural, distinctions.
These results suggest that continuing to push cultural conformity as an antidote for radicalisation misses the real drivers of extremism, and risks alienating the moderate majority. It is vital that policy-and-law makers pay heed to such data in Europe and elsewhere to avoid turning a perceived crisis of integration into a real one.
* Dalia Mogahed directs the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and is co-author, with John Esposito, of the forthcoming book “Who Speaks for Islam? Listening to the Voices of a Billion Muslims”. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 19 June 2007, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
2)From religious extremist to peacemaker
Renee Garfinkel
WASHINGTON,DC - Today’s world seems to have gone insane in the name of God. Violence and extremism take centre-stage in international news and much of it speaks in religious terms. Nevertheless, there are examples of leaders who, in the midst of ongoing conflict, have renounced their former violence in order to engage their enemies using non-violent means while remaining religious.
How does that happen? How do once-violent religious extremists change course and become peacemakers?
These individuals give us reason to hope for the future of the human race. In the words of one of such individual, Imam Ashafa of Nigeria,
“…Religion is more powerful than the atomic bomb. The passion of religion is more terrible than Katrina, more terrible than a tsunami. But if it is used positively, it can change the world”.
In that spirit, and with the support of the United States Institute of Peace, I set out to discover what I could about the dynamics of transformation from religious extremist to proponent of peace. I began by interviewing people living in regions of conflict around the world who have rejected the violence they once advocated. Some of them had significant careers as fighters and leaders of militant groups. Some had been supporters of militant political solutions. All are now working for peaceful change.
These people are not saints. Their politics and ideologies are not necessarily those of traditional pacifists, nor are they equally positive toward all of their adversaries. They do not exhibit equal understanding toward all groups they consider “other”. But they no longer advocate violence as a means of achieving their goals. Each has come a long way from his/her former belief system.
Each of our interviewees now engages, in an affirmative and non-violent manner, people he or she once would have only fought or shunned. They are spiritual people who continue to be committed to a religious path, and feel elevated and inspired by the direction they have taken and for which they have paid a price.
Given the small number of people examined for this project, it was quite remarkable to be able to detect common themes and experiences. One such common theme is the terrible force of hateful, violent propaganda. The people we spoke with, and others who have written their own stories, begin by describing their former immersion in a culture of hate. In the context of such a culture there was a “natural” progression into dreadful violence.
The implication for policy is clear: hate literature and speech/media of all kinds need to be vigorously challenged in order to facilitate the possibility of independent thinking. In addition, religious and civic leaders need to develop peaceful language and imagery, as well as heroes and mythology that are dynamic and vital in order to capture the public imagination.
We learned from our interviewees that the change from religious extremist to proponent of peace could be a spiritual transformation, much akin to religious conversion. Both of these life-altering changes tend to grow from an emotional and interpersonal basis more than an ideological one. Trauma and loss often play a central role in both transformations, as well.
Assad Shaftary of Lebanon is a case in point, and his story has many of the elements that recur in the stories of deep change. Most profoundly, trauma and near-death made him question his life and seek purpose and meaning. His flight from home as a political refugee during the civil war was important as well. Spiritual and religious heroes, in various religious traditions and mythologies, frequently need to leave home and country in order to grow. Being away exposes the individual to new realities, or old realities seen from a new perspective, without the protection of the familiar and the lulling embrace of home. Fleeing danger, the refugee can become open and vulnerable in a way that he was not before, when he was secure in his native location. Perhaps escape from danger and the humbling status of an alien make one more aware.
As Shaftary put it, “if I had stayed in place maybe I wouldn’t have heard God’s voice telling me to change.”
Profound change takes place slowly, over time and is – as are most human phenomena – partial, incomplete, an ongoing work in progress. Significant relationships almost always play a role. Individual personality probably does, too. We desperately need to know more about how.
But the fact that it happens at all is cause for hope.
-You can read the personal stories of the interviewees in a Special Report available from U.S.I.P. called Personal Transformations: Moving from Violence to Peace. It is also available online at http://www.usip.org/pubs/specialreports/sr186.html
* Dr. Renee Garfinkel, clinical psychologist in private practice in Washington, is an author and member of the faculty of the Institute of Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management, The George Washington University. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 19 June 2007, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
3)For Better or for Worse, for Christmas or for Ramadan
Rosette Elghossain
BEIRUT - They stroll down Beirut’s Bliss Street together under the warm spring sun, hand in hand. The delicate “Allah” around her neck sends glints of gold across the pavement, and the wooden cross with beads wrapped around his wrist click against his watch as they walk. This couple is a breath of fresh air…well, at least to me.
Since the beginning of history as we know it people have been at each others’ throats because of their diverse religious beliefs. From conquering exotic lands to admittedly trivial spats at street cafes, the human race has quite unceremoniously thrust its problems under the generous umbrella of “religion”. And Lebanon, being the melting pot that it is, has taken on a similar cognitive pattern. True, it is difficult to single-handedly stop war and the like; but I haven’t the slightest idea why some people find it so excruciatingly difficult to accept inter-religious romantic relationships.
Why is it taboo for a Sunni Muslim guy to fall in love with a Maronite Christian girl? Why do people frown when, on a wedding invitation, they read: “Elie and Zainab?” I believe it is the most beautiful thing in the world when two completely different people grow together, learn from each other, and accept one another. To be able to happily spend so much time discovering another culture, another lifestyle, has got to be a miracle in itself. Yet this can only happen if we acknowledge and, above all, accept, that no matter how hard we try we can never separate ourselves from “the other.” No matter what we do, there will always exist a Catholic, a Shiite, a Druze, a Protestant, a Sunni, etc. So why not just embrace it? Why not say “I do”, simply because of mutual love, trust and respect instead of the preferred Holy Book?
There is evidence of religious co-existence everywhere we look: a mosque built half a kilometre away from a church, a headscarfed woman having coffee with a man wearing a cross. (I write this with a smile on my face…they’re having coffee right in front of me). This kind of respect, this kind of sacred moment we’ve woven in and of our days, must be applied to every aspect of our lives. Only then can we begin to work on building irrevocable alliances with nations; only then can we start to watch sitcoms all day on TV without constantly switching to watch our daily dose of political bickering.
I know a lot of people may be upset with me, maybe even disappointed. But I, along with so many others, know that we must shed light on the importance of this fragile and sensitive matter – this matter that seems so simple, yet is extraordinarily complex and webbed. If we can’t accept each others’ religions on an individual level, I have no idea why everyone is so shocked that the nation as a whole is falling apart. That said, who wants to go for a walk on Bliss?
* Rosette Elghossain is a pre-med student at the American University of Beirut also majoring in psychology. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Outlook -American University of Beirut’s Student Newspaper, 5 June 2007, http://wwwlb.aub.edu.lb/~weboutl/
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
4)From Jakarta to Kosovo - what’s the big attraction?
Mohammad Yazid
JAKARTA - It was not surprising that before the signing of the Aceh peace deal in July 2005, people in the predominantly Muslim province were clamouring for independence.
The demand came as a response to the unfair treatment and rights abuses that the Acehnese had been subjected to for almost 30 years.
Understandably, the apology offered by President Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2001 for the suffering of the Acehnese people under previous governments was not enough to settle the conflict. This was in spite of Megawati’s signing of a law providing greater autonomy in Aceh, and granting it the lion’s share of the revenue from its natural resources. Nor were President Abdurrahman Wahid’s attempts at dialogue enough to end the conflict.
Ironically, the Acehnese people’s struggle was met with opposition from non-Acehnese Muslims, who thought the province’s independence would mean the end of the Indonesian state. It was the 2004 tsunami, rather than ukhuwah Islamiyah (Muslim brotherhood) or silaturahimi (friendship) among Muslims, as taught by the Prophet Muhammad, that was the catalyst for the peace talks and ultimate agreement.
Consequently, it has been rather strange to see various Indonesian Muslim figures supporting independence for Kosovo based solely on the grounds that the territory has a Muslim majority.
The issue of Kosovo’s freedom arose after Martti Ahtisaari, the special envoy of the UN secretary-general who played a leading role in the Aceh peace talks, conveyed a proposal for the independence of Kosovo from Serbia to the UN.
The support here for Kosovo’s independence indicates that the Indonesian Muslim community is more concerned with the fate of Muslims abroad than with that of local Muslims. A similar attitude was apparent when Islamic hard-line groups, like the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Mujahiddin Council (MMI), loudly proclaimed they were recruiting volunteers for a jihad in Lebanon against the Israelis.
Meanwhile, the problems faced by Muslims at home remain unaddressed, particularly poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and the neglect of their rights by the state.
Doesn’t this attitude reflect a flight from reality on our part resulting from our inability to deal with our own unending problems? Other countries, including the United States, may do exactly the same, but this cannot be used to justify our own lack of focus.
It is difficult to rid oneself of the impression that we as a nation think we know more about Kosovo than Europe does, or about Palestine and Lebanon than the Middle East nations do. It would be wise for us to leave the question of Kosovo to Europe, and the Palestine and Lebanon issues to the Middle East nations, as they are a lot more conversant with local conditions than we can ever be.
The Muslims in Kosovo were the victims of serious rights violations in the mid-1990s under the Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, who for the sake of carving out a Greater Serbia launched a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Albanians, most of whom happened to be Muslims.
The Kosovo issue had divided the world into two camps. Russia has from the beginning objected to Kosovar independence, arguing this would only set a bad international precedent. America, meanwhile, supports Kosovo’s independence, and this American stance is widely seen in diplomatic circles as a token of U.S. gratitude for the support of Muslim states for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Indonesian government has not yet expressed its position on the question of Kosovo’s independence. As stated by Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda recently, Indonesia was still examining the process now underway in the UN Security Council.
The enthusiasm for Kosovo’s freedom that has been voiced by Muslim leaders here would be more understandable if it was based on the injustices and rights violations experienced by the Kosovo Muslim community. In such a case, their support would be relevant as Indonesia’s Constitution promotes the principle of justice, and the country has ratified various international conventions on human rights and currently chairs the UN Human Rights Commission.
However, it is going too far to simply support Kosovar independence only because the territory has a Muslim majority. The exact same argument could have been used in the case of Aceh in the past in view of the similarities between the two territories: widespread injustices, legal transgressions and disregard for human values.
At present, the Kosovo question still hinges on the issue of religion, but it is not inconceivable that after independence other challenges could emerge, such as ethnic Albanians demanding freedom from Kosovo.
What Indonesians should learn from Kosovo is that the majority needs to promote tolerance, mutual respect, protection and empathy for ethnic, religious and political minorities. Unless this spirit of brotherhood among countrymen is nurtured, there is the real possibility of Indonesia also splintering into a number of small statelets, as happened in Yugoslavia.
* Mohammad Yazid is a staff writer at the Jakarta Post. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Jakarta Post, 5 June 2007, www.thejakartapost.com
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
5)Dedication to Arab Literature in English
Volker Kaminski
BERLIN - The tireless, pioneering labours of the two publishers Margaret Obank and Samuel Shimon have catalysed a process of literary dialogue between Arabic and English-speaking countries. Their independent journal publishes prominent Arabic writers in first-time English translations.
Obank and Shimon have achieved amazing things with their journal. BANIPAL is the only magazine in the world that regularly publishes Arabic literature in English. In this way BANIPAL provides a cross-section of the entire Arabic-speaking world. Along with fiction writers and poets such as Saadi Youssef, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Sargon Boulus, Saif al-Rahbi and many others who write in Arabic, BANIPAL is also devoted to writers from Arab backgrounds who write in English, French or German.
The journal appears three times a year, providing a much-regarded forum for newcomers as well as established writers. Each issue centres on poems, short stories and novel excerpts. The section “A Travelling Tale” is an obligatory feature, as is the “Interview” with an Arabic writer or publisher.
One column is devoted to “Literary Influences”. Here, prominent writers describe what they have learned from the great figures of world literature, offering insight into perceptions of Ernest Hemingway in Palestine, the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre, the significance of Dostoevsky in 20th century Arabic literature or the way Scheherazade lives on in the work of Rafik Schami.
Another standing section is “Reviews”. In addition, each issue includes many author photos from current literary festivals around the world.
This last is an indication of the footloose nature of the BANIPAL publishers. BANIPAL goes on tour with its authors, presenting itself not only in England, but also in other parts of Europe, Arab countries and the USA. Most recently, BANIPAL attended a Poetry Festival in New York in May 2007.
In February 2006 the publishers were in Berlin, where they presented BANIPAL at an event on contemporary Iraqi literature. Of course, a BANIPAL stand can be found at every major book fair (for example in Frankfurt).
An additional facet is BANIPAL Books. Founded in 2005, the imprint features Arabic books translated into English. The first to appear was “An Iraqi in Paris”, an autobiographical novel by Samuel Shimon, while the most recent was “The Myrtle Tree”, a novel about the civil war in Lebanon and its consequences for a Lebanese village, by Jad El Hage.
Since 2006, BANIPAL has also offered a translation prize. The Saif Ghobash-BANIPAL Prize is awarded annually for a translation from Arabic into English and is endowed with the sum of 2000 pounds. The first prizewinner was Humphrey Davies in 2006, with his translation of a novel by Elias Khoury (”Gate of the Sun”).
The name BANIPAL comes from “Ashurbanipal”, the last great king of Assyria, patron of the fine arts in ancient times. He founded the first great library in Nineveh, where works of famous Mesopotamian poetry such as the Gilgamesh epic were kept on clay tablets.
As the BANIPAL publishers emphasise on their website, all their efforts toward dialogue centre on aesthetic pleasure and enjoyment of literature. These aesthetic delights include the cover of the magazine, which features excerpts from works by well-known Arab artists.
* Volker Kaminski is an author and freelance writer based in Berlin. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Qantara.de, 7 June 2007, www.qantara.de
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
Translated from the German by Isabel Cole
Youth Views
CGNews-PiH also regularly publishes the work of student leaders and journalists whose articles strengthen intercultural understanding and promote constructive perspectives and dialogue in their own communities. Student journalists and writers under the age of 27 are encouraged to write to Chris Binkley ( cbinkley@sfcg.org ) for more information on contributing.
About CGNews-PiH
The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) provides news, op-eds, features and analysis by local and international experts on a broad range of issues affecting Muslim-Western relations. CGNews-PiH syndicates articles that are constructive, offer hope and promote dialogue and mutual understanding, to news outlets worldwide. With support from the British, Norwegian, Swedish and US Governments, the United States Institute of Peace, the National Endowment for Democracy and private donors, the service is a non-profit initiative of Search for Common Ground, an international NGO working in the fields of conflict transformation and media production.
This news service is one outcome of a set of working meetings held in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan in June 2003.