Islam
Zaki Badawi
Principal of the Muslim College in London
鈥淩eligious differences do not cause conflict. Religion comes in only once the lines of conflict have been drawn, and the people who start the violence may not be religious at all. When the Germans were knocking at the gates of Moscow during the Second World War, for instance, Stalin called on the Patriarch to help mobilise public opinion to stand up to the Germans. You cannot believe that Stalin was a particularly pious Christian.
鈥淩eligion plays a part in conflict because it has the power to influence people鈥檚 emotion. Islam runs very deep in Arab societies, it is part of our being, our identity. Hence an appeal to it would be natural, and it would have an echo very quickly.
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鈥淎s Muslims, we would very much like everybody to be a Muslim, but through dialogue. The Koran tells us to encourage people through dialogue and good manners and gentle words. Conflict can happen if you use methods that are not legal, or not just. Islam has an agreement with the Vatican that we should avoid preaching our religions in each other鈥檚 territories in Africa. We have a large sea of non-Christians and non-Muslims who are still following the traditional African religions that we can both work and compete for.
鈥淥ne hopeful outcome of the terrorist attacks on September 11 is that many people have started writing and reading about Islam, and reading the Koran. This will make people realise that the propaganda that has filled Western minds since the Crusades-that Islam has an inherent hostility towards Christians or towards the West in general-has no foundation. Of course there have been wars between Muslim and Christians, but these wars were about territory or property, not about religion. They still are. The Americans are not in Saudi Arabia to try to convert the Saudis to Christianity, or for that matter even to secularism. They are there because of the oil.
鈥淥n the question of suicide bombers, they are driven primarily by the physical conditions to which they are subjected. Being subjected to brutal treatment fills them with rage and an urge to inflict harm on anyone, however innocent, who might be connected with their tormentor. The religious element is a minor factor in their behaviour. Suicide bombers are present in every culture. You find them in Japan, Sri Lanka, India and South America. Incidentally, the first Palestinian suicide bomber was a Christian, not a Muslim.
鈥淭he Palestinian-Israeli conflict is essentially a question of human rights. The truly religious people treat the Palestinians as human beings. The myths that have been spread about the conflict-that Palestine was a country without people, for example-have nothing to do with religion. The first step is to treat the Palestinians as human beings. Any Jew who says otherwise would not be a Jew. He would be a politician. The worst politician is the one who uses religion to achieve his objectives. He muddies the name of religion because he uses it in this fashion. Like-wise, the religious person who uses his position to achieve his political objectives corrupts politics.鈥�
Judaism
Albert Friedlander
Rabbi emeritus of Westminster Synagogue in London
鈥淚 believe in the total separation of church and state because it is too tempting for religions to use the power of the state to propagate their own ends. Abortions are one example. If they are given extra power, most religions try to push their own approach to the detriment of their neighbours. And it is quite true that religious differences, more than anything else, have created evil situations.
鈥淚 believe in the basic decency of human beings, and I believe that in most religions the majority of believers want to reach out towards others and that they respect others. When a religious person is sure of what they believe and practise, then they are much more relaxed and they can accept others. Fanatics tend to cling to some smaller aspect of the totality and they ignore the bulk of the religion in which they have been brought up.
鈥淗ow can religion help resolve conflict? First of all, individuals have to acknowledge their own shortcomings. In the Middle East conflict, Yasser Arafat and Ariel Sharon are totally frozen in their roles as fighters and this has made it almost impossible for reconciliation to take place. There has to be an acknowledgement by both sides of things that have been done wrong. This has to be said at the beginning, not the end, of the bargaining.
鈥淚 do a great deal of work in Germany. I do not treat the children of those who have sinned against the Jews during the Second World War as sinners. I do not think that they should have to carry the burden of guilt. But they should carry the burden of responsibility. Most religions hold that you do not carry the burden of the sins that have been committed in the past by your ancestors, but you carry the responsibility to undo the effects of those past actions.鈥�
Catholicism
Michael Sabbah
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
鈥淪hould Catholics try to convert others to Christianity? Every believer must believe that his religion is best for him and for everyone. If he did not, he would be a liar and a hypocrite. What remains of my religion if I don鈥檛 see that it is the best? And since I believe that my religion is best for everyone, I have a duty to share it with others.
鈥淏ut while it is my responsibility to give what I have of my religion, it is not my responsibility that the other person takes. When I make the other鈥檚 taking my responsibility, then it becomes not a sharing but an aggression. Some people do not respect this freedom of taking. But if I impose my faith upon someone who sincerely believes that he has all the truth, then I induce him in error, because he sincerely does not believe that my faith is the true one.
鈥淐orruption of faith comes when a political leader gives to the religion other meanings, other ideas, other aims. Religion is my link with God, and with the creatures of God. Religion is to love every creature of God. Now if I do not respect other people as creatures of God, I have no religion at all, whatever tradition I come from.
鈥淭here is nothing bad in religion itself. What is bad is the one who uses religion for other purposes, especially for the killing of others. That evil is not in the religion, it is in the man.鈥�
Anglicanism
Michael Nazir-Ali
Bishop of Rochester
鈥淩eligion is sometimes a defining character in conflict between groups because it can be so fundamental to a people鈥檚 identity and culture. When that identity is threatened then religion becomes a factor. In this, it is no different from politics or economics. It is something quite basic to human society.
鈥淚n the 20th century, most of the mega conflicts in the world were caused by secular rather than religious ideologies. National socialism, for example, and Stalinism, and on a smaller scale Pol Pot in Kampuchea. Many of the tribal conflicts in Africa have been caused more by ethnic than religious differences.
鈥淗owever, as well as having a responsibility to provide cohesion for society, religion has a responsibility to challenge society and its leaders when they are going wrong, when they are oppressing their own people or engaging in unjustified conflict with another state.鈥�
Buddhism
The Dalai Lama
鈥淚 see all the different religious traditions as paths for the development of inner peace, which is the true foundation of world peace. We need to ensure that different religions of the world can become powerful allies of peace. To do this, the different faiths need to develop mutual respect for and understanding of each other鈥檚 beliefs and values. The world鈥檚 religions can contribute to world peace if there is peace and growing harmony between the different faiths.
鈥淚t is also my belief that whereas the 20th century was a century of war and untold suffering, the 21st century should be one of peace and dialogue. As the continued advances in information technology make our world a truly global village, I believe there will be a time when war and armed conflict will be considered an outdated and obsolete method of settling differences among nations and communities. The nations and peoples of the world will soon realise that dialogue and compromise are the best methods of settling differences for mutual benefit and for the sake of our future and the future of our much ravaged and fragile planet.
鈥淗owever, there can be no peace as long as there is grinding poverty, social injustice, inequality, oppression, environmental deg-radation, and as long as the weak and small continue to be trodden by the mighty and powerful.鈥�
Taken from the Dalai Lama鈥檚 message to the Millennium World Peace Summit, August 2000