Reporting on Conflict | Media Watch BlogPeacemakers Trust posts news, reports or announcements of interest to people studying or working in the field of dispute resolution, conflict transformation and peacebuilding. Inclusion of an item on the media watch blog does not imply endorsement or agreement of Peacemakers Trust with views expressed by authors of posted items.
At a time when there are signs of hope emerging from the churches in the Middle East around the conflict in Palestine and Israel, a World Council of Churches delegation led by General Secretary the Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit will be travelling to the region to emphasise the need for a “just peace”.
(...more)In addition to spawning passionate debates in the public, the news media and the political class, the proposal to build a Muslim community center near Ground Zero in New York has revealed widespread misconceptions about the practice of Islam in this country — and the role of mosques in particular.
(...more)As historians of American Catholicism, and Catholics, we are concerned to see the revival of a strain of nativism in the current controversy over the establishment of an Islamic center some blocks from Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.
(...more)Who tugs at your heartstrings? The children of Haiti, their homes crushed by an earthquake? The breast cancer victim, whose illness means she won’t see her children grow up? The drug addict whose habit has wrecked his life? The people of Pakistan, devastated by floods? Or someone in prison for a shocking offence who pleads to be freed to die in their own home?
Cries for help, be they from people wanting practical help or charitable aid, elicit a variety of responses, some based on whether we can afford to help, some due to compassion for fellow human beings. But events of recent weeks suggest that something else is happening too, something akin to the Victorians’ idea about the deserving and undeserving. This is not so much compassion as a judgmental Lady Bountiful act.
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Archbishop Elias Chacour, who is both a Palestinian and a citizen of Israel, has told a large gathering in Edinburgh that a just and peaceful future in Israel and Palestine depends upon education.
The average age in the area he lives, said the Archbishop, is 14 years, and many young people have been deeply shaped and scarred by the history of occupation and eviction. Transformation of lives and understanding is vital, he suggested.
Chacour is the Archbishop of Akko, Haifa, Nazareth and Galilee of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Noted for his efforts to promote reconciliation, he is the author of two books about the experience of Palestinian people living in present-day Israel – including the best-seller Blood Brothers, which broke boundaries in the UK by being published by a major evangelical company.
(...more)Scholars and practitioners have devoted increasing attention to the roles played by religious leaders and communities, both in instigating and prolonging violent conflict and in negotiating and building peace. In much of the world, formal religious leadership tends to be heavily dominated by men, and so investigations of religion and conflict have tended to focus on men’s perspectives and roles. Women’s engagement in religious peacemaking has received far less attention and their perspectives, needs, and unique leverage are often largely ignored in the design of traditional religious peacemaking initiatives. However, women often play critical roles in conflict situations…. Recent Interviews
Where does America put God? Historically, there has always been tension between the separation of church and state that the United States has enshrined in its Constitution, and regular upsurges of religious faith, even religious extremism, that seek an outlet in the political process – or even seek to dominate it.
Nowhere is this tension more visible today than in the struggle for the political soul of the Tea Party.
(...more)Christians are being encouraged to “share a little peace with their neighbours”, in the form of a new booklet from the Methodist Church.
Lavishly illustrated, A Gift of Peace features quotes from the Bible as well as reflections on peace from a variety of authors including Lao Tzu, Benjamin Franklin and Mother Theresa of Calcutta.
Churches are encouraged to give the booklets away as well as using them for personal or small group reflection.
(...more)This is an update about the first annual Muslim Jewish Conference in Vienna – a gathering of young professionals from 25 countries.
The Muslim Jewish Conference is a dream for interfaith dialogue that young students worked hard to realize. The size was right – sixty participants from Indonesia to Israel.
(...more)It’s the summer camp with a difference. No whittling of sticks or food on the open fire.
Warwick University this weekend is the venue for what is billed as the UK’s first anti-terrorism camp and the BBC has been along to find out why so many Muslims turned up.
Inside the lecture hall, you could hear a pin drop…
The 1,300 delegates were listening to Dr Muhammad Tahir ul-Qadri, an Islamic scholar with a gift for rhetorical flourishes and what he describes as a message of love for mankind….
Love is purity, he tells them. The Arabic word for love used in the Koran is related to the word for seed. No plant can grow without a seed – and so no pious act can grow without love. If love is the seed of every act of piety, then how can an act of hate like terrorism please God?
(...more)I last wrote about pending legislation to ban burqas in Europe more than a year ago when France first proposed laws to make it illegal to wear the burqa in public. Proposed legislation is pending with a final vote set in September.
There is no argument that can persuade me that laws designed to bully women into abandoning their cultural traditions because it makes people uncomfortable are essential in a free society. If a woman chooses to wear the niqab who are we to pass judgment? Lawmakers who argue that banning the burqa is a blow against extremism are naïve and lazy. Band-Aid approaches to fighting extremism are rarely successful. It only serves to pander to the ignorance and unfounded fears of politicians’ constituents.
Yet I have grown to hate the burqa. I hate the burqa because it serves no logical purpose in Western society. The intent of the clothing is to draw attention away from the woman, but in the West it only attracts unwanted attention.
(...more)l Res-ti-tu-tion: the act of returning something lost or stolen to its owner, or of paying for damage.
lRe-pri-sal: an act of punishing others for harm done to oneself, especially of a political or military kind.
l Re-demp-tion: the act of making free from blame or bringing back into favour
l Ret-ri-bu-tion: severe, deserved punishment.
l Re-sto-ra-tive: something which brings back to a healthy condition or back to its original state.
l Re-dun-dant: not needed; more than is necessary.
You may wonder why anyone would think all the words (loosely) defined above should be part of any discussion on national healing and reconciliation.
It’s not because I opened my dictionary at “r” and stopped there! But oddly enough all these “r” words are relevant to Zimbabwe’s discourse on the matter.
(...more)… This series of demonstrations, and the ongoing demonstrations against expansion of the Israeli separation wall in Beit Jalla and nearby al-Walajeh are part of a growing number of nonviolent demonstrations orchestrated by popular committees and Palestinian nongovernmental committees as acts of civil disobedience against the Israeli occupation.
(...more)A surprising number of high-profile peacebuilders in the last generation have been religious figures, says Daniel Philpott of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. Faith-motivated people — from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Pope John Paul II to theologians and activists working in every major religion worldwide — have promoted the concept of reconciliation, which has shaped the politics of countries from South Africa and Guatemala to Timor-Leste and Iraq.
“The idea of reconciliation has deep roots in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other faiths,” says Philpott, associate professor of political science and peace studies, who is directing a new research program on religion and reconciliation at the Kroc Institute.
(...more)The ongoing conflict between adherents of Islam and the West has deep roots in history, notes Amr Abdalla.
“Both sides believe that right is on their side and that they are fighting for the good of humanity,” the Costa Rican University of Peace Professor of Conflict Analysis Resolution explained to an audience of about 100 who came to hear him speak at the University of Winnipeg on Thursday, May 26. “This is not a conflict that is going to be resolved any time soon. But we have to start somewhere.”
(...more)BaNGKOK – An intervention of religious leaders could help provide a peaceful solution in Thailand before the possible “catastrophe” of a civil war, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand has said.
Archbishop Louis Chamniern of Thare and Nonseng told Fides news agency that the leaders of different religious communities in the country, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims, have “the confidence, credibility, and esteem of the population that today could be very useful in resolving the deadlock and avoiding more violence.”
(...more)As a relatively recent U.S. citizen, I sometimes despair at the polarization of Democrats and Republicans and the angry vitriol that erupts from this divide. As a Muslim, I tire of the mean-spirited campaigns of fear mongering and hate that religious extremists direct at those with different beliefs. This incessant appeal to the basest elements of our nature—our fear of the Other, our easy refuge in Us vs. Them divides—is disturbing.
This issue, I realize, is not so much about the Other as it is about me. The issue is a deeply spiritual one, and I look for guidance in the Quran. A verse repeated several times in the Holy Book tells me that God will not change the condition of a people unless they change what is in their hearts…
(...more)Endorsing a campaign by UK churches, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba of Hiroshima has stressed the crucial role of British citizens in helping to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
(...more)KITCHENER – More than 200 people attended the session — Let Us talk: An Open Discussion on the Niqab ban — organized by a grassroots group of concerned Muslim women. The group wanted to raise awareness in the community about the ban and bring people together to talk openly about how to support one another.
(...more)Sunday, 6 June 2010 to Friday, 18 June 2010
Pathways For Mutual Respect and the Yale Center for Faith and Culture announce their 2nd annual Summer Institute: Paradigms & Practice: Approaching “Islam-West” Relations. The Institute will be in session from June 6-18. Visit www.pfmr.orgfor more details. They are now accepting applications. Applications should be submitted by May 15 to be considered for financial aid.
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