2014 INTERFAITH CONFERENCE - FAITH AND JUSTICE
Report Interfaith Conference
Faith & Justice
15th November 2014
Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
Organized by the International Student Chaplaincy
Preface
The Student Chaplaincy is proud to present a report for theInterfaith Conference which was held on the 15th November 2014, at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague. This has become an event which is celebrated with various themes every year.
We thank everyone who contributed for the success of the day: An active group of students and young professionals who prepared the conference and helped on the day itself, our key note speaker Dion van den Berg van (PAX), a panel of ‘wise people’, leaders, moderators and reporters of the group sessions, musicians and singers, the jury of the art contest, our dance leader Belinda, our experienced MC Jackson Odong, and the almost 100 students and others who attended the conference representing many religious and non religious traditions and 38 nationalities.We also extend how our heartfelt thanks for the financial and moral support from the Protestant Church in the Netherlands (PKN) and another protestant organization and the Institute of Social Studies as a whole.Special mention also goes to Pablo and Abdelrahman , Dhika and Michito, Reza and Esia for writing the report, editing it and taking photos during the Conference
The function was celebrated under the theme “Faith & Justice” which allowed us to differentiate between faith and religion. We realized that religion can both contribute to legitimize injustice as to motivate believers to work for justice in its many forms as economic, environmental, social, and gender justice.
You can also watch a 5 minute film on youtubeabout the conference (thanks to Tjitte Dijkstra). The link is:
On behalf of the International Student Chaplaincy
Rev. Waltraut Stroh
Program
Time / Activity10:00 / Registration, refreshments
10:15 / Musical contribution by the ISS band (Lucas, Tumaine, Amartya, Sarah, Gifty)
10:30 / Opening by Rev. Waltraut Stroh, chaplain International Student Chaplaincy
10:35 / Words of inspiration from different religious traditions
10:55 / Welcome message by Dr. Helen Hintjens (Senior Lecturer Development & Social Justice) on behalf of the ISS.
11:05 / Keynote speech ´Faith & Justice´ - Mr. Dion van den Berg
12:00 / Council of wise people (Jewish, Bahá’í, Christian, Muslim)
12:40 / Participatory Session
13:00 / Lunch
14:00 / Group Sessions
15:30 / Break, photo and art exhibition
16:00 / Musical intermezzo, by Mary van, Koel, Baha’í uit Maastricht
16:15 / Reports from the group sessions
16:35 / Winner of the Art Contest announced
16:45 / Closing Ceremony dance
1700 / Official Closing of the Conference by Father Avin, chaplain International Student Chaplaincy
1
2014 INTERFAITH CONFERENCE - FAITH AND JUSTICE
Opening of the conference
1
2014 INTERFAITH CONFERENCE - FAITH AND JUSTICE
Good morning everybody, welcome to our Interfaith Conference. For those who come from outside The Hague, welcome to the international city of peace and justice, a proper place to reflect about justice from our various religious traditions and world views.
This conference is organized by the International Student Chaplaincy, and has been prepared by an enthusiastic group of students and young professionals from The Hague and Delft. What motivated all of us is our desire to overcome our religious and cultural differences and discover more and more our common humanity.
Our theme today is “Faith & Justice”. By faith we mean our deepest convictions, visions and longings, which are deeply rooted in our heart, illuminating our mind, creating communities, and inspiring our actions.
We make a difference between faith and religion. Religion is the organized form of faith with rules, rituals, dogmas and institutions.
Why do we deal with justice?
We deal with justice because we experience a lot of injustice, in our personal life, our relationships, our work,in our societies and in our global world. We encounter economic
inequality, gender oppression, social discrimination, the exploitation of nature.
Injustice is born out of fear and out of greed. It is fed by lack of knowledge, by prejudice and by ideological indoctrination including religious indoctrination. Injustice in its many forms breads violence, extremism and war.The more people encounter injustice the stronger the longing for a just world and the struggle for justice.
Our logo shows symbols of several religions and an empty space for anyone who does not identify with any of the other religions or with any religion at all. You are invited to fill this space with your own world view.In the centre of the logo you can see a scale and a dove, symbols of justice and peace. What brings us together today, what holds us together and what calls us to action is our common human search for justice.
I wish that at the end of this day you will go home with renewed inspiration and a clearer idea what steps you can take in order to transform places on injustice into places of hope, knowing that you share this commitment with many friends of various religions and world views.
By Rev.Waltraut Stroh
Chaplain International Student Chaplaincy
1
2014 INTERFAITH CONFERENCE - FAITH AND JUSTICE
Welcome Remarks
The welcome remarks were given by Dr. Helen Hintjens who is a Senior Lecturer Development & Social Justice. She explained why the 20th century is known as the Century of War. This was linked to the history of the genocides which happened in the Century. The three major ones she talked about were the Armenian, Holocaust and Rwanda genocide. Yet at the same time, she applauded the 20thtremendous achievements which took place in the 20th century.
“One of the 20th century’s hallmark achievements was its progress in human rights. In 1900 more than half the world’s people lived under colonial rule, and no country gave all its citizens the right to vote. Today some three-quarters of the world lives under democratic regimes. There has also been great progress in eliminating discrimination by race, religion and gender—and in advancing the right to schooling and basic health care (UNDP Human Development Report 2000, p. xv).”
Dr. Helen Hintjens further used Kahlil Gibran’s words to describe the paradoxes of the 20th and the 21st Century. In her speech, she mentioned Gibran was always interested in paradoxesas he described his attitude towards religion. Thus for him it does not matter what we call God.
“Last night I invented a new pleasure, and as I was giving it the first trial an angel and a devil came rushing toward my house. They met at my door and fought with each other over my newly created pleasure; the one crying, “It is a sin!”--the other, “It is a virtue!” (Take your pick and enjoy the day).”
Keynote speech
By Dion van den Berg*
Faith & Justice. Some experiences from conflict regions
ISS, 15 November, 2014
Summary
Religion is part of the wider concept of Faith, and even religion is bigger than we often think. It does not only refer to buildings and religious leaders, there are other dimensions as well, such as: the essence of what a religion embodies, translated into the core norms and values; and a very important component is the value religion has as source of inspiration and motivation for individual believers. In many conflict regions, we see that religious leaders do not promote dialogue but stand with ethnic policies or nationalism while individual believers in the same country do the opposite and reach out to ‘others’.
A good, and very relevant example of religious actors getting involved in struggle for democracy and freedom is the fall of the Berlin Wall. The fall of the Berlin Wall is not just the doing of Reagan and Gorbachev. From the end of the seventies and the early eighties, churches supported movements and individuals striving for freedom in the communist countries. Just a few examples: the Roman Catholic Church in Poland backing the independent trade union Solidarnosc (Solidarity), the protestant church (EKD) in East-Germany supporting “Schwerter zo Pflugscharen’ (Swords to Ploughshares), and a few years later the catholic priest Vaclav Maly involved in Charter 77 (Czechoslovakia).
If we look at the case of the former Yugoslavia, we unfortunately see quite a grim picture. Most of the religious leaders sided with nationalist parties, throughout the war. There were brave local exceptions, but over-all religion played a negative role in the Balkan wars of the eighties. And still, many of the religious leaders support the continuation of exclusive ethnic policies.
Only the very small religious communities played a more positive role, and were able to do so thanks to the fact that they were no direct threat to the bigger religious communities. The Jewish aid organization´La Benevolencija´ stayed neutral and was able to deliver humanitarian aid to all citizens of Sarajevo, during the siege of that city (1992-1995).
Unfortunately, the relationship between such initiatives and the pro-peace civil society organizations was weak. This is also the case in other conflict areas, such as South Sudan. It is worth improving the relationship between all pro-peace and pro-democracy actors in conflict areas and countries undergoing transition from a dictatorship (closed society) to more democracy (open society).
South Sudan indeed gives us a few good examples of the positive role religious leaders can plan. Even though in the local context religious leaders may tend to support tribal agendas, at the national level the catholic, protestant and Anglican church leaders lobby for the end of violence and they really try to influence the ongoing negotiations in Addis Abeba. Very promising local work is done through, among others, the Holy Trinity Peace Village of Kuron, set up and run by emeritus bishop Paride Taban. Many refer to him as the ´Desmond Tutu of South Sudan´.
Working with bishops is nevertheless sometimes problematic. In the regional context (Uganda, South Sudan, Congo (DRC)), PAX tried to support a regional consultation and lobby of bishops in the areas affected by the Lord Resistance Army. This initiative did not gain momentum, among others because bishops are used to have to lead in pretty much all they do.
In Syria, religious leaders were given special attention by the Assad regime. He favoured some religious communities, not only the Alewite that president Assad belongs to, but also some smaller ones such as the Christians. Where many among the Christian leadership has long supported Assad and often still do, many of the local Christian communities have supported the Syrian revolution, that started Spring 2011. President Assad tried to frame the revolution as ‘a Sunni rebellion’, giving it a religious character that it does not have. As the Jewish were very active in Bosnia, so were and are the Jesuits in Syria. And in the region of Daraa a non-violent Muslim movement was very important for the revolution. The Assad regime continues to target all non-violent activists, as they pose to him an even bigger threat than the armed groups fighting him.
In the case of Iraq, religious leaders created huge problems but also some very interesting multi-religious initiatives have developed. The Iraqi Council for Interfaith Dialogue started the campaign ´We are all human´, and they developed and published a ´roadmap towards diversity in Iraq´, with as the key components:
♦A national approach: legal reform
♦Working with youth: a new, inclusive generation
♦Working on education: reform of school curriculums and a religious school for comparative religion
♦Support for moderate religious leaders
If we look at all of these examples of religious activity in conflict areas, these are some of the main conclusions:
♦Among believers, there is a lack of awareness of what other religions stand for. There is lack of trust among the various communities.
♦Quite often, there is also a clear lack of interest. Only few people see the relevance of inter-religious dialogue and cooperation.
♦So, there is a lot of religious segregation
♦In many cases, religious leaders have sided with nationalist and sectarian political leaders.
♦The religious dimension of conflict is often not properly analyzed. We overlook:
the dynamics of instrumentalisation. In many cases, religious identities are used by political leaders to strengthen their position. The religious dimension of conflict is often not the first dimension and not the most important dimension.
The historical roots of religious identity and conflicts. In order to bring about sustainable peace in areas where a religious component has fuelled conflict, we need to analyze much better what the root causes are and what has to be done to address grievances from the past.
♦Many diplomats, coming for secular and ‘modern’ counties, lack the sensitivity for the potential of religion. They often approach religious leaders as if they were politicians (sometimes, they are…) and they cannot communicate in language and vocabulary that would challenge religious communities to work for peace
♦Local groups and individual believers have done amazing things, inspired by their beliefs and often supported by local religious leaders. They do not get the support they deserve.
♦The international community should focus more on initiatives breaking the ‘logic’ of sectarianism and nationalism.
♦In many cases, intra-religious dialogue should precede interreligious dialogue. Within their community, the ones promoting peace and interreligious dialogue are often weak and easily overburdened. More attention should be paid to enlarging the group of people supporting peace and democracy, and to that end the intra-religious dialogue should be supported.
♦Long-term commitment and support are needed, not just ad-hoc assistance.
♦In post-conflict and post-war settings, where inclusive democratic models are to be developed, religious leaders do not automatically belong to the ‘change agents’. Given the fact that most of the religious communities are not very democratically organized themselves, they have a hard time dealing with the challenge to participate in democratization processes – even where a majority of citizens is supporting that development.
Interventions, from the part of religious communities, should better be based on inclusiveness, civil rights, citizenship: protect all minorities and citizens under threat! Why?
♦This will help build alliances between minorities
♦This will help to reach out to the moderate groups within the ruling group or majority
♦This will help restore the credibility of the international community
If peace and democracy are all about uniting people and the search for common ground, we should not emphasize religious or ethnic or tribal affiliations, as these will easily divide people. We have to focus on citizenship and equal rights for all.
* Mr. Dion van den Berg is Senior policy advisor in the Dutch organization PAX. He has a background on literature and linguistics. Since 1977, he has been working as a peace activist. Dion van den Berg has as its main fields of interest: ´democratization and peace building’, ‘dealing with the past’, and ‘religion and conflict’. He has experience in many countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Council of wise people
Carola de Vries Robles, Jewish
Born in 1946 as a Jew in post Holocaust Amsterdam, she dealt with the aftermath of the holocaust.She is social psychologist, psychotherapist and trauma specialist by profession.
Panel of the Wise people
In my training as a psychotherapist, I was informed about Freud and the Western thinking,so that meantI had to go back to my parents and my birth in a way,not further than that, but I had to go backand had to look for all the problems and all the drama.At a certain point, I have discovered through yoga and Hinduism, and a little bit of meditation, that there was a beautiful silence in an open space (…) In one of my training sessions (…) I said: ´I don’t want to go back to either my father or my mother or my family drama. If I fall in this gap, there is total sadness… I don´t want to get in… There is a piece in me which is unwounded.
Hooshmand Badee, Baha´i
He is an author and an academic economist by profession and has presented numerous papers in academic conferences. He is also a Faith Adviser at York St John University in the UK representing the Baha´i Faith.
One serious economic injustice that is actually supported by many economists… is the increasing gap between the rich and the poor (…) We see that this problem is becoming even more serious (…) extremes of wealth and poverty (…) Can we create a conscience of justice? When you see injustice, talk about that, raise your voice. Let´s start from our self-practicing and being part of justice. Remember: creating a culture of justice takes time. With this Conference we cannot create justice but we can create awareness of.
Herman Wijtten, Christian
He studied philosophy, theology and sociology and later religion and culture. He focuses his efforts on the promotion of justice, peace and integrity of creation.
I´ve realized more and more that my work on justice andpeace needed to be founded also on my faith (…) If you want to work together with different religious orientations then it is very important to know what the other person believes in, what his context is. In every religion you have pros and cons. So, you should be very much aware of your own limitations but also of the potential and limitations of other religions.
Abdelrahman Adam, Muslim