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I'm Chandra Muzaffar from Malaysia, I am Head at the public interest NGO called International
Movement for a Just World, which has been involved in the Dialogue of Civilizations
for quite a long while. We have focused upon dialogues with various religious communities
and we have also looked at the dialogue within the context of our relations, which I think
is very important. In order to understand dialogue both its strength and its failures
one has to look at our relations. I've also involved with World Public Forum, I've been
part of its Annual Program in Rhodes, Greece for the last 2 years. I've been grouped to
its Coordinating Committee and I tried to play more this role in fostering dialogue
through the World Public Forum. The World Public Forum is one of the most
significant platforms that we have today for fostering better relations amongst civilizations,
religious communities, and cultural communities right across the globe. I regarded as a significant
platform because it brings together people from different backgrounds, and it tends to
look at some of the central challenges that confront us, problems related to global hegemony,
problems connected with the global economy, with issues in global politics, the World
Public Forum focuses upon cultural issues of tremendous import and also it tends to
look at issues related to environment and to science. These are some of the fundamental
challenges facing humankind today. What are the barriers to achieving dialogue?
There are number of barriers. One of the most important barriers would be related to the
lack of information, knowledge and understanding of one another, which has being with us for
a very long while. Different cultures and different religions, they have coexisted in
different settings, but the level knowledge and understanding of one another, let alone
empathy and positive feelings of love and understanding. That has always been at a minimal
level in most civilizations right across the ages. It is understandable because people
had lived for very long while with their own silos, things are beginning to change now,
especially with globalization, with all the changes, changes have taken place in technology,
in economics, and so on and so forth. But nonetheless there is a low level of understanding
of one another. Sometimes ignorance, which in itself is not problem, leads to prejudices
and you have people who believe in stereotypes, in half-truth, and distorted images of the
other. So when we try to image the other is a critical challenge and that I think is one
of our barriers. But that in itself, distorted images and the way which one perceives the
other would not be a major challenge, not be for a way in which political groups manipulate
many sentiments that we mind as a second and a far more formidable challenge. The conscious
deliberate manipulation of ethnic and religious sentiments by elites aspiring to achieve power.
This is again is something which is not new. It is ancient, it has been with us for a very
long time except that in contemporary society is largely because of the way in which the
tools of communication had made it so much easier to manipulate the many sentiments.
The challenges has become all the greater. This I would regard as yet another major challenge.
The third challenge is directly connected with globalization. We also witnessing at
the global level the manipulation of ethnic and religious sentiments again for the purposes
of power, to perpetuate power, to ensure that one's own interest dominate and this is done
by some very powerful elites from some very powerful capitals or the world. You will find
that for the last few years, if you look at what has happened, in very concrete terms
US-led invasion of Afghanistan, the US-led invasion of Iraq, what has happened in Pakistan,
on Afghan border, what has happened in Libya, what is happening in Syria, what has happened
in Sudan and Somalia, in various parts of the world, they have contributed without any
doubt at all to a deterioration in relations between religions and cultures, but especially
between the Muslim world and the West. If you talk about the relation between civilizations
today, I think at the crack and the core of this metrics is the relationship between the
Muslim world and the West. Developments in the last few years especially after 9/11 have
I think led to a definite decline in relations between the Muslim world and the West. That
is what we have to be concerned about. Now as a result of what the centers upon the West
have done especially Washington, the conquest of Muslim lands, dominance, the usurpation
of their resources and so on and so forth, you find that some fringe groups in the Muslim
world have also reacted to this and their reaction has in a sense led for the further
deterioration in relations between the West and the Muslim world. Why do I say this? Because
many of the, have chosen to resort to violence in order to express the anger and frustration
at what has been happening. So violence and terrorism have also contributed to the situation
that confronts us as a reaction to the violence of the powerful. Now what is also happened
to the midst of all this you find that term both sides stereotype one another, in the
West -- Islamophobia is quite widespread and within the Muslim world I think there is also
quite a bit of stereotyping of the centers of power in the West and this doesn't contribute
to the type of harmonious intercivilizational ties that we all attempting to bring about.
So I see these as the formidable barriers that confront us.
How one would try to resolve this? If we took the first of the challenges, I think one has
to increase the level of knowledge and understanding of one another. Schools, universities, the
media, religious and cultural institutions, all these and many other channels can play
their role in increasing knowledge and understating of one another. I know It has been done in
various points of history, but it just never really become something major for any nation
on earth, where one really looks at this fundamental challenge, in other words getting people to
know and emphasize of one another on a massive scale. Number two I think that we should also
do is to confront elites within nation-states settings, manipulate ethnic and religious
sentiments for political purposes and we can confront them within the confines of whatever
political system exists, in other words you challenge them politically, mobilize public
opinion, you do all those things in order to show people this sort of approach to politics
is unacceptable, when the masses reject this type of firm ethnic politics, politics related
to religion and culture for very narrow and selfish purposes, elites who resort to that
type of politics will realize after a while that they had no constituency, so I think
that has to happen within nation-states. At the global level this is perhaps a far more
difficult challenge, because you don't have the nation-state type of setting at the global
level. So the way to mobilizes forces that do have to confront, it becomes much more
problematic. Nonetheless it has to be done. I think it is so important for us to expose
the working of the hegemon and what the real motives are what the hegemon tries to achieve,
why the hegemon divides people in order to perpetuate its power, you just look at one
example the day you did to a while ago, if you look at Iraq, for instance, you find that
the hegemon had an interest in playing one sectarian group against the other and after
what it played the other sectarian group against the one that was backing at such a point.
This is going on in different settings, when I look at my own region, Southeast Asia, I
find that there is also the hidden hand of the global hegemon in some other conflicts
which are taking place in countries like Myanmar and Sri Lanka you find that there are also
agendas of this thought. So we have to expose what is happening, that's part of our work
as NGOs, civil society groups and so on. But more than that I think there are developments
which are taking places at the global level which may not have anything to do with dialogue
as such, they are leading to a different type of scenario. What do I mean by this? I think
the hegemon is longer as powerless as it was and that is a lot do with the configuration
of global power. The rise of China as an economic power, the resurgence of Russia as a political
and military power and if you look at the emergence of new centers of power, like India
or Brazil or perhaps even South Africa in certain context you look at all these changes
that are taking place and I would add Iran and Turkey, and South Korea, they are going
to make a very big difference in the long run. The emergence of new centers of power
means that the unipolar world is coming to an end. We are seeing the building of a multipolar
world which means that dialogue among civilizations, cultures and religions will be more meaningful
and equitable in a sense, because you don't have one dominance center which perpetuates
discourse in its own interest. That is going to change, it is beginning to change, we can
see it all around us. So that I think is very positive development which encourage the process,
civil society groups, the media should play their role in trying to encourage this process,
the change, that is taking place. At the same time I think it is important for us to show
humankind, that there are hopeful signs around, the decline is taking place, yes, it is a
hopeful sign, there are people opposing hegemony, that's hopeful, but what is equally hopeful
is I think the great understanding among people today, that they have a lot in common with
one another. In spite of all the differences in religion and culture, that there are similarities,
the affinities when you look at how different cultures and religions look at the environment,
how they look at the use of resources, how they look at the family, how they look at
politics, the economy. We are talking of values and principles embodied in all our cultures,
there are tremendous similarities that have not been emphasized enough. So people are
becoming aware of this and these I think are some of the hopeful signs on the horizon.
Or that reason I am one of those persons who remain optimistic about the future. It's going
to take a long while, but all the great changes that have taken place at the civilizational
level have taken a long while. We are I think perhaps at the beginning of a major transformation
that we will witness over the next few centuries.