13 August 2005

BEIRUT: The role of interfaith dialogue in preventing religious conflicts was the center of discussion and debate in a public lecture at the United Nations headquarters in Beirut. The public lecture is part of the Summer Internship on Conflict Resolution held at the Lebanese American University in coordination with the UN.

The head of the Arab Team for Christian Muslim Dialogue, Abbas al-Halabi asked: "Is religion a cause for division and war? Or is it a pre-requisite for unity?"

He then explained how religions have been used in the past to justify terrorist acts, not only in Islam, but in Christianity and Judaism as well.

He said that the cause of conflict is the ambiguities that exist amongst religions, and thus dialogue is key in eliminating these ambiguities.

"The spirit of the religious message brings people together, but the text brings them apart" he said, drawing his answer to the question at hand that religion was not a cause of war, but rather a cause for reconciliation.

In confirmation of this statement, he added that by analyzing history one would find that periods of coexistence in a sectarian country like Lebanon have been longer than periods of war, another clue that religion was not the cause of war.

He reiterated that "there is no alternative to dialogue, the only alternative is destruction and there will be no winner then."

The secretary general of the Arab Team Reverend Dr. Riad Jarjour held the same opinions as Halabi, and stressed on the problem of misinterpretation and ambiguities between religions thus emphasizing the need for peaceful and tolerant dialogue. He criticized people who use religion and the important role religious authorities can play in people's lives in order to pursue goals of personal empowerment.

"We should not fear for religion, and we should not fear religion. We should fear those who are using religion in order to harbor economic and political conflict," he said.

He defined the main criteria for successful interfaith dialogue such as the need for dialogue to involve genuine tolerance of one another, and not mere superficial coexistence. He also stressed that "dialogue must be between the masses, and not just limited to a summit, and that time must not be wasted focusing on ideological issues."

According to him, deviations such as disfiguring the image of the other or fearing him, which have been known by many in the Middle East, must be limited as much as possible.

He ended his talk by using examples of the successes of the Arab Team in Sudan and Egypt in avoiding conflicts by interfaith dialogue and limiting misinterpretations.

"Religion is not at all a cause of conflict," said Ibrahim Shamseddine, son of the spiritual leader of Lebanese Shiites Mohammad Mehdi Shamseddine.

Political tensions, which must be fought, are the cause. He denounced politicians who, instead of serving the people, want to achieve their goals at any cost at the expense of morals, and values. "When a politician comes to power, power becomes the focus of his love," he said.

"In Lebanon," he added, "our experience has made different faiths closer and more willing to make an effort to coexist, despite the mistakes of politicians."

He ended his speech with a hopeful note, that one day politicians might become more concerned with the people of their country than with themselves.