Violence not religious problem: Speakers

Lilian Budianto ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Fri, 06/27/2008 10:06 AM  |  Headlines

The World Peace Forum ended Thursday with a call to stop treating violence as a religiously embedded problem, which could result in a further polarization between the West and the Muslim world.

SHARING THE MOMENT: British Ambassador to Indonesia Martin Hatfull (left) and former Tunisian prime minister Hedi Baccouche share a moment before speaking at the World Peace Forum at the Hotel Sultan in Jakarta on Thursday. (JP/Berto Wedhatama)

Speaking at the final plenary forum, Mohamed Noman Galal, adviser for International Strategic Studies and the Dialogue of Civilizations at the Bahrain Center for Studies and Research, said violence in the Middle East had become overly identified with its religious aspects.

As a result, the world is dissuaded from perceiving the problem as an urgent human rights issue, he said.

"Certain religious groups might be held responsible for the turmoil in the Middle East, but it doesn't directly mean that the unrest is triggered by the religion they embrace," he said.

"Muslims never promote hatred toward others," he said, pointing to the conflict between Palestine and Israel in which audiences all over the world have been presented with pictures of frequent terrorism by civilians.

"Such brutality does not represent Muslims and their teachings. It reflects their frustration over the colonization by Israel," he said.

Since Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and the Sinai Peninsula in 1967, the two countries have been engaged in battle over claims to the holy land. The invasion by Israel also strained its relationship with most of its neighbors, including Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

A peace effort brokered by the United States, seen as a staunch ally of Israel, is at a stalemate. A number of key issues, including competing claims over Jerusalem, have stalled talks between the two sides.

Jeremy Jones, co-chairman for the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslim and Jews in Melbourne, said at the forum that if the whole world treated the problem in the Middle East as an issue of human rights, there would be no pro-Israel or pro-Palestine approach.

"We are seeking a pro-peace approach, where everybody involved in the conflict can settle on and live peacefully side by side," he said.

Hedi Baccouche, former prime minister of Tunisia, said the incessant conflicts and wars in the Middle East had given religion a bad name.

"The name of Islam has been spoiled and the effect is to be felt by Muslims around the world," he said.

Mohammed al Hasan Shabbo, chairman of the Arab League Representative in Beijing, said religion had suffered a blow from the escalation of violence in the Middle East triggered by the invasion of the United States of Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the big world powers should contain their aggression and slake their thirst for energy to prevent more conflicts.

British Ambassador to Indonesia Martin Hatfull said Western countries were committed to achieving world peace, while seeing the major problem that had dragged people into violence as poverty and climate change.

Another speaker at the forum, Sunggon Kim, the secretary-general of the Asian Conference on Religions for Peace in South Korea, said interfaith dialogue played an important role in clearing up misunderstandings surrounding Islam.

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