I intended to update the blog much earlier but between one thing or another, I didn't get a chance till now. In fact wanted to share about a talk by the Institute of Policy Studies that I went to last Thursday. This was a talk by His Eminence Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino who is the Special Envoy of Pope Benedict on "The Role of Religions in Promoting Peace and Solidarity, and Denouncing Terrorism."
I've added a link to his speech for those interested (above). But a few important points of the talk I'd like to share:
1. The need for dialogue between religions where mutual listening is important to sustain it.
2. "There can be no true peace without respect for the dignity of individuals and peoples, for the rights and duties of each persons, without an equitable distribution of benefits and burdens between individuals and society as a whole."
3. Roots of terrorism - fundamentalism or nihilism where fundamentalism is defined as the belief that "one is in complete possession of the truth, such that one can impose it by force." That this fundamentalism is contrary to actual religion where Truth belongs only to God and it can never be possessed by man. Nihilism is the opposite end of the spectrum where "no truth and no real objective foundation exists," i.e. where the world is devoid of God.
4. "The service that religions can render to peace and to the fight against terrorrism consists precisely in the pedagogy of love and reconciliation."
I found it very interesting to listen to His Eminence for there are a lot of wisdom in his speech, general though it is. Earlier in the week, I was talking to a friend who is a director in the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore and we were discussing about building bridges across the various religious communities and he shared with me something about the London bombing. It would seem that because of the good relations between the leaders of the various religious communities in London, there was relatively little backlash in London itself when the bombin occurred as opposed to some other parts of Britain where this relationship is weaker or even non-existent.
In Singapore's multi-cultural and multi-religious society, such dialogues are even more necessary as Singapore is so small that whatever concerns one part of it, concerns all. We note that such dialogues are not without its challenges but it is a challenge that would enhance the lives of each and every Singaporean, to truly understand and respect each other's differences and common bonds as opposed to be merely "tolerant."
I also agree with His Eminence about the need to champion human rights and ensuring that no individual is left out as only the elimination of such disparity that truly the "call" of the terrorists would lose their teeth - they can no longer front that they are fighting for justice. In fact I found the discussion on the roots of terrorism interesting. There was a question posed to Cardinal Martino regarding how to bring those who hold strongly to the belief that their religion has the stranglehold on the truth to the discussion table. This is an interesting question which I don't think even the Cardinal himself has been able to answer. However, it is important to persevere in the face of difficulty.
The overall issue on dialogues and methods to bring various communities together is one that bear fruit immediately but I admire and wish those who are working towards building these bridges all the best and may God guide them to success.
Peace.
Sid
