‘Interfaith council can prevent another Mohammad cartoon fury’

Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. proposed to the United Nations yesterday the creation of an interfaith council within its system in order to prevent a repeat of the outrage generated after a Danish newspaper printed a series of offensive cartoons depicting Islam’s Prophet Mohammad.

He said the issue currently raging between the European and Muslim communities around the world seems to be the beginning of a "clash of civilizations which historians foresee, as globalization forces once separate cultures to interact and come together."

"Already the western political right to free expression has clashed with the Muslim code of respect for its holiest figure," De Venecia said of the violent protests staged by the Muslim community worldwide.

He said similar conflicts "are bound to recur and with increasing intensity in our hybrid societies — unless we are able to inculcate new rules of civic behavior respectful of other cultures and other religions."

In a statement, De Venecia explained that an interfaith council — under the control of the UN Security Council — "could institutionalize interfaith dialogue, as well as draw up and enforce rules of inter-cultural behavior in an increasingly interdependent world.

"It could coordinate, monitor, expand and follow through on recommendations and decisions of interfaith dialogues at global, regional, and national levels in various areas of the world with politico-religious conflicts," he said.

De Venecia added that the interfaith council could "contribute to peaceful co-existence and mutual respect among the great religions, great civilizations and cultures of the world.

"A code of conduct may be recommended and agreed upon by the interfaith dialogues to help govern decisions and actions of religious organizations, governments, political parties and civil society in dealing with religious, cultural and sectarian outrage," he said.

De Venecia said this is a major factor in the Philippine proposal for the creation of an interfaith council, which was drawn up by President Arroyo, Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo and himself.

De Venecia is the principal author of the Philippine resolution calling for an "interfaith dialogue" to isolate extremists who advocate terrorism in the name of religion and to prevent a potential "clash of civilizations."

The resolution, co-sponsored by Iran and 23 other states, was approved by acclamation at the UN General Assembly in November 2004.