It is good to talk

The cartoon controversy may seem a disaster but it also carries the seeds of understanding. After the anger dies down, Danes and Muslims should sit down and talk, not necessarily with a view to ending differences (because differences will remain). It is good to talk. Sometimes, the attempt to reconcile wide differences can be the source of conflict itself.

What is the point of telling the Muslims that the cartoons which first appeared in the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, were made in the context of press freedom? Most ironic, according to reports, the three cartoonists had planned a book for Muslim children to contribute to integration.

The point must be made that there are many ways in which understanding, even among those with the most divergent beliefs, can be reached. Like the range of freedom, arriving at a modus vivendi is as wide as life itself. As a learned scholar on conflict resolution said, " Under ordinary circumstances, conflict is neither good nor bad in and of itself. It is the way people respond to conflict and handle it that determines its outcome." Already western nations face the prospects of different challenges as more Islamist parties win in democratic elections. New responses will have to be found. Europe and the United States have to think out of the box and stop thinking of democracy as something to be imposed, as it was done in Iraq.

With this perspective, conflicts are not necessarily negative events. It is a fact of life. Otherwise we miss the opportunity to learn and grow with it. Freedom of expression is not just a pillar of western democracy. It is as sacred in its own way as Muhammad is to pious Muslims. It is also a freedom to which millions of Muslims now aspire for themselves. The cartoons may have unwittingly served as a way to put a stop to the so called conflict of civilizations. Recent developments have also shown that political Islam has been growing and moderates have found ways of reconciling their democratic aspirations with Islam.

The answer to authoritarianism is to craft a transition that would allow Islamists to participate in public life. That is the way to encourage them to accept the rules of the democratic game. There are already many examples of more or less conservative Islamist parties willing to play along. It is no accident that there are Islamists in the legislatures of all the countries undergoing some form of political reform, including Lebanon, where Hezbollah is part of a freely elected government, as well as Jordan and Morocco and lately, Hamas in Palestine.

We all know the role of conflict in our individual lives. If we know how to use it, it is no different from learning from adversity. Individuals, who go through the fire as it were, overcoming one conflict after another, are those who grow. Moreover, they develop the skill to meet any number of difficulties and challenges whether it has to do with relationships or duties. As it is with individuals, so it is with nations and religions. Everyday, we face both real and imagined conflicts. The important thing is not to go overboard and think that there is no way out of it. There is always a way out as long as there is a sense of fellowship. There may be differences but there are also commonalities – not insignificantly, the universal aching for peace is one of them.

Nations who have fought virulently in the past are also nations which ultimately became the best of friends. The whole point of talking is to understand and sympathize with the motives of one’s opponent, not to cave in to his or her beliefs. Our energies should be directed towards keeping the lines of communication open at all times.

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Happily, Manila was recently the scene of a dialogue among different religious and political parties. The Centrist Democrat International (CDI) Asia Pacific held its first Southeast Asian Interfaith Dialogue in late January. It was attended by representatives of the Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian as well as the Muslim and Christian faiths.

Leaders of these religions in the Asia Pacific look to the leadership of our own much maligned but indefatigable Speaker Jose de Venecia who has been elected president of the Asia Pacific Centrist Democrats. He has worked diligently and hard with the support of President GMA and former President FVR to make a religious and political dialogue possible in this part of the world under the wings of the CDI to which Lakas-CMD is affiliated. His efforts could not have been more timely. "Already the western political right to free expression has clashed with the Muslim code of respect for its holiest figure. Conflicts like these are bound to recur – and with increasing intensity – in our increasingly hybrid societies, unless we are able to inculcate new rules of civic behavior respectful of other cultures and other religions. Indeed an interfaith council - under the control of the powerful security council could institutionalize interfaith dialogues as well as draw up and enforce rules of inter cultural behavior in an increasingly interdependent world," he said.

Other efforts for dialogue are sprouting in the rest of the world. The UN secretariat, with the help of NGOs in Muslim and Christian communities, is sponsoring interfaith dialogues in the Middle East. Egypt recently convened a dialogue between leaders of the rivals Sunni and Shiite Muslims of Iraq.

One of the guests in the Manila interfaith dialogue was the amiable but influential Dr. Mohamed Ahmed Sherif, chairman of the Libyan-based World Islamic Call Society. He travels constantly around the world, hammering the value of dialogue. He told EU officials in Brussels that the cartoons only fuel extremism which is the last thing moderates like him want. "We prefer dialogue and to exert efforts to understand our own ways of thinking as well as of others. That is why dialogue is important. The process of learning, of seeking knowledge, of understanding is the way all human beings can learn to live with each other," he said.

A perceptive political analyst explains that political reform movements in the Muslim world emerged long before the US-led "war on terror," and reformists were not waiting for the EU to become stronger to press for change. "These movements were not created in the United States or Europe after Sept. 11, 2001, and they will not wait for or depend on the United States or the EU to act.

Alvaro de Vasconcelos of the Portuguese Institute for Strategic and International Studies says combating racism, promoting tolerance and respecting the religious sentiments of others do not mean that we need to question press freedom or accept the Islamists’ demands for censorship, even when real religious sentiments are offended. "Islamist conceptions of society that violate individual rights must be rebutted politically. That political challenge is one of the paradoxes of democracy, which allows all ideas to compete freely with each other. "

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