January 18, 2002 - London Independent: Prince Hassan of Jordan calls for multidenominational Peace Corps
Peace Corps Online:
Peace Corps News:
Peace Corps Library:
Special Reports:
An International Peace Corps [1/18/02]:
January 18, 2002 - London Independent: Prince Hassan of Jordan calls for multidenominational Peace Corps
Prince Hassan of Jordan calls for multidenominational Peace Corps
Read and comment on this story from the London Independent on the conference of world religious leaders hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury which was organised to defuse tensions between the Muslim and Christian worlds after the 11 September terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan and in which Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan shown in the photo above called for the creation of a multidenominational Peace Corps at:
CAMPAIGN AGAINST TERRORISM: Blair: Extremism can be prevented by knowledge *
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
CAMPAIGN AGAINST TERRORISM: Blair: Extremism can be prevented by knowledge
Jan 18, 2002 - Independent-London Author(s): Chris Gray
TONY BLAIR warned against the "perversion of religious faith" by extremists yesterday when he opened a summit of Muslim and Christian leaders.
At the start of a two-day conference of world religious leaders hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, the Prime Minister called for a "globalisation of knowledge and understanding" that would undermine the extremes of all religions.
Nearly 40 delegates from Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East assembled at Lambeth Palace for the conference, which was organised by Dr Carey to defuse tensions between the Muslim and Christian worlds after the 11 September terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan.
Standing between Dr Carey and the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mustafa Ceric, Mr Blair said all religions had a tendency towards extremism, as demonstrated recently in Northern Ireland by the murder of the Catholic postman Daniel McColgan.
But extremists could be stopped by greater understanding, Mr Blair said. "One of the things that puts them on the defensive and moderates on the offensive is greater understanding between faiths. What also needs to be globalised is knowledge and understanding.
"It is knowledge that helps people realise what they have in common, it's knowledge and understanding that brings people together rather than sets them apart."
Mr Blair said the conference had to be more than just a "dialogue between experts". It had to be echoed in communities where people did not always understand the faith and culture of their neighbours. If they did they would realise they had much in common. "When warped or perverted, religious faith can be dangerous, but when true to its real values it can be immensely liberating."
Dr Carey was joined at the conference by one of the favourites to succeed him as Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester
Dr Carey hoped the event would overcome obstacles to understanding between religions. "That will mean trying to help our own faith communities overcome suspicion and hatred, and at times hatred and intolerance. We all recognise our responsibilities as religious leaders and scholars to help our communities live together in ways which do not suppress our own identities but open us up to the riches which the other offers," he said.
There was a "fresh sense of urgency" about challenging those who claimed a religious justification for evil and hatred, he said. "There are many around us who believe that the world would be better off without faith and all its apparent capacity to generate division, hatred and violence.
"We must play our part in trying to ensure that the wider world may reap the best, not the worst, of what our faiths have to offer."
Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan called for the creation of a multidenominational peace corps. "Culture and understanding is the key. We cannot continue to have a situation where only after there is violence that we ask what is happening," he said.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
.
|
By ShirleneAllred on Thursday, May 23, 2002 - 10:38 am: Edit Post |
A multidenominational peace corps as proposed by Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan has lots of merits but also pitfalls. Too often this idea has been proposed and there are many nations who have copied the precepts of Peace Corps for creating their own version, but who will have the overall say as to the direction and management of a global volunteer organizations as modelled on the American Peace Corps? There are too many self-interests and secret agendas which can and will muddy the waters for this occur. Integrity and generousity isn't a universal standard across all people and cultures. I can see this idea would be used as a propaganda platform for political and/or religious agenda. A beautiful idea but, knowing human nature, too powerful a tool for a few people with ambitions to dominate the world. Leave these international volunteer corps to their idependence and let the host countries determine who and what kind of help they need. The world is too soon leaving the egg of world imperalism and needs time to sort itself out. There has been precedent where volunteers from different nations have worked together, each bringing their own viewpoint and approach for handling the cmmon problem. I had a great time working with English, Belgium and Chinese volunteers while I was the American Peace Corps volunteer. We were from different volunteer groups but worked together to solve the common problem as identified by the host country. That is the key for future coorporation. Please keep the United Nations out of this coorporation bewteen the different Corps, to avoid the potential for world domination by any single people or politics or religion. Diversity in infinite combinations should be our greed. Look how well the Red Cross and Red Cresent work together in emergencies.
I would be most interested in finding out more about a multidenominational peace corps., through respect, global understanding, and cultural sensitivity many challenges can be solved,,,,I am a RPCV from Ukraine and interested in giving almost any project a try, after all we havent done so well with many ideas so far ! Felicity Gatchell