wfn.org | World Social Forum: Participants in LWF Seminar Caution

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

World Social Forum: Participants in LWF Seminar Caution Religions against
Political Manipulation
Inter-Faith Dialogue Relevant at All Community Levels

MUMBAI, India/GENEVA, 20 January 2004 (LWI)  - What is going wrong? Why are
religions now associated with violence? These are some of the questions posed
by the main speaker in a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) seminar at the
ongoing World Social Forum (WSF) in the Indian city of Mumbai.

Sheikh Saliou Mbacki, coordinator of Inter-Faith Action for Peace in Africa,
spoke about the LWF-initiated process, aimed at bringing religious
communities across the African continent to cooperate and work together to
promote peace in their region. 

The objective of the initiative, explained Mbacki, is to deepen inter-faith
commitments to dialogue and cooperation for promoting peace in Africa, and to
equip African inter-faith partners with the knowledge and skills relevant to
practical cooperation in peace-promotion activities. The initiative also
works toward encouraging the formulation and implementation of concrete
inter-faith responses to conflict situations, focusing on the role of faith
communities in relation to governments, other actors and the general public
in countries and regions that are experiencing or are threatened by conflict.

A major challenge of this relatively new process, according to Mbacki, is to
promote a culture of peace in Africa, by engaging faith communities from the
grassroots to leadership level in activities that focus on dialogue, mutual
understanding, and the dissemination of information and education about human
rights and humanitarian law. 

"Despite our differences we all preach the same values of peace, morality,
solidarity, forgiveness and love. These common values that we share should be
used as a tool to combat violence and conflict in all its forms," said
Mbacki, a religious leader of the Murid community, a Muslim Sufi order
founded in 1888 by Sheikh Ahmadou Bamba Mbacki in Touba, Senegal.

He stressed the need for Africa's religious leaders to deeply analyze "what
mistakes we are making" in order to change the current trend of the
association of religion with violence. "Religion in its essence is opposed to
violence but if we fall into temptations to gain power or money we will not
only abandon our basic principles of morality and justice but also contribute
to fomenting conflict. We should not allow ourselves to be manipulated for
any purposes." 

He cited a number of African communities from different faith traditions that
had co-existed peacefully for decades until conflict had broken out as a
result of the political manipulation of religion.

Mbacki spoke of an increasing number of international conferences and
initiatives that seek to promote coordination and cooperation among religious
leaders, and a rapidly expanding corpus of inter-faith statements and
declarations that affirm commitment to inter-religious dialogue and
cooperation for peace.

Need for Regional Coordination of Inter-Religious Peace Efforts

In the African context, Mbacki explained, religious leaders have in fact
often responded to conflict with effective coordination in seeking peaceful
ways to resolve it. He spoke of the involvement of religious leaders in peace
efforts to end civil war in Liberia and Sierra Leone, and the cross-border
inter-religious dialogue that started in the context of Ethiopia and Eritrea
as particularly strong examples of this phenomenon. But he noted that
regional coordination of similar efforts has generally been lacking, with
many of such activities having been confined within national boundaries. In
addition, relatively few of the many declarations of commitment to
inter-religious dialogue and cooperation for peace have been implemented in
practical programmatic form.

The African initiative focuses on practical aspects, building on existing
declarations of and commitments to interfaith cooperation for peace rather
than simply re-starting them. It intends to identify practical strategies,
methodologies and tools for cooperative engagement by faith communities in
the areas of conflict resolution, peace building and promotion of a culture
of peace. 

The initiative was formally launched with the convening of the first
continent-wide Inter-Faith Summit for Peace in Africa held in Johannesburg,
South Africa in October 2002. A plan of action adopted by the over 100
religious leaders at the meeting called for a follow-up process that includes
sub-regional consultations to define regional approaches to conflict
resolution and peace; the setting up of networks and linking up existing
ones; and inter-faith delegation visits to conflict-afflicted areas in
Africa. The first phase of the follow-up process will terminate in October
2004 with the convening of the second continent-wide Inter-Faith Peace Summit
in Cairo, Egypt. 

Mbacki affirmed that religious diversity has unfortunately also been used for
political and other purposes which "should raise our awareness of the
importance of cooperation." (753 words)

For media interviews in Mumbai please contact Pauline Mumia:
TEL.: 41 76 396 2863

[The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the Lutheran
tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now has 136 member
churches in 76 countries representing over 61.7 million of the 65.4 million
Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on behalf of its member churches in areas
of common interest such as ecumenical and inter-faith relations, theology,
humanitarian assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

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