Tony Blair Faith Foundation

In Hebron stands the Tomb of the Patriarchs, one of the most important sites in all of the Holy Land.

Drawing from India’s overarching perspectives to accommodate plural identities, the present blog is focused on the historical and current instances of communal peace in the holy city of Banaras (also Varanasi). Banaras, a favorite destination of seekers of all religions, is indeed a quintessential example of the Pan- Indian syncretism. According to an estimate, Banaras hosts over 3000 Hindu shrines and temples, 1400 Muslim shrines and mosques, 12 churches, 3 Jain temples, 9 Buddhist temples, 3 Sikh temples and 12 important churches.

Pope Benedict XVI took to Lebanon, on a three-day visit in mid-September, a historic message to the Christians of that country and to those of the Levant as a whole: stay in your homelands, don’t quit Christianity’s birthplace. “Unemployment and danger,” the Pontiff said, “should not force you to migrate for an uncertain future. Act as the makers of your country’s future and play your role in society and the Church.”  The Pope’s exhortation was made against the background of some harsh truths.

In 1999, in the midst of the Kosovan war and in the aftermath of a global financial crisis, I set out six areas I believed needed serious focus in order to build a peaceful and long-lasting global community: global finance, free trade, the UN, NATO, action on climate change and third world debt. So much has changed in the intervening thirteen years. Technology has evolved beyond imagination, democracy has spread further and global markets have become yet more integrated.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation Religion & Conflict blog series tackles a theme that is contested at a number of levels. On the one side, there is the constant refrain that the real cause of a particular conflict is not religion. On the other, the impression, reinforced by the mass media, that religion is today the number one vector of a virus of hatred around the world.

On the 22nd of July 2011, my family and I were driving from the east coast of Norway to Oslo. We happened to stop by a road café to have some food, when one of our daughters got a message on the phone. There is a bomb blast in Oslo – and not much later – there is someone killing young people at a Labour party youth camp at Utøya. This, to us and to most Norwegians, was unbelievable. It could happen elsewhere, but not in our country. Before we found out who this person was, rumours were developing and spreading. It is a Muslim!

The attack by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Malala Yousufzai—the young girl from Swat— for advocating girls’ right to education has drawn attention to the role of religious education in creating conflicts. Pakistan is the second largest Muslim state in the world with a total population of 180 million, of which 96.4% follow the religion of Islam. Their religious identity is reflected in the twin spaces of ibadat (worship) and muamalat (civil interactions and transactions).

On the sad occasion of the attack on brave daughter of Pakistan Malala Yousufzai, I would like to salute the students of Face to Faith Peshawar, Pakistan who participated on International Peace Day. This school is also in North of Pakistan. I pray for the safety of these Malalas.

Far right, Monica Duffy Toft at a recent Tony Blair Faith Foundation event. Several years ago while I was teaching a course, Religion and Global Politics, at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, a student asked me why my co-instructor, Professor Bryan Hehir, always wore the same thing: a black suit and collar. I explained that Professor Hehir was also Father Hehir, an ordained Catholic priest and that his outfit was his “priest’s suit.” Although I had been aware that religious illiteracy was high, this exchange reinforced this awareness.

When one thinks of the phrases ‘rural’ or ‘hard to reach’areas, it is easy to relate such phrases to the provincial areas, known for its usually agronomic inhabitants, such as Pujehun, Kialahun, Bonthe and Kono.