KEYNOTE ADDRESS: "SOWING SEEDS OF PEACE IN THE ERA OF EMPIRE: CHRISTIANS IN SOLIDARITY WITH MUSLIMS" – Dr. Chandra Muzaffar, Malaysian Muslim and president of the International Movement for a Just World, delivered the keynote address. He started with the geopolitics of the so-called "clash of civilization" and Washington's perpetration of war and violence in pursuit of a global empire and to ensure that neo-liberal capitalism remains the dominant global ideology. This, he says, is supported both by the Christian Right and powerful interests connected to oil and arms. Both seek to re-shape the Middle East (for the Christian Right, to subjugate and Christianize the population). The emergence of a following for the likes of Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda, agents of privatized terror, among the disenfranchised and disadvantaged segment of the Islamic community came about because no other Muslim group seemed to be capable of offering any effective resistance to global hegemony. Like the Christian Right, they too subscribe to a Manichean worldview, of good versus evil. He emphasized that peace-loving, justice-seeking Christians and Muslims have no choice but to take a clear, unambiguous stand and must be prepared to do battle against the hatred, bigotry and hegemonic attitudes even of their respective co-religionists. Christians should be unequivocal in their opposition against hegemony and imperial power. Similarly, Muslims should have no compunctions about condemning the violence and terrorism committed by the militant fringe within the community. Christians and Muslims should, together, struggle to create a just world which protects and enhances the dignity of each and every human life. Dr. Muzaffar suggested that the real impetus for change may come from outside religion. That is, globalization and "the empire itself, in an ironical sense, may 'succeed' in uniting Christians and Muslims and people of other faiths.... The mammoth worldwide protests against the Anglo-American war on Iraq last year which united thousands of Christians and Muslims in a common cause gave us a glimpse of the potential for inter-faith solidarity."
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First People's Forum on Peace for Life | OPENING CELEBRATION | 2004 November 30 | Davao City, Philippines
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