RELIGION: Dialogue Can Ease World Tensions, Say Asian Thinkers

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Mar 10 2004 (IPS) - To a world that to many seems to be bracing for a ‘clash of civilisations,’ some of the brightest minds in Asia offer a simple answer – dialogue.

As the two-day ‘First Asian Civilisational Dialogue’ ended here on Wednesday, delegates representing nearly every Asian country say they are convinced that conflicts arise from the fact that dialogue has not kept up with the rapidity of globalisation.

”Dialogue among civilisations is of particular significance in this age of globalisation when people are unified through cross-cultural exchanges in the contexts of economics, finance and technology,” said S M A Faiz, vice chancellor of Dhaka University.

”It is only through constructive dialogue among civilisations that people’s basic needs and aspirations can be assessed, priorities identified and solutions sought,” Faiz told the seminar organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, India International Centre and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.

Christopher Kim from the Washington Times Foundation said the prophecy by the U.S. academic Samuel Huntington about an inevitable ‘clash among civilisations’ could not be dismissed lightly in the wake of the Sep. 11 tragedy – although this proposition itself is the subject of much debate among scholars and political thinkers.

”It is time that religions, which are at the root of the world’s civilisations, dialogue with one another and learn to embrace one another,” the South Korea-born pacifist said.

The theory by Harvard University’s Huntington, published in 1993, has it that conflicts in the 21st century will be more along the lines of ‘clashes of civilisations’ – especially religion – than along divisions of ideology or economy.

He avers that cultural lines divide major civilisations, and this theory has commonly been used to explain tensions between Islam and the west, especially after the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks.

”Decision makers must now consider a different view of the relationship between political institutions and the great religious traditions of the world – although secular authorities rule most human societies, religions lie at the heart of most national and cultural identities,” Kim said.

On the other hand, the distinguished Buddhist monk and scholar from Vietnam, Thich Tam Duc, sees conflicts in this century as arising from receding Western economic influence in the face of challenges from resurgent Asian cultures including the Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist.

”This process began in Japan during the 1950s then expanded to the four tigers (Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore) and after that to China, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia and now taking root in countries like the Philippines, India and Vietnam,” he explained.

The Vietnamese monk said the way to the future lies essentially in discovering what is common to the world’s civilisations and, since religion is the key to civilisations, in building inter-religious harmony.

Building bridges across religions is possible through dialogue, according to Chinese delegates Hu Yeping and Wang Ping.

To understand the possibilities for dialogue, it would be instructive to examine how Buddhism crossed over from India and became an integral part of Chinese civilisation,” said Hu. ”If this dialogue of civilisations was actualised in the past, it may show us how it can be carried out today.”

”Today with the opening of China to the global horizon, the affirmation of the self has become an urgent need and this leads us back to Buddhism and its roots in India, the western heaven,” she said.

Asian cultures, she said, must resume their ancient dialogue and China in particular needs to reaffirm its identity at a time of global competition and find its roots, as in the past, in the Hindu metaphysical and religious treasury.

While there is a tendency for civilisations to clash it is possible to transform the danger into dialogue and cooperation through a greater openness that holds out ”positive possibilities for our families, societies and civilisations,” Hu said.

Daisaburo Hashizume, professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, said that while cultural similarities among civilisations offer a basis for dialogue, there remains the problem of identity.

”Our identity is linked to our way of thinking and we are all afraid of thinking differently because we are afraid of losing our identity,” Hashizume commented.

Arab delegates are in agreement that the solution to what is being seen as an impending clash of civilisations in a rapidly globalising world could be found on the Asian continent.

Shazi Alkhreishah from Jordan said the concept of globalisation already exists in the civilisations and cultures of Asia, but with the difference that they had the intention of spreading progress through the principles of justice and equality.

”It suffices to mention that most scientists that emerged during an era when Islam flourished and spread were actually citizens of countries and cultures that fell outside the boundary of the Arab region,” he said.

Hasan Hanafi, professor of philosophy at Cairo University, says it is important not to look at Asia as a geographical region but as a ”cultural radiation” that illuminates the whole of human civilisation.

The process of spreading Asian influence never stopped in more recent times. ”Just look at Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa, Chinese workers in California or the continuing information technology revolution that takes in talent from around the world,” Hanafi said.

But what remains is to understand the true nature of conflict between civilisations and find true solutions to it. ”It’s no good just speaking endlessly and meaninglessly of university in diversity at conferences such as these,” he said.