“Faith-Based Diplomacy & Peacemaking”

NOTES FROM THE IIIT CONFERENCE ON GOOD GOVERNANCE IN ISLAM: CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY APPROACHES #11

[This is the eleventh in a series of my notes on the International Institute of Islamic Thought conference on Good Governance in Islam: Classical and Contemporary Approaches held in Herndon, VA. These notes have only been lightly edited and represent my perception of the discussion. The proceedings will be published by IIIT at a later time. Responsibility for any errors in the notes is mine alone. Names of participants (other than mine) in the general discussion have been omitted by request of the organizers.]

“Faith-Based Diplomacy & Peacemaking”

Dr. Douglas Johnston, President, International Center for Religion & Diplomacy

Our intention was to get the Muslim majority to assert the rights of the non-Muslim minority. We had a prayer team from the US whose sole function was to pray for the success of the negotiations. People who pray five times a day had no objection to this.

Is Pakistan the aim was to enhance rather than shut down the madrassas. The media gives the impression they are seedbeds of terrorism, totally unaware of the distinguished history of the madrassas and that European exposure to them led to the university system of the West even to the mortarboards an tassels at graduation. Our goal was to expand the curriculum to include arts and sciences and to teach tolerance and inclusion of women. 1611 leaders out of 20,000 have been engaged. There were four reasons for our success: 1. Ownership. It is their process, not imposed from the outside. 2. We remind them of their own heritage including education when the Christian world was dark and tolerance when the Christian world was intolerant. 3. We emphasize Islamic principles.  4. We operate from a posture of humility, aware it was the US that planted the seeds of jihad in the first place.

Five sects sponsored these schools; the Deobandi (75% of all schools) and Wahabi are hard line, the other three not so much. The head of the Deobandis asked us to help create a book on peacemaking and conflict resolution to put in heir 15,000 schools.

I explain that we are here to discuss our common values. I quote from the Qur’an that God chose to make us diverse so that we could compete in good works. I know Muslims believe some wonderful things about Jesus, whom we Christians profess to follow. If he were here how do you think he would want us to treat one another? A madrassa leader where we have not been able to hold a workshop responded that my question caused him ask himself every day, “What would the Prophet want me to do?” A young man was motivated to dissuade some village elders who wanted to disfigure a woman for talking to a man that nothing in the Qur’an prohibited her action. He did this with trepidation because of his youth, but he succeeded.

In the Punjab a madrassa leader asked is waging jihad in Kashmir sanctioned by Islam? Our project director asked our Wahabi partner to respond and he responded no, only to defend the faith, never to acquire territory. The exchange was reported as far away as newspapers in Balujistan.

In the SWAT valley a man who was member of the friendly folks who brought you Mumbai got up to say, “I came here to refute everything you say, but you have convinced t me that I was mistaught the Qur’an and now I shall teach the message of peace.”

I received an invitation to go to the Afghani mountains to tell them what America wants. A man stood up and said, “I can’t talk to you unless you become a Muslim.” I said no problem, “Islam is submission to God and we all do that.” Everyone laughed and we went on. Only later was I told that half the time that scenario ended with an alternative of conversion or death. Well, God does look out for fools and incompetents.

When you have an out of control blaze sometimes the best way to fight it is a counter-fire. The antidote for religious conflict is religious peacemaking, spiritual engagement. The stakes are too high to give it anything but our very best. At one point a seven page jihadist communiqué emerged targeting our work. The good news is we’re having an impact. The bad news is we’re having an impact.

Discussant: Ahmad Kazemi Moussavi

My first experience with conflict resolution was when the “Hanafi Muslims” took hostages in DC. The Iranian ambassador Zahidi brought them a Qur’an and sought the verses on the ahl-l-kitab, but the police stopped him saying they might take you as a hostage. He embraced and kissed one of the hostage-takers and showed him the Qur’anic verse and managed to get the hostages out safely. The next was coup d’etat. A colleague from McGill, Khutbi Ahmad, during the Iranian hostage crisis, was seen as an ambassador for the ambassadors and he was the liason between them and the Iranian government. How do you get the Pakistanis to feel ownership?

A lot of people, especially on Capitol Hill don’t think the madrassas are important because there are only a couple of million students. They forget that a few people can make a lot of trouble, and the heads of these schools are often imams who give the sermons in the mosque. In fighting the ideas behind conflict, bullets and bombs are counter-productive and only feed the hatred. How did you find the Taliban? They are usually very hospitable.

During the Shah’s time there was no good relationship between Iran and Iraq and they wanted to search my personal effects despite my diplomatic status. When I refused, he offered a coca cola which I refused. He insisted that I at least pretend to drink, and I realized he was trying to be hospitable. When I accepted the hospitality, his attitude changed and I was not searched.

Discussant: Prof Muhammad Nimer

What about Syria?

Johnson: With respect to Syria, we had a meeting at the end of August. After the Arab League attempt failed we were asked to try again and we will go in two weeks to try to reconcile some differences. Our goals are to reconcile among the opposition elements so They don’t start a civil war with one another and also to try to prevent massive retribution against those who didn’t join the opposition especially the Christians and Alawites. I am hopeful this can lead in a positive direction.

The reason for our success is twofold. The real hero is our project director who is an American and a Shia, who is not only an excellent director, but one of the most likeable people on earth. He doesn’t use the title Sayyid but he is a descendent of the Prophet. We have critical people in Afghanistan as well turning this into an indigenous operation.

GENERAL DISCUSSION

Tell me more of the four Syrian factions you are negotiating with. My experience is the factions are political not religious, the National Council and the National Coordinating Committee and its offspring.

Johnston: We engage people in faith-based seminars that bring faith to bear against the secular obstacles to faith. You try to be shrewd. In Kashmir we start with the moderate Muslims, move on to the more radical ones. Then the same on the Hindu side and finally bring them all together. It starts out tense but at the end they are all hugging one another. I have never seen it fail. In the Middle East, religion has never been brought to the table. I think that’s what went wrong with the Oslo accords.

What Syria needs now is not reconciliation, but for the government to stop the carnage.

Johnston: In all due diligence I must tell you that I initially opposed working with the Syrian opposition because it taints your neutrality, but then I realized the high probability of civil war after the regime leaves—that’s what we are told by the opposition. If you don’t plan ahead you will always be surprised.

I think in Syria the bigger picture is the regime killing the people. How does reconciliation fit with that bigger picture?

Johnston: If the opposition is unified it is easier for them to prevail.

In Sudan the initial intention was for an interfaith council that allowed Muslims and Christians to iron out their differences, but it became more than that, for example preventing clashes between Muslims and Christians when John Garang died.

I can see that in Sudan, not in Syria or Afghanistan.

Johnston: We did work in Afghanistan beyond the freeing of hostages. We brought together religious and political leaders from different regions to get them to work together in supporting development assistance which the Taliban was sabotaging. The religious leaders played a big role. They were important under the Taliban but had been marginalized afterwards. You must never let the big picture intimidate you from taking action.

I like your answer that you don’t necessarily need a political answer to a political problem. What is the role of the UN?

Johnston: I have mixed feelings about the UN. They do bring religious leaders together but it often leads nowhere. The focus is not peace for peace’s sake but peace for justice’s sake. The US has woken up after fifteen years and we are trying to approach the religious dimension of foreign policy. So far it is a band-aid approach, but at least they have awoken to its importance.

How are you able to do that at which every other Muslim intellectual has failed?

Johnston: I don’t know all the reasons you can’t do something. I’ve never had a single course in my life or any experience as a diplomat. I came out of the political military community. That’s where the life and death decisions are made. If you can traverse that minefield you can make almost anything work. I think that now experts in those fields could step in.

I studied in a Deobandi madrassa and studied a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy.

Johnston: One of the things we did to develop a curriculum for the madrassas was to develop a curriculum based on best practices from around the Muslim world. We sent madrassa leaders to schools in Turkey and Egypt and they were inspired. They saw, particularly in Turkey, a model they liked.

Honerkamp: Morocco as well has a 1200 year history in education.

Johnston: Our advantage is the people there have knowledge of the Qur’an, like that terrorist whose eyes were opened.

Imad-ad-Dean Ahmad, Ph.D.
Minaret of Freedom Institute
www.minaret.org

ImadadDean