“Interreligious Dialogue and International Relations”

Response by the Prime Minister of Norway, Kjell Magne Bondevik
to a lecture by President Mohammad Khatami at the Ecumenical Centre, 11 December 2003

Religion is in many conflicts considered to be a part of the problem. My main idea is that it should be opposite. Religion is a part of the solution.

History has shown us that nations and cultures are interdependent. A uniform society cannot endure. Tolerance and the exchange of ideas, goods and people are key factors for development, peace – and change.

The Church has learned something about this after centuries of war and persecution. It has learned that through all its changes, it is still one by virtue of Christ, not by virtue of its organisation or by virtue of any claim to uniformity.

If we want to safeguard the faith and the communities of faith, we must build societies where everyone has freedom and responsibility for their own beliefs. Ensuring freedom of belief is the responsibility of the state, particularly of its leadership. Communities of faith should not seek God and His will in order to strengthen their earthly power, but in order to strengthen the processes of healing and reconciliation in their society. That is the responsibility of the Christian churches and other religious communities.

The World Council of Churches is a community of faith. The foundation for the Council is a common faith in the true God, as revealed in the words of the Bible. The churches have grown together over the last 55 years, but they continue to respect the rich diversity that makes up the Christian Church. Mutual tolerance and reconciliation are combined with mutual accountability.

On some of my travels abroad I have had meetings with religious leaders from different religions. I did this in Sarajevo, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Cairo and New York. In situations of conflict, what we should aim at is a climate where religion is not part of the problem, but part of the solution. Religion is usually not the only reason for a conflict, but sometimes it is misused for political purposes. A harmonious relationship between religions does not in itself resolve conflicts, but in some conflict-ridden areas it can pave the way for lasting, peaceful political solutions. Not only in the Middle East and the Balkans, but also in Africa and on other continents.

I warmly welcome this meeting of representatives from two different cultural spheres, that of Islam and that of Christianity. I hope that we are at the beginning of a new era of ecumenical and also cultural co-operation.

Within Islam and within Christianity, and between the two religions, we need frameworks for dialogue and co-operation.

As government leaders, we must take responsibility for facilitating the building of bridges between different faiths. This is an important challenge in the new century. It is a challenge that President Khatami took up five years ago in his speech to the UN General Assembly.

It is a pleasure for me to respond to his lecture here today, and I look forward to our meeting later today.

Clergymen do not usually become politicians. I believe, however, that theology can be a rich and powerful source of responsible policymaking.

Faith in God gives life meaning and direction for millions and millions of people. More than that – Christianity, Islam and other religions have promoted respect for the individual and influenced ideas of right and wrong.

The laws of nations are founded on these values. The need for a set of fundamental values is as great as ever in our secular times.

We see clearly that the world needs more than economic and scientific rationality. Happiness does not come from worldly riches. It depends on immaterial values. We need an ethical basis for our choices. Values we believe in. Values that will give us a good society and a good life.

As political leaders - and religious leaders - we must do our utmost to promote and protect these fundamental values. Protecting values efficiently is not the same as protecting old social structures. On the contrary, our commitment to promote these values requires a firm willingness to renewal and reforms in society. This is not a renouncement of the values we believe in. In fact it is the only way to safeguard them in times when we are facing new challenges.

In my view promoting sound values is especially important in our schools. Our schools must foster tolerance and understanding; they must be a means of combating hatred and fear of those who are different. At school pupils must learn compassion and consideration for others.

I believe that Christian values provide an excellent foundation for this. They protect human life, advocate sound stewardship and can be summed up in the commandment to “love thy neighbour as thyself”.

Human dignity is about respect for life from conception to natural death. Respect for others and respect for the small, the weak and those who are often considered unimportant. For me human dignity means a commitment to fighting for the poor and the persecuted. I believe in a God who sees the world from the perspective of the weak, the children, and the oppressed.

We cannot shut our eyes to poverty and oppression. We are all part of a global fellowship and we must join together with all those who are struggling for justice.

All societies have dark spots in their history. There are many examples in European history of discrimination against people of other faiths. The most terrible of these was the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazis.

Terrible things were also done to minorities and dissidents by the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union.

When helping people in need, we should not only seek out those of our own faith. On the contrary, authorities have a responsibility to protect minorities and assist those in need across religious borders.

Norway is a country with an overwhelming Christian majority, but a large part of our humanitarian aid goes to Muslim countries.

My call to Muslim and Christian leaders, but equally to leaders of other religions, is to be clear about the universality of the obligation to love and help our neighbours. We shouldn’t even ask ourselves if those in need are Christians, Muslims, Jews, Baha’i or belong to another faith. We have the same duty to help them. They are all our brothers and sisters in God.

We must recognise the right to convert from one faith to another, and certainly not punish it. Who are we to judge an individual’s chosen path to God, even if it is not our own chosen path? As the Hoopoe says in the great Persian classic of Sufi literature by Farid ud-din Attar, The Conference of the Birds, speaking about his way to God: “Our way does not belong to anyone.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1948, has become one of the most important documents of our time. Article 1 clearly expresses the hope of a better organised and more peaceful world:

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

The UN, however, can never be more than what the world’s very diverse governments want it to be. Since its foundation, Norway has been strongly committed to the UN. In these troubled times, we uphold our faith in the multilateral approach, in the hope that global reason will prevail, in the service of peace and mankind.

It is more necessary than ever to strengthen the United Nations in its ability to fight poverty and promote justice and peace.

I do not share the fears of those who claim that the conflicts we see in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya and the Middle East are examples of an apparent “clash of civilisations”. In my opinion they are neither wars of religion nor signs of a general clash between the Christian West and the Muslim Orient.

The Muslims in Europe and the Americas, and the Oriental Christians are all valuable citizens of the societies and countries where they live. They build bridges between cultures and religions; they promote mutual understanding and trust.

As far back as the Middle Ages, goods and, not least, ideas and knowledge crossed the divide between the Christian West and the Islamic Orient. In the Muslim world, local Christians and Jews made important contributions to thinking and philosophy. In Christian Europe the Moors in Andalusia and the Muslims in the Balkans and trade with the Orient contributed greatly to the development of philosophy, science and technology. History shows that those communities in our part of the world that were most willing to learn from others have developed most rapidly. This is an important lesson.

Today, we in the West sometimes treat the Islamic world with unforgivable arrogance. And parts of the Islamic world are seeking intellectual isolation. In both cases extremists and populist movements are exploiting fear of “those who are not like us”. We can see the consequences in the form of terrorism and racially motivated violence. Hate is often the result of fear, which comes from ignorance, frustration and an insecure identity.

Extremists are trying to spread the message of hate in the name of God. Yet nothing is further from true faith than hatred. We are mistaken if we think that we as human beings can make the final distinction between good and evil. Once we try to identify ourselves as good and others as evil, we commit blasphemy. It is as if we were to try to rebuild the tower of Babel. We would be putting ourselves in the place of God. God is the only one who can make the definitive separation between good and evil. What we can do is to struggle towards what is good for justice, peace and for the dignity of all human beings.

Religious leaders can – and must – combat, in words and deeds, the poison spread by extremists in the name of religion. They have a particular responsibility to do so, and they can do it with more credibility than others.

Religious leaders have a responsibility to educate. In Islam, the imam acts as a guide. In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher. In the Christian church the priest and the pastor are shepherds who are meant to lead their flocks. I call on all these religious leaders to work for peace, justice and tolerance, at home and abroad. I call on them to prevent the perversion and misuse of religious belief to spread hatred, suspicion, harassment, conflict and war.

Those of us who have governmental responsibility must also do our share. One of the things we can do is to encourage inter-religious meetings like this one.

All major world religions teach the virtue of peace. Not just peace in the sense of the absence of war, but peace between people. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, and the Arabic word, salaam, have the same root. Both have a broader meaning, which also refers to a state of mind, to relations with other people and relations with God. This is the same as in the Christian blessing: peace be with you!

Yesterday I participated in the ceremony where Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This morning I received her in my office. On both occasions she gave a strong and clear message on Islam as a religion of peace.

The writings of all the world religions call on us to make peace In the Christian faith we have Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

In Judaism, we have the saying in the Book of Psalms, “Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.”

The holy book of Islam, the Koran, says, “If they incline to peace, make peace with them”. Other religions have similar messages.

We all seek God with the same purpose, to live in peace with God and our neighbours. The Gospel, and I think particularly of St. Paul, shows us how the reconciliation between God and Man, due to His mercy, help Men to reconcile between themselves.

I believe that faith is part of the solution, not part of the problem

Thank you for your attention.