change language
tu es dans: home - l'oecum�...dialogue - rencontr...tionales - munich 2011 newslettercontactslink

Soutenez la Communauté

  

Les arrivées des premiers couloirs humanitaires 2018 en Italie. La nouvelle phase du projet, devenu un modèle d'accueil et d'intégration pour l'Europe

"PAIX SUR TOUTES LES TERRES" : 1er janvier, une marche pour un monde qui sache accueillir et intégrer

Le premier jour de l'année nouvelle, manifestations sur tous les continents pour soutenir le message du pape François

De l'Indonésie au Salvador, de l'Allemagne au Mozambique, voici les nouvelles galeries d'images des repas de Noël de Sant'Egidio dans le monde

Des photos continuent d'affluer de tous les continents, regardez-les sur notre carte interactive!

Galerie de photos et vidéos du repas de Noël à Santa Maria in Trastevere

Visite virtuelle de la crèche de Sant'Egidio : Jésus accueilli par les pauvres, les malades, les sans logis et les hommes de toutes confessions

Sant'Egidio et la Muhammadiyah signent à Djakarta un nouvel accord pour la paix et le dialogue interreligieux

une délégation de la Communauté menée par Marco Impagliazzo se trouve en Indonésie

Sant'Egidio au conseil de sécurité de l'ONU pour un point sur la République centrafricaine

Mauro Garofalo : "Le succès de ce premier désarmement garantit la crédibilité de l'ensemble du processus en actes"

Donner à manger aux personnes âgées au Mozambique : distribuitions d'aides alimentaires aux plus pauvres dans la ville de Beira

Aidons les réfugiés rohingyas au Bangladesh

La Communauté de Sant’Egidio lance une collecte de fonds pour envoyer des aides dans les camps de réfugiés au Bangladesh, en collaboration avec l’Eglise locale

Tous les textes de la rencontre #Pathsofpeace

L'assemblée d'inauguration de la rencontre internationale Chemins de Paix

Chemins de 2017 : tout sur la rencontre internationale des religions du monde pour la paix

Le programme, les intervenants et les événements en direct streaming

Global friendship, #MoreYouthMorePeace : le message et l’engagement des Jeunes pour la paix à Barcelone

rendez-vous l’année prochaine à Rome !

 
version imprimable
12 Septembre 2011 19:00 | Amerikahaus

Bound to live together: dialogue and peace in the Middle-East by Bitter

Jean-Nicolas Bitter


Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland

Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to contribute to this panel on “dialogue and peace in the Middle East” by looking at some of the effects and challenges of the current transformations in Northern Africa and the Middle East regarding prospects for Christian – Muslim relations in  this regions.

Hereby, I will speak from an expert point of view on conflict transformation (this is a mandate received by the service I work for in the Foreign Ministry based on our Swiss constitution and a consequent decision from our Parliament), and not from a diplomatic point of view.

Christianophobia around the Mediterranean has echoed so-called “Islamophobia” – better referred to as movements of hostility towards Islam - that have been growing in Europe.
Christianophobia in the region has been recently a subject of renewed preoccupation for European countries – though the phenomena in itself in neither new nor, apparently, growing, with the exception possibly of Turkey.
The issue is of course complex. However, for the sake of addressing the challenges we are all facing, it is possible and justifiable, I suggest, to brush a canvas of it in not too complicated terms.

Tensions between Christian and Muslim communities in the region are not a new phenomenon. As Oliver Roy notes, these tensions can be traced to  several factors:

Christians are often perceived as leftovers of colonization; as a fifth column of the West. These communities do also often seek refuge under dictatorship regimes, as it is frequently the case for minorities; and de facto, they have received targeted and preferential aid from the West. All these factors contribute to the construction of a negative image of local Christian communities.

The so called « Arab Spring » is potentially a chance and an opportunity for those minorities, insofar as the uprisings and political transformations in these countries lead to political systems based on citizenship, and not any more on old communitarian reflexes that have played into the “divide and rule” practices of dictators. Conversely, those actors who support counter-revolution tendencies would prefer the status quo ante, that is reestablish or reinforce inter-communitarian divisions.

Trans-communitarian experiences of cooperation and solidarity are no myths: in Egypt they have been practiced with success in and around the Tahrir square (to take this emblematic example), within the scope of neighborhood committees made up of Christian and Muslims jointly protecting religious sites. Such experiences of overcoming communitarian divisions are still going on in different places in Egypt, and can rightly be seen as being an important piece in the building of citizenship.

The questions and challenge are: can these experiences survive and multiply? And what can we, in the “West”, do about it?
I would argue that the best we can do is to avoid building or reinforcing obstacles to the strengthening of trans-communitarian and trans-partisan coalitions of actors in the region, be it in the humanitarian, the development or the political field.

Some of the obstacles that we can act upon are the following:

-    Patterns of aid in the humanitarian and development field of the West have been focusing in the past and up to now on secular or Christian based organizations. The politics of humanitarian and development aid have been themselves divisive. What is needed is to overcome these divisions so that in those societies aid can be organized and provided jointly by all communities. This can and must be addressed. On the day after the commemoration of 9/11, one should add that the ban on aid to Muslim charities coming from post 9/11 terrorism prevention measures and policies are not helpful – indeed counterproductive, as they put obstacles to joint aid.
-    Also, the habit of providing aid and training to chosen political parties is counterproductive. What is needed are joint political trainings for parties, and for the youth, in order to foster joint citizenship.

 


{PROGRAMMA_BOX_PP}

NOUVELLES CONNEXES
24 Janvier 2018
ROME, ITALIE

"La puissance de l'Eglise de Jésus est une force désarmée qui arrête le mal."


Prédication du pasteur Paolo Ricca pour la Semaine de Prière pour l'Unité des Chrétiens
IT | FR | HU
18 Octobre 2017

Un mois après la rencontre des religions à Münster, les Chemins de paix ont traversé quatre continents


Sur la photo, l'événement à Blantyre, Malawi. Voir les photos et vidéos des autres rencontres
IT | ES | DE | FR | RU
26 Septembre 2017
ABIDJAN, CÔTE D'IVOIRE

Prière pour la paix en Côte d’Ivoire : la rencontre interreligieuse #PathsofPeace mise en œuvre par Sant’Egidio à Abidjan

IT | FR | HU
22 Septembre 2017
MUNSTER, ALLEMAGNE

Tous les textes de la rencontre #Pathsofpeace

IT | EN | ES | FR | CA
15 Septembre 2017
MUNSTER, ALLEMAGNE

En vidéo, les interventions de la table ronde "Faire la paix" à la rencontre internationale #PathsofPeace

IT | FR
14 Septembre 2017

Aux racines du terrorisme. VIDEO


#Pathsofpeace
IT | EN | FR
toutes les actualités liées