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"IRAQ
-- THE DAY AFTER"
Prince
El Hassan bin Talal
Toledo, Spain
May 11-12, 2003
It
was both interesting and heartening for me to learn of this three-faiths
dialogue in Toledo — the place where the Qur’_n was first
translated into Latin by Christians in the early twelfth century and
where Jewish culture reached some of its greatest heights. I am sure
you will understand that, very unfortunately, present circumstances
are not favourable to my leaving my native land in order to attend.
This is all the sadder as I have, in the past, participated with enthusiasm
in similar dialogues, knowing that a Mediterranean identity embracing
pluralist culture can bring us all forward together.
As Moderator of the World Conference on Religion for Peace, I cannot
emphasise too strongly the need for humanitarian and dialogue-based
agenda for Iraqis today, from the grass-roots upwards. Political and
economic security alone are not sufficient in a destabilised environment
in which so many traditions and backgrounds coexist. Both Iraqi representatives
and outside agencies bear a clear responsibility to gain consensus
between the different parties for any policy decisions. This is an
unavoidable step if peaceful and productive relations are to evolve
in Iraq.
Four areas of immediate concern — so far as WCRP is concerned
— are security, emergency relief, reconstruction and establishment
of government. Cooperation between not only the different religious
communities in Iraq but different traditions and backgrounds is very
important to prevent politicised divisions along ethnic or sectarian
lines which will provoke conflict and the eventual ‘Balkanisation’
of Iraq. Coordination between outside forces and Iraqis genuinely
representing a community base, with all parties clearly holding the
same human-centred goals in common, is absolutely necessary to prevent
a ‘them-and-us’ situation from escalating into further violence.
I feel, myself, that preventing conflict is only the first prerequisite;
further, continuous action will be needed over some years, as it has
been in other war-damaged zones, to bring people beyond the idea of
mere ‘cessation of war’ to real peacefulness.
I believe that multilateralism faces a severe threat at this time
but not that we are witnessing its demise. If anything, the events
of the past half-century have shown us that multilateralism is simply
necessary if international decisions are to receive the broad support
they need — but, equally, that multilateral decisions cannot
be made in the absence of a common code and shared norms. It is the
establishment and support of appropriate commonalities — as bridges
across difference —which concern us today. This is the area in
which religious thinking and religious leaders can have significant
positive effects upon policymaking.
Post-9/11, it seems that the world is black and white, without shades
of grey. The problem is partly economic; the Club of Rome, over which
I have the honour to preside, has noted that the World Trade Organisation
is resented in Africa, Latin America and other developing areas because
trade barriers are going up in the industrialised countries. In many
cases, the foreign trade deficit is greater than the GDP.
But if economic and political decisions are made without reference
to human culture — and especially the transparent fostering of
human dignity and self-worth for all human beings — then they
cannot succeed in improving people’s lives and they lose credibility.
In Iraq, outsiders are trying to build civil society through an interpreter:
is this not strange? As Naomi Klein has commented of the American
material reconstruction of Iraq: No privatisation without representation.
The Israeli thinker Boaz Ganor had commented similarly on the international
war against terror: No prohibition without definition. Let us avoid
generalisations. We might remember that Islamic financing (to take
one example) is not all bad: the Grameen Bank is a great success story
in beginning micro-loaning, especially to women. Still, the message
to Arabs has to be that enlightenment and renaissance in Iraq and
elsewhere is about the region, not just the nation — and that
it cannot take place by political mandate or external aid but only
through the dedicated contribution of the middle classes who have
left home to live abroad.
Iraq requires political, economic and cultural security. Without strong
and supportive reference to long-term cultural security specific to
Iraqis, political and economic security stands little chance of being
introduced from outside.
Thank you.
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