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Interview with Prof. Dr. Muhammad Machasin, former Director of Graduate Studies at the Islamic State University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on the subject of “civil Islam”. On the occasion of the globethics.net1 conference on “Ethics and Fundamentalism”, held in Huissen, Netherlands, 27-31 August 2006, I spoke to the former director of Graduate Studies at the Islamic State University, Prof. Muhammad Machasin, about his ideas on “civil Islam”. Prof. Machasin is the acting head of consultative leadership of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. He is also an author and teacher on Islam and fundamentalism. His publications include:1. The Concept of Human Being in Islam, paper presented in the International Conference on Islam and Humanism, IAIN Walisongo Semarang, November 5-8, 2001.2. Faith and Identity, paper presented in “Consultation on Christian-Muslim Dialogue” held by The Lutheran World Federation and Protestant University Duta Wacana, Yogyakarta, April 4-6, 2002.3. Democracy and Shari’a in Islamic Doctrine and...

The Hope Flowers School is a unique institution where students receive a human-rights based education alongside the formal national curriculum. The school is located in Al-Khader, a village on the outskirts of Bethlehem. It was founded in 1984 by Hussein Issa, a Palestinian man whose family was forced to flee their home in 1948 following the violence that marked the inauguration of the State of Israel. Since 2001, the school has been run by his son Ibrahim, who continues to ensure that the 250+ pupils at the school receive peace education alongside the mandatory school curriculum. The school is open to pupils aged 4-13. Vicky S Rossi: Your father Hussein Issa was the founder of the Hope Flowers School. Was there already a precedent for a school like this? What was his motivation for setting up this kind of educational model? Ibrahim Issa: This model didn’t exist at the time in the...

The Dar al-Kalima College is a Christian college in Bethlehem offering 2-year degree courses in arts, multimedia, communications and tourism related studies. Its mission statement reads: “Through establishing an institution for higher learning the Dar al-Kalima College is committed to building a culture of democracy, critical thinking and free expression, thus contributing to the strengthening of the civil society in Palestine.”Nuha Khoury is dean of the College. Vicky S Rossi: Can you explain to me the relationship between the International Center of Bethlehem (ICB) and the Dar al-Kalima College? Nuha Khoury: The International Center of Bethlehem (ICB) is a cultural institution that has been in existence for the past eleven years. In that time it has created offshoots, one of which is the Dar al-Kalima College, which is its newest creation. Now the Dar al-Kalima College is slowly developing an identity of its own: it started with only a few programmes, but...

The Center for Conflict Resolution & Reconciliation (CCRR) is a Palestinian non-governmental organisation working for the transformation of conflict within Palestinian society based on the values of peace, reconciliation, forgiveness, respect and hope. CCRR offers most of its Conflict Resolution workshops through a network of freelance trainers. CCRR cooperates with a number of other Palestinian organizations nationally and on the international level it is a working member of both the International Fellowship of Reconciliation (IFOR) and Pax Christi International. Vicky S Rossi: What does conflict mean to you as a Palestinian and what, in your opinion, is the relationship between conflict and peace? Noah Salameh: Conflict is part of life. It does not just exist between Palestinians and Israelis. Conflict is inherent in nature. It is all around us. It is a natural thing. With regard to peace, people might say they are working for peace, but what do they understand by...

Right to Education Campaign – Statement of Aims“The systematic obstruction of Palestinian education in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by the illegal Israeli occupation not only violates the human rights of individuals, it is an attack on the development of Palestinian society as a whole. Frequent closures of cities, hundreds of military roadblocks and the construction of the illegal Wall prevent thousands of students and teachers from reaching their schools and universities. Students are regularly subjected to intimidation, assault and arbitrary arrest by Israeli soldiers. Universities and schools have been closed down, raided and attacked by military order. The right to education is a fundamental human right and basic to human freedom. If peace is sought, then freedom, justice, education and development are necessary. It is the responsibility of governments, organizations and ordinary people to defend the universal right to education and to demand its realization.”1 Vicky S Rossi: When...

Vicky Rossi: Inam, you are doing a lot of work with the young people in the Shufat refugee camp, what is life like for these children and adolescents? Inam Wahidi: In the entire camp there are only two schools – one for boys and one for girls – there are no places for the children to play and there is a growing drug problem amongst young people. Vicky Rossi: So only 2 schools for the children of 22,000 inhabitants? Inam Wahidi: Yes. There are around 2,000 children that go to school so there are 2 shifts – one in the morning and one in the afternoon. It is just primary and secondary education because for high school they must go to Jerusalem. My organisation arranges activities for the children in the camp because they don’t have anywhere to play. Many children die because of car accidents in the street. Vicky Rossi: They...

Vicky Rossi: Could you tell me a little more about your understanding of the term nonviolence. This morning in your speech you said that nonviolence for you was about empowerment and the recognition of equality. Sami Awad: For me the concept of nonviolence was one that I can say that I grew up with. I grew up in a family that was very understanding of the political realities that we live in under occupation, but was always looking for ways to find solutions. The person who had the most influence on my life was my uncle, whose name is Mubarak Awad. When Mubarak returned to Palestine from living in the U.S. in 1984, he opened a centre called the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence. As a young teenager, I was very involved and active with the activities he did. We would go out to lands that were going to...

Vicky Rossi: Lisa, were you born in Israel and did you grow up there? Lisa: No, I was born in South Africa and my family emigrated to Israel when I was eleven years old. They emigrated to a city just north of Tel Aviv and I grew up and went to school there, although I have travelled abroad a lot since then. Vicky Rossi: What kind of stereotypical ideas of Jewish Israelis have you found that people you have met on your travels have had? Lisa: They have stereotypical images of the soldiers and their rude, bad behaviour. Although I can’t really justify the soldiers’ behaviour, if I have to find something to explain a little bit then I would say that young 18 year olds find themselves having to go straight into the army, having to face the situation of suddenly wearing a uniform, suddenly having to hold guns and having...

On the occasion of the Summer University in Tamera, Portugal, I had the good fortune to gain many insights, away from the well known government rhetoric, into the issues that underlie the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As part of the Summer University, Sami Awad, Reuven Moskovitz and others gave open, constructive and inspiring talks on the historico-political foundations of the conflict and also on possible ways forward to a sustainable peace. The 10 day Summer University offered me the opportunity also to conduct one formal interview and three informal conversations with participating Palestinians and Israelis. Through the views and initiatives of these grassroots activists, a clear and plausible way forward to peace and reconciliation can be envisioned. Interview # 1 of 4 Reuven MoskovitzPeace activist, co-founder of Neve Shalom,winner of the Aachen Peace Award 2003. Dr. Reuven Moskovitz was born in 1928 in Schtetl Frumsiaca in the northern part of Romania. Expulsed from his...

Jharkhand is one of the poorest states of India and has become a test for the ability of Indian democracy to serve the poor. Rich in minerals it remains grossly underdeveloped. The jungles of its many mountains are home to 7 million indigenous people who speak their tribal languages, worship the sun not Hindu gods, are rarely schooled and who live in dire poverty. Three generations ago these hunters and gatherers were forcibly settled, but agriculture was foreign to them. Perhaps it is not surprising that these people have produced Maoists guerrillas who have initiated a campaign of murdering middlemen and those government officials they suspect pocket development money allocated to their bailiwicks. A local Congress MP, Ms Rebelo Merbelo, told me that the main problem is severe unemployment. “And the money allocated to change the situation simply runs away. We have a poor, unstable, state government here and although...

by the greatest economist of all time, John Maynard Keynes. The mechanism for doing this is to expand the issue of what the IMF calls Special Drawing Rights, what Keynes considered to be “paper gold”. At Thursday’s summit of the G 20 in London this is one of the important items on the agenda. SDRs could be a major contribution to the world’s crisis of liquidity and lack of demand. Moreover, some members of the G 20 are going to support the revolutionary suggestion made earlier this month by Zhou Xiaochuan, the boss of China’s central bank, to use SDRs as a worldwide reserve currency to replace the Dollar and the Euro, at present the two most important world reserve currencies. What do the fairies have to do with it? SDR’s are created almost literally at the stroke of a pen – an accounting transaction within a ledger of accounts...

LONDON – My eighteen year old daughter asked me on Saturday where she can safely travel to when she finishes school in June and has three months holiday before going to university in September. “The Muslim countries or Japan”, I replied. She was quite taken aback. At school they talk about the USA, Australia, Thailand and South America. “No”, I said very empahtically, “I don’t want you to go there”, and then set about explaining to her and her mother why I felt so strongly. I pulled out the figures from the new 2009 UN World Development Report. After a lot of research into different types of measurement, the UN decided that the only accurate one was the homicide rate. If you try to compare rape, theft, break-ins etc. there is confusion – every country, apart from those in European Union, measure these in different ways. Some figures are accurate,...