Project Report 3

Rovereto Inter-religious Encounter 2008

Advancing shared security in Europe: the role of religion

The project-group III was comprised of members from 7 countries (France, Norway Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Italy and Poland) and five different religious traditions. We were interested to learn more about the concept of ‘shared security’ as developed and proposed since the 8th WCRP-World Assembly in Kyoto (August 2006) and eager to discuss ways of implementing this concept. In order to do so, we had the pleasure to listen to a number of presentations that illustrated the multifaceted concept of ‘shared security’ and proceeded in discussing it among ourselves.

Stein Villumstad (Deputy Secretary General of Religions for Peace) introduced the concrete agenda that underlies the concept of shared security. He made clear how this concept is challenging a traditional understanding of security that often is understood as national security, and focuses on “we against them”. The traditional understanding of security often limits itself to particular religious, ethnic or national groups. Shared security builds on the notion that “my security is your security, and your vulnerability is my vulnerability”. Shared security is therefore inclusive – for all, as opposed to some other exclusive notions of security. Moreover, Stein Villumstad illustrated that the involvement of religious actors in the promotion of shared security (a) relies upon the particular capacities of the religious communities and (b) how it integrates them into the work of building a positive understanding of security.

Bishop Gunnar Stalsett (Moderator of the European Council of Religious Leaders) gave an introduction to the Kyoto Declaration, issued at the World Assembly of Religions for Peace in 2006, that introduced the concept of Shared Security. He further described the concrete challenges the concept of shared security exercises upon the faith communities and explained how he himself tries to translate this concept into the present-day mediation-work done in Kosovo and East Timor. He referred to his own efforts to include women- or youth-groups into peace-building activities and underlined the necessity to work towards the ban of cluster bombers and nuclear weapons.

Bash Quraishy (European Network Against Racism / ENAR Advisory Council) shared some experiences from his manifold work in the media sector in Europe. Most of all he highlighted the ways in which some parts of the media in Europe create a picture of Islam that indicates it with terrorism. Muslim minorities are increasingly presented as a major threat to security and not as an active part of the solution.

Moreover, members of the Inter-Religious Councils (IRCs) in Albania (Mr. Hajdini) and Bosnia (Mr. Zovkic) described the work of their respective IRCs. They made clear how the concept of shared security is put into action. On this basis the members of project III went on to discuss three interrelated questions and finally decided upon the following commitments and partnerships:

(1) What are the values and principles of the ‘shared security’-concept that you specifically find important to highlight as additional or complementary to other security concepts (e.g. national security or human security)?

The debates on this question made clear that the concept of shared security still needs further sharpening. The elements of the idea are currently difficult to communicate.

The agenda of the concept tries to open new ways of looking at the problem of security. It recognizes the legitimacy of national security, and builds on human security. It goes further, stressing the mutual responsibility for security from individual to global levels. Multiple social actors have to be involved, including religious communities and institutions.

There is still work to be done to make clear how religious communities might play a particular role in this process and how they want to find their place in the over all process.

On this basis we agreed to value the concept of shared security for its emphasis on cooperation, interrelatedness, inclusion and safety for the whole society. Nevertheless, we want to work towards a more precise explanation of the concept.

(2) Can you share concrete examples of multi-religious cooperation that contributed to ‘shared security’? What were the analyses made, the instruments used, measures of capacity-building put forward, and actions taken?

The members of the working-group named quite a number of projects that apply the principles of the concept of shared security – sometimes without alluding to this idea explicitly.

In Lyon and Lîle (France) there are projects going on that include Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, media representatives and local authorities into mediation-programmes that want to build republic and religious brotherhood.

In Denmark the members of the ‘Jewish-Muslim Platform’ start to see themselves as partners to work towards a common media-presence.

In Norway, the national government was willing and able to rely on the ‘Religions and Beliefs-Organisation’ to deal with the so-called ‘Muhammad-Drawing Crisis’. In doing so, they counteracted to the general hysteria.

In France there is a long tradition of gatherings among Muslims and Christians that support a very substantial feeling of security among the participants.

In France there is a project, put forward by religious choirs. Its members rehearse Andalusian music together and underline their shared Muslim, Christian and Jewish heritage.

In Zwickau (Germany) the authorities support the efforts to empower young people (independent of their religious heritage or tradition).

In front of this background the group underlines the wide range of concrete activities. Moreover, it wants to step beyond the supposed safe circles of inter-religious encounter towards further actions like mediation, advocacy and empowerment of all people in the society, especially the youth.

(3) What concrete new initiatives of multi-religious cooperation can you envisage for your country/region? As you leave Rovereto, what commitments can you make to pursue this?

There was consensus, that the concept of ‘shared security’ itself is still not well known. All the members made the commitment that they will try to work towards a more adequate communication of the concept and towards its concrete implementation.

The concrete activities are still not systematically interconnected. The participants decided to push the respective activities by interlink their own websites and by starting to build international links (e.g. by translating their own websites into different languages).

Finally the participants of the workshop decided to work towards inter-faith media centres that help the religious representatives to presents their ideas more professionally in their support of the basic notions of shared security.

So, the participants in our group felt that there is a need for concrete plans of action to achieve our goals. As we leave Rovereto, we will share the idea of ‘shared community’ with our local, regional and national community, with political and civil society actors and with the media in our respective countries.

Rapporteur: Karsten Lehmann