# Azza Karam

Azza Karam is an Egyptian professor and author, who is known for being the first woman executive director of Religions for Peace.

## Quotes

* Religions for Peace is essentially the United Nations for religious institutions. It’s not about the government, as the UN is – it’s about religious institutions and faith communities from around the world and their leaders who have been selected to represent them. When I saw the chance to serve this expansive community, I seized the opportunity.
** How Interreligious Collaboration Can Bring Peace: An Interview with Dr. Azza Karam
* Religions for Peace is founded on the premise that faith is a very strong motivator. And when I say faith, I don’t just mean religions, I mean the belief that so many of us hold that there is something greater than us. This belief is a powerful motivator, and if we are able to connect through our faiths—if we’re able to find commonality in our spirits, the very fabric of our existence, in our purpose to live—it becomes much harder to divide us.
** Talking about the mission of Religions for Peace
* ...religions have been addressing social needs for centuries! They are the original healthcare providers, hospices, schools. It’s an ancient practice. But what is new and necessary is the idea that these religious institutions and faith communities can come together. We need to pool our moral and practical resources to support our communities better. I think of how a single stick can be easily broken, but when you’re part of a bundle of sticks, it’s much harder to break you. So that’s the idea. And it’s an enduring idea – one that predates Religions for Peace and one that will always exist.
** How social needs are being addressed by religions
* ...every single religion and faith has its own practices. The number of Christian denominations alone is very large. So to try to bring together all the religions and faiths of the world – it’s not easy.
** Different religions with different practices
* ...Humanitarian crises, such as natural disasters, wars, famine, etc., make it imperative to work together. Governments are hardly capable of addressing everyone’s needs during those times, so folks often come together naturally. That has led to the formation of numerous of our Interreligious Councils.
** Motivators for creation of interreligious councils
* It was essentially as if a tsunami had hit everywhere in the world, if you can imagine that—there seemed to be a bit of this primitive instinct to protect one’s own. People looked after their communities as if “It’s me, my church, and I.” That’s what led us to creating a humanitarian fund – to support collaborative efforts around COVID-19 by providing financial support to those who had the will, the vision, and the passion to address the immense needs that the pandemic created and to do so while recognizing the multireligious world we live in.
** Case of COVID
* I think that’s a natural response for women – to want to help as many people as possible. And for young people, they are often the ones to get out there and do something. And then seeing this response from the women and youth, I think encouraged those older, more established religious institutions to say, “Absolutely, we must come together and address the needs of our entire, multireligious community.
** Proposal of women and young people for COVID-19 support fund
* It's one thing to work at an organization, it’s an entirely different thing to lead it. When you work at an organization, it’s easier to be the “servant of it.
** Contrast between working for an organization or leading it
* ...when you lead, you become very visible. And I think my leadership is seen as directly challenging the way things are.
** Leadership
* In a way, religions are the last bastions of patriarchy. And so, to be a leader of an endeavor like this—where my role, essentially, is to ask people to be of good conscience and do the right thing by working together—that can be met with resistance.
** Religions and patriarchy
* it doesn’t matter whether I’m actively asking people to work together. It’s the mere fact that I sit in this space that means people perceive me as someone who will hold them accountable. And because I am who I am—a woman, Arab, Muslim, Egyptian, North African, the “other” in so many ways—it’s hard for a lot of leaders, both male and female, to embrace me as the head of the organization.
** Leading as a woman and challenges she faces
* I think that misperceptions are always going to be part of our lives. I also think that diversity is meant to be our key challenge in life.
** Misperceptions and diversity
* We are not meant to be the same, to live in our enclaves, to speak the same language, and to look alike. Coming together, and forming alliances through that diversity, can be challenging and it’s also an incredibly empowering thing.
** Forming alliances with one another
* Faith is one of those things that adds to that empowerment. Having a shared faith in faith itself and a willingness to serve together as faith-inspired folks—albeit very different faiths—to me, it’s the most beautiful thing. It might sound mushy, but I think that act is the spirit that moves. It moves mountains, it really does.
** Faith
* We are created diverse in order to love one another – to love precisely that which is different from oneself. Religions for Peace will always be committed to this. And even if it’s challenging, we see that it continues to happen worldwide.
** Loving one another
* The lockdowns that were imposed around the world during the pandemic created a remarkable sense of isolation. We suffered loneliness hugely. People of faith struggled with not being able to go to church or synagogue or the mosque. And even nonreligious people, who found themselves alone within four walls, felt that same despair. It tends to make you question your very existence: What am I doing here? What is this all for?
** Scenarios during the COVID pandemic
* I think it was one of the moments where faith in general becomes very important. You realize the pandemic isn’t something you alone can stop, but it’s also not something that the most powerful government or military can stop. So many of us tended to go back to that which is original – our faith in something bigger and more powerful than us – and more powerful than COVID.
** How more people turned to religion during pandemic
* ...each religious community on its own is very rich. But when it comes to religious community members who are willing to stick their necks out, come together, and work across religions, there is very little money for that. Even the biggest governments don’t provide financial support for that kind of work.
** Religious Community and its members
* Churches don’t give money to each other and certainly not to other religious organizations; mosques and Islamic establishments won’t give to other religious organizations; and on it goes. So, ironically, we’re in a place where there are a lot of individual pools of resources, but the collective pool has very little, indeed. And we’re not interested in growing each of those pools into lakes. Instead, we want to create an amazing, abundant fountain that can support everyone. That’s why we need a Director of Resource Development.
** Significance of recruiting a Director of Resource Development
* We will always be striving to ensure that our Interreligious Councils are well-resourced, supported, and better capacitated to be financially accountable and actionable entities. That is a lifelong process.
** Her reply when asked what is on the horizon of Religions of Peace
* I want our world leaders to consult not just the pope, but an imam, a rabbi, and so on. Together, they can hold each other accountable.
** Accountability
* Two phenomena are happening at the same time. Either we are ignoring religion altogether or we are identifying individual religious actors as the most important. And both are actually problematic.
** problematic happenings related to religion
* You cannot ignore the role of religion in public life. People’s faiths matter. You cannot say to them, “Please keep your religion to yourself, if you don’t mind.” That’s not to say that religion should be part of public decision-making – that’s not what I mean. What I mean is it’s important to respect the role that religions play. And part of showing respect is engaging with religious leaders as a matter of norm. I believe our secular civil rights leaders of today have an obligation to consult with the religious civil rights leaders too. It’s a much more powerful movement when they come together.
** Role of religion
* It's critical that we do not place emphasis on a particular religion, but rather hold religious leaders accountable to working together for the human rights of all. It’s okay that we’re different.
** Holding religious leaders accountable
* Difference is good! But when we come together in our diversity, we will learn to be civil with one another. I believe this country is suffering a crisis of civility in this moment. We need to be able to have a conversation and debate, while always granting equal importance to each perspective. If we are able to say, at the minimum, “I do not agree with you, but I love the human being within you.” – that would be a really big thing right now for this country – and for the whole world, actually.
** Her advice for others who are seeking to unite communities and effect change
* The main challenges for religious leaders in addressing sexual and gender-based violence are intimately connected to the fact that sexuality is a deeply taboo area in most faith traditions around the world, but especially institutionalized religious faiths.
** main challenges for religious leaders addressing sexual and gender-based violence
* Sexuality is something that is deeply, deeply problematic. It’s the innermost sanctum of relations between human beings, and religions have traditionally been the guardians of that sanctum. So opening that space for debate is often almost as if we are opening the space to debate the religions themselves, and the authority and the legitimacy of the voice of truths of those religions, which is deeply problematic for almost all religious leaders and, again, especially those within an institutionalized framework that they need to uphold and to protect. In more loosely-formed religious groups or faith communities, it is often less problematic to debate gender-based violence or gender in general, relating to issues of sexuality
** Sexuality
* Religions for Peace looks at aspects of gender-based violence from the lens of where religions agree. We have in Religions for Peace an agreement on the common denominator which is that any and all forms of violence are absolutely rejected as totally outside of any religious acceptability.
** How Religions of Peace is addressing Gender-based Violence
* Violence is against the very fabric of any faith tradition. When the faiths come together, any form of violence is absolutely abhorrent and out of the question.
** Violence
* The religious common ground to all faith traditions is that human life is sacred. And the most vulnerable amongst us are the ones that deserve the most from each of us.
** Religious common ground
* ...power of solidarity comes a moment of intense healing like no other.
** Solidarity and healing
* There is no space for gender-based violence ever to be acceptable or accepted, or indeed for it be condoned through our silences. The more faith communities remain silent, the more we are culpable.
** Fight against gender-based violence
* I want to be able to serve that sense of unity of purpose around an issue of deep pain in the great hope that this is also a source of relief and healing for so many even as we stand together while many are still suffering on a minute-by-minute basis around the world. We stand together emanating a sense of responsibility to try and ensure that our respective positions where we stand can be committed to the healing that is absolutely needed especially as the world has just become much more complicated with the pandemic.
** Serving as an ambassador for Thursdays in Black
* I believe in the power of pebbles, and I believe what we are trying to do is collect the pebbles, one by one, and as many as we can, to slowly make those transformations.
** Prof. Dr Azza Karam: Thursdays in Black “can build the strongest mountain of human dignity”
* The transformation begins within ourselves, in our own families, in our own relationships, in our communities, in our voice and in the power of our voice to carry the messages of healing.
** Attitude towards building a world without rape and violence
* I see hope and change in attitudes and practices through the voice of women and men of faith as they stand in solidarity with one another.
** Her reply when asked if she sees hope that there can be change attitudes and practices and build a world without rape and violence
* The UN Interagency Task Force on Religion was founded to inform and support UN system actors as to the ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘who’, and ‘what’ of religion, and engagement with religious actors, around the UN’s main areas of work: peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development.
** UN Task Force on Religion
* Since 2000, religious engagement (in diverse forms) has become the ‘normal’ for many inside the UN system. But the question is—or should always be—are we wise about the how and why of this?
** Her reply when asked what new initiative or project in the report is she particularly proud of or excited about
* Working with religious actors on all aspects of human rights carries both challenges and opportunities.
** Challenging topic with religious groups
* ...gender equality and women’s empowerment are the most stubborn litmus test of religious’ buy-in to all human rights, these are also the areas in which seeing faith-based partners advance can be the most awe-inspiring.
** Gender equality and empowerment
* No partnership anywhere in the world does not carry at least a seed of suspicion in it. The point is not to cover or pretend it is not there and that we are all lovey dovey
** Partnership and suspicion
* Yet the realms of religion dwarf all of us. At the same time, we are living in times where power brokers communicate in soundbites (if not tweets), and this only complicates how we understand.
** Realms of religion and communication
* we have to be committed to questioning what we think we know, and few of us have that bandwidth (some call it a luxury). But how can we inspire and transform if we are always in a hurry to work only with the like-minded?
** What to do so that suspicion persist about UN is addressed
* Goal 17 of the SDGs notes that a successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society.
** 17th goal of the SDGs
* ...the Kofi Annan Briefings are a space carved out inside the UN infrastructure to give voice to the faith-based and faith-inspired actors to communicate, in their own words, with the governments, with the secular civil society, and with the UN system. And it’s a space for all to hold one another accountable through witnessing one another’s work
** Kofi Annan Faith Briefing
* You don’t really become politicized by a certain event; you grow up politicized.
** Life in the Middle East
* The trend towards politicization was all around us and is still there today. No single event triggered my awareness. It was normal, the blood running through your veins, part of your average conversation around the dinner table, and we have plenty of those, because we’re always convening around meals.
** Politicization
* Any conversation touches on the political context and what’s going on. When you live in a context where one cousin and a best friend and the brother of the neighbors and many people are being incarcerated for no obvious reason apart from the fact that they look suspicious, it becomes part of what you want to know and understand.
** A Discussion with Azza Karam, Senior Culture Advisor at UNFPA
* My early studies and work brought me very much within the sphere and domain of religious groups, particularly Islamic ones, but my perceptions and understanding started from my family and my university experience. So my interest, and the reason that I became involved in these topics, stem from a very personal and professional place.
** Her when asked when she started to focus on religion
* The 1980s was a very intense period for the Arab world in terms of the growth of religious politics. There was a strong politicization of religion throughout the Arab region and the Middle East in general. Thinking back, I realize that while we only focused on the Islamic political domain, plenty was going on within the Christian communities also across the region, though frankly that has not been well studied.
** The 1980s era in the Arab World
* ... in the West we tend to see only the Islamic vantage point, but the religious politics overall was very intense; it was Islamic, and Christian, and Jewish.
** Religions in the West
* Exploring this field of human rights was far from easy, and my interest in the links to religion was even more difficult. The religious groups were, putting it mildly, not the most accepted by the governments. A lot of my work involved coming sitting through many discussions in meetings of men, and of men and women, and of women. I listened to many debates and discussions, and many tried to get me to see their point of view.
** Working in field of human rights
* ...the gender dividing line was not necessarily that clear at all times. In fact it is far less clear in these groups what women should or should not do. In the secular world, that dividing line seemed a lot clearer.
** Gender aspects while she was growing up
* There is a mental, social, economic, and political transformation and a revolution to undertake; we don’t have time to waste. It is the same logic that you heard and saw in other liberation movements, but this time it was being employed, lo and behold, by the religious political groups.
** Her reply when asked if she was limited because of religion
* I came to appreciate religion as a very important segment of our lives, and to appreciate that we should not see religion only as a political motor or with the lens of stereotypes.
** Religion and segment of life
* After about two years in this fascinating and dynamic environment, I realized that I did not want to be teaching only. I missed the actual work—working 24 hours a day on cases and situations and peoples’ lives. I suddenly found myself in a very academic context, torn between a university which was very English-dominated, in a country which was struggling to find its own voice—Northern Ireland.
** Talking about Northern Ireland
* The experience taught me that I did not want to end up just yet as a professor. I needed to continue active engagement. I was restless, even a bit impatient, constantly saying that with so many different aspects of me, by doing only one thing I felt I was missing out on the rest of me.
** Her experience in Netherlands
* My husband, who was also serving as the career advisor for students in the university, came across an advertisement by WCRP. The advertisement was very cleverly crafted and spoke directly to who I am. It appeared to require simultaneous knowledge of gender and religion and international relations and politics. Figuring I had nothing to lose, I applied and was selected. That’s how I came to WCRP..
** How she came across WCRP (the World Council of Religions for Peace
* The inspiration came from an amazing woman, Dr. Constance Buchanan, who headed the culture section at the Ford Foundation at the time. It was Constance who said to Bill Vendley (secretary-general of WCRP), “You’re doing plenty of excellent work with men.
** Whom she sees real inspiration from
* I came to WCRP because I believed in the importance of investing in women. I have distinct memories of the many women of faith I’ve met in these different movements in the Arab region and Africa. They have had a powerful impact on me. They are incredibly strong and capable and wonderful and amazing.
** Her reasons for coming to WCRP
* We had a phenomenal, powerful opportunity to learn from each other across so many different divides, and realize that there was a vision that united them and a shared mission, regardless of their religions.
** the opportunity of WCRP’s global network
* ...I did not feel as if I was estranged from the region in any way, shape or form. But I was aware that my parents, and especially my father, were disappointed that I was not serving the region more directly. He wanted me to be closer to the family and to try to do something more directly in the region.
** Moving from WCRP to UNDP
* I took that job in hopes of serving the region that had nurtured me and taught me so much, and at the same time, to do it from a perspective where I was also serving another dimension, which is the UN system.
** Her choice of UNDP
* Talking to UNFPA staff and hearing about Thoraya’s vision, I came to realize that she was one of the most incredible articulators of what is in my heart. She has power as an under-secretary-general of the United Nations. There was an under-secretary-general who understood religion, who believes that religion is an integral part of culture, is what is going to make the world change. That was firmly and fundamentally my belief, too. I took what I saw as an extraordinary opportunity.
** Talking about how people questioned her choice of UNFPA and saying her reasons
* There has been a gap, not only in research and knowledge, but in terms of our own responsibility as researchers, in trying to understand the women who themselves fight. The ones who are the guerrillas; the ones who are the strategists and the planners; and the ones who blow themselves up.
** Gap in responsibility as a researcher
* ...in terms of the general women’s movement, are finding it very difficult to deal with these women and with the notion of what they do and what they bring to the table, if they ever get to it. Unless we crack this and understand and appreciate it, we’re going to be doing the same old mythologizing of women as the answer. It keeps us in a rut, because we’re not moving beyond that.
** Understanding and appreciating women's movement
* The interpretations of religions that are so focused on controlling women have plenty to do with this fear of women’s anger. We are venturing into a terrain that is psychologically, socially, politically, and personally incredibly difficult. And that’s why we don’t go there. But if we don’t go there, we are simply regurgitating the same old thing.
** Women's anger and sense of justice
* there are the grimy realities of entrenched, interest-based politics; an economy struggling to recover from being on hold while the revolution was taking place, in a global financial environment that is itself struggling to stand on its feet; and a legal system that needs to be overhauled—all while maintaining security and stability in a region being christened, by fire, into freedom.
** Egyptian revolution
* The revolution is proceeding with the hiccups associated with any comprehensive transformation entailing the political, social, economic, and legal overhaul of an entire country. Is the
** What it would mean if the Egyptian revolution is betrayed
* I was afraid for the safety of the youth demonstrating so courageously, creatively, and with so much passion. I was afraid for the millions left in the clutches of a government that deliberately instigated instability for the first four days of demonstrations.
** Her reply when asked what was going through her head during the Egyptian revolution and whether she is afraid of what might happen
* ...the enormity of the transformation does not require one’s physical presence within the national boundaries to be appreciated. The Arab awakening in the neighboring countries is itself an indication that the change that has taken place is very much ongoing, and that it is reshaping the identity of the entire region.
** Her reply when asked if she has being to Egypt after Mubarak's resignation
* Secularism comes in many shades and varieties, but it has never manifested—not even here in the United States—in the manner of a total repudiation of religion.
** Secular quality of Egyptian revolution
* Religion, as an ingredient of culture, has always been part of the business of human development. In the last decade or so, especially after the events of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent reconfiguration of geopolitical dynamics, discussions about religion have begun to occupy a more prominent role in the discourse within and among the various UN agencies.
** How religion is being talked and thought about at United Nations
* The United Nations system today is more aware of the fact that religious communities, and their affiliated organizational entities, are some of the oldest, most deeply rooted, and furthest reaching social welfare networks and providers known to humanity. They are increasingly recognized as part of the partnerships for development at the United Nations.
** The current system of the United Nations
* Today, there are over 500 member organizations, with a legacy of partnering not only with UNFPA but also with several of its UN sister agencies on a range of development issues.
** numbers of organizations partnering UN agencies
* The world of religion is vast and difficult for us to quantify and categorize into neatly distinct entities.
** Versatility of religion
* Religion and faith do not lend themselves to the usual normative frameworks of development praxis, which means that engagement with religious communities has to be sustainable, built upon common goals, and mainstreamed into broader civil society and government partnerships. This is critical to establishing and maintaining the trust that is required for any such engagement, and for facilitating the co-ownership of national development processes among all the different partners involved.
** Religion and faith
* We are obliged to work with varied representatives of different religious organizations and communities on addressing a multiplicity of human development needs. And we have to maintain the same respect and appreciation for the respective strengths and modus operandi of each partner, as long as there is agreement on the basic goals of human development, that is, human rights, peace, and security for all.
** UN's choice of partners
* Religious concerns, positions, and services vary significantly according to the religion itself, as well as per country, region, and situation. Issues of reproductive health vary enormously.
** The Rubicon is in Egypt: An interview with Azza Karam
* it is virtually impossible to embark on any issue relating to sexuality, women’s rights, and gender relations without coming across particular cultural dynamics.
** Rights and cultural dynamics
* If there is one lesson we keep learning from history, and that has been highlighted of late by the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, is that people change their own cultures from within all the time.
** Lessons from history
* ...contrary to popular (and largely ethnocentric) beliefs, the revolution could happen only because women’s roles in Egyptian society—and Arab societies as a whole—have already been undergoing a sea change.
** Her reply when asked if revolution represents a sea change in the role of women in Egyptian society
* Anyone who has studied Arab societies in the last thirty years will attest to how socially active, politically informed, and economically engaged women have been.
** Arab societies in the last thirty years
* The magnitude, scope, and diversity of their participation in the revolution is itself a testament to how intrinsic to the social, economic, legal, and political fabric they already are—and have been.
** Women's participation in Egyptian revolution
* What is now transpiring with women’s rights in Egypt—and elsewhere in the Arab region—is a continuation of the struggle for gender equality within the emerging political framework, which is part and parcel of the larger effort to safeguard all human rights in the new polity that is now being collectively fashioned.
** Struggle for gender equality
* Arab women have made it clear they are perfectly capable of activism and of articulating their own needs and aspirations. If and when these women need the assistance of “people in the West,” they will let that be known in no uncertain terms. After listening, the “people in the West” can then decide whether and how best to respond. And it would be wise to do so in consultation with the same women who made the request.
** What people in the West do to help advance the cause of women in the Middle East
* It is seriously myopic to assume that the Muslim Brotherhood is “anti-women.” I first started studying the Brotherhood, as part of a range of Islamist formations around the world, back in the late 1980s. Even within the organization itself, there are diverse perspectives on women’s rights: there are extremely active, very well-educated, cultured, and articulate women members of the Brotherhood, just as there are some members who are deeply conservative when it comes to women’s roles in public.
** Muslim Brotherhood
* Bear in mind that revolutions are happening within almost every group, party, and institution in Egypt today: the army, political parties, universities, professional associations, media, NGOs—you name it.
** How revolution is happening in every sector
* The journey of these different revolutions is, for everyone concerned, a process of acquiring wisdom, and I believe strongly that we have little to lose and a great deal to gain.
** Importance of different revolutions that keep coming up
* We are living in the context of a generation of youth—which is over 60% of our populations—that has grown up as part of a global youth culture equipped with mass communication technologies and amid huge challenges to established powers.
** Generation of youths
* ...who would have thought the Soviet Union would collapse; or that religion would re-emerge so strongly after decades of attempts to keep it out of politics; or that a woman and former guerilla fighter would be elected president of the largest Latin American country, and a black man would be elected as president of a country that once went to war with itself?
** Comparing how different cases are happening
* This generation is growing up at a time when even what it is to be a man or a woman is being radically redefined.
** Her reply when asked what she thinks is the cause of all this upheaval
* On February 11, 2011, I was born again as a proud Masriyya—Egyptian—deeply humbled by those ten or twenty years younger than I, but a thousand years more courageous. I kissed my computer screen—the very same one that had just suffered the indignity of having a shoe hurled at it—when Al Jazeera aired the announcement and displayed the unadulterated joy of Egyptians at Mubarak’s resignation.
** How she felt when Mubarak stepped down
* Our planet is facing an existential crisis, and we need to ensure that all religious institutions around the world, which together target 80 per cent of the world’s people, can be active in saving this planet.
** Planet crisis
* We are living in a global context where freedoms, all freedoms, but especially the freedom of thought, religion and belief, are seriously under attack. If religious leaders are not part and parcel of protecting these freedoms for all people of all faiths all over the world, then who is or will be?
** Need for religious leader to protect freedom
* ...we are living in times when conflicts are erupting all around us, many either with a religious tinge, or where religious reasons are being used to justify atrocities. Again, if religious leaders and their institutions, from all over the world and representing all faiths, are not part of confronting the fallacies of belief and actively advocating for coming together in peace and justice, then who will do so?
** Eruption of conflicts
* In the reasoning of Amartya Sen, the Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, the process of development is best understood as an expansion of the freedoms people enjoy in five spheres: political, economic, social, and transparency and personal security. These are precisely the spheres of development that require transformation.
** Illustration of Amartya Sen
* ...over 80 per cent of the world’s people claim a religious affiliation, according to the US Pew Research Centre, and the language of faith is the one that speaks to over 80 per cent of the world’s people.
** According to US Pew Research Centre
* If we are seeking the expansion of the freedoms that people enjoy, we must engage and situate those who can influence the processes as central parts of the equation.
** Engaging who can influence the process if we want freedom expansion
* To date, we, development practitioners, researchers and policy-makers, have focused the responsibility for development action rightly mostly on governments. More recently, we began to pay attention to the private sector and to assess corporate social responsibility. When we finally woke up to the role of civil society, we focused almost entirely on secular members of civil society.
** Focus of development practitioners, researchers and policy-makers
* It is time that we integrate the religious sectors into the fabric of civil society, not by arguing that religious leaders and institutions are unique and special species, but by using a “whole of society” lens to appreciate that social transformation, as part of the long arc of history which bends towards justice, as Martin Luther King Jr once said, requires engaging the religious, or the faithful parts of the civic infrastructure.
** Integration of religious sectors
* ...behavioural change in most parts of the world in which religion remains deeply rooted in people’s consciousness is rendered possible when religious leaders start speaking to the necessity of that change as part of what makes a person more faithful.
** role of religion in influencing development issues
* Indeed, secular human-rights actors complain of the negative influence of religion. So why not harness the positive, transformative influence of religion that can help societies overcome harmful social norms and practices?
** Referring to secular human rights actors
* This is an organisation that was convened when religious leaders from each religious tradition from around the world came together for peace against nuclear armament and all forms of conflict and whose first World Assembly had three themes: human rights, development and disarmament. This is an organisation that has never been a platform for empty slogans.
** How RfP is making a real difference on issues that touch the daily lives of people across the globe and not just be a platform for slogans
* Over the years the RfP has supported, facilitated and guided the establishment of 70 national Interreligious Councils and five regional Interreligious Councils from around the world. Each council brings together the leadership of the various religions in a manner reflective of the local religious demography, and they act as entities which create an inter-religious space within each nation’s civic infrastructure.
** Highlighting what Religions of Peace has done so far
* This is a convening place in which those who speak in the name of people’s religions come together regularly to assess issues of national concern and to rally and mobilise around shared well-being. This is, especially in today’s contexts, a space of light.
** RfP as a place of coming to assess national concerns and seek solutions
* We need these Interreligious Councils to be strengthened so they can serve the shared well-being of their nations effectively and in a timely manner.
** Reason for Interreligious Councils
* We need these spaces of light to radiate the language of peace, and for those religious leaders and institutions that convene together to symbolise and realise a precious reality: when faiths come together for the common good, then the common good wins against all odds.
** Interview: On religion and development
* My role as coordinator is to convene the 20 UN system focal points working on, with, or about religion and religious engagement for the sake of realising the UN system’s three pillars of sustainable development, peace and security, and human rights.
** Her role as coordinator of the UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Religion and Development
* Since 2015, the 193 UN member states have agreed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or Agenda 2030), which elucidate 17 global goals meant to be realised by 2030. These SDGs are in many ways the practical translation of the three pillars of the UN system’s raison d’être.
** Agreement of UN member states to the SDGs
* The Task Force is an inter-agency mechanism that came together first in 2010 to help the focal points on religion understand what religion has to do with the UN’s commitments and to be more effective and strategic in how and whom we engage with in the realms of religious spaces in order to better serve the purposes of the UN system.
** Role of UN Task Force
* Once I take up my position in the RfP, I will have to leave the UN and will therefore no longer be able to serve inside the UN system. However, since the RfP has traditionally partnered with the UN for most of its existence, I look forward to continuing and deepening partnerships with diverse UN system organisations on the shared goals of peace-making, education, environmental stewardship and freedom of religion, belief and conscience.
** Her reply when asked if she will continue in the capacity as task force coordinator when she starts her position at RfP
* ...there has been a re-awakening of a sort of “religious” consciousness and emergence in public life all over the world. As a scholar of these trends, I have written elsewhere that this has had a great deal to do with the loss of the traditional meta-narratives we were familiar with, such as liberalism, socialism, and communism. I believe that some have sought recourse in religion partly because political spaces offered an ideological vacuum.
** Her reply when asked if she sees the idea of keeping government secular and distant from religion is changing for better or worse
* ...we are living in times when traditional institutions of all types are fast losing their legitimacy and their public support. Indeed, we are facing a crisis of all things institutional.
** How traditional institutions are losing legitimacy
* faith in its myriad formats, languages, institutional set-ups and outreach, appears attractive, all the more so when you realise that many social services around the world, especially in the realms of health and education and certainly in humanitarian crisis contexts, are still being offered through religious institutions. So “religion”, whether in terms of faith or in terms of social service, is pervasive.
** Religions as a terms of faith or social service
* ...some of the reappraisal of the religious social-service sector is sensible and timely — after all, hands-on innovative partnerships are required for us to target some very basic humanitarian and social needs. But I also see a huge challenge in having some religious actors and some religious institutions becoming too closely aligned, some even vested, with political spaces and actors. History has taught us that when political and religious institutions collude, human welfare often suffers, and tragically so.
** How history taught that human welfare suffers when the political and religious institutions collude
* There is a massive difference between strengthening social services by engaging with all service-providers inclusively and working with religious actors to change harmful practices as part of building a stronger civic consciousness around social justice on the one hand, and between religious actors seeking political power, or political actors seeking religious cover, on the other. It is the latter that I believe we need to be vigilant about.
** What is needed to be vigilant about between strengthening social services and working with religious actors
* Religion is, or should be, primarily about faith and not about political power. But when religion is used as a tool for those in power to influence politics, then religion can become a tool for harm, whether in the short term or long term.
** What religion should be and what it shouldn't be
* ...it is important not to use religion, as belief, as actors, or as institutions, in the business of politics. We need to remember that colonialism began with a missionary zeal to “civilise” the other — the “civilising mission” was a feature of the 19th and 20th centuries in much of the world, in other words not so long ago.
** Relating colonialism to why religion should not be misused to manipulate
* The instrumentalisation of religion is as old as religion itself. So it behoves us to be alert to both the goodness and the harm which “using religion” can cause.
** Explaining instrumentalizing religion has been around wayback
* By understanding or appreciating the religious as part of the civic, and thus “right-sizing” the role of religion rather than assuming it is the answer to all things, whether good or evil.
** How risks of religion being misused to manipulate or interfere in the affairs of other countries can be avoided
* Equally unwise is ignoring the reality of the religious presence, belief, and service in most communities, or seeking to use religion to serve a political purpose, no matter how noble it may seem.
** Noting religious presence
* No one religion on its own is “the answer” or the solution to all of society’s ills, and thus it is imperative that all religions, whether majority or minority in size, are consulted and engaged as part of a nation’s social infrastructure and by extension part of a global civic community.
** Consulting and engaging all religions to be part of nation's infrastructure
* Ignorance about the role of religion in people’s lives, or a secular fundamentalist attitude which essentialises religion, seeing all religions as the same and all as being largely harmful, are major hindrances to those of us urging a better understanding of the role of the religious in civil society.
** Understanding the role of religious in civil society
* For religions to be about peace requires many things: we need to appreciate that religious consciousness, spirituality, or belief is a force for good in most people’s lives, and we need to appreciate that religious institutions suffer from some of the same ills as all other institutions populated by humans, but that this is no cause to dismiss all the institutions.
** reasons that keep religions from playing a greater role in promoting peace
* We need to appreciate that just as the Divine created us as different and diverse so that we may know one another, we also need to honour the purpose of that creation by appreciating that no one religion trumps all or can be all things for all people. Instead, all religions need to work together so that we may know one another, or in other words, know peace.
** How all religions need to work in harmony
* when it comes to issues like climate change, what the world needs is more women like you.
** Praising Sonia Gaujajara
* Service is a call beyond our professional commitment. I believe that service is the quintessential raison d’être of religion and that we are faithful when we serve. We are people of faith and therefore we serve one another without discriminating.
** Talking about how her November 16 lecture titled “Dialogue of Love.” describes the place of love in the service
* The more we love the divine—in whatever shape or form it is—the more we love one another and want to serve one another. To show love we serve the people we love. This is why every single religion speaks about the imperative to do good. I do not see a dividing line between service and love.
** How service and love are connected
* My very first experience of interreligious dialogue happened at the level of human rights. I was an intern in a human rights organization and the conversation was very legalistic and political. The question was how to maximally serve the human rights of everyone, including those in jail. In the midst of this conversation, which was very secular, we had to confront situations in which those who were detained or missing were actually in trouble in the first place because of their religious convictions or what they understood to be their religious convictions.
** Her experience in the world of Interreligious dialogue
* How can you defend the human rights of a person who takes actions which are deemed harmful by society and governments, but this person believes that he/she is acting out of religious convictions? This actually opened for me the door to a conversation about convictions and faith. This evolved into learning about other people’s beliefs and trying to understand what it is that moves people to behave in certain ways. This is how I got interested in the “pulse of faith” inside each of us
** Her entry point into the Interreligious dialogue world
* It is clear that religious institutions and leaders have a very critical set of roles to play, especially in this moment of global pandemic. They are needed now more than ever because of the spiritual sustenance that people are looking for due to their rising sense of helplessness.
** positive role religions can play in fostering peace and well-being in the world
* Religions are therefore more necessary than ever, but let us take our reflection one step further. It is not good enough nor helpful to have any single religious entity more powerful in its range of services. It is not about serving to become more powerful as one religion, it is about serving in this moment of dire global need to become more cohesive as a social entity. I do not want to see some Muslims becoming more powerful, nor Jews or Christians. I do not want to see any religious institution becoming more powerful. I want to see them all coming together to serve everybody better.
** Necessity of religions
* The Netherlands was the perfect environment for me to learn and eventually to strike out on my own. I didn’t really have a choice about coming to the Netherlands, because my father was posted to the Egyptian Embassy in The Hague. And as a good Muslim daughter, who really didn’t have much say in what happened to her, I was transplanted from Egypt. To be honest, I didn’t want to go at the time, but my family insisted.
** Her reply when asked what attracted her to Netherlands
* Gender is very often intimately connected to sexuality – who we believe we are, how we feel and see and use our bodies. For this reason, almost all faith traditions have an opinion on the matter. The more institutionalised the religion, the more dominant the framework of gender, sex and patriarchy.
** Relating how gender is closely connected to sexuality
* Sex is for procreation, nothing else. God forbid you should even think of enjoyment.
** What sex is and what one is forbidden to think sex as
* Religious institutions in particular are not prepared to negotiate on sex and sexuality, because once you start looking at how these norms are built up from sexual relations and sexual identity all the way up to leadership, you begin to question that foundation, that authority, and even the primacy of that institution. This means that no religious institution is willing to discuss sex and sexuality in any open way.
** How gender equality has never quite been spelled out in interreligious work before and reasons
* I saw this so clearly when I worked for the UN (United Nations). Religious leaders were all prepared to speak about the environment and children’s rights and promoting equality generally for all people and refugees. But if you bring up sex, sexuality, sexual identity, sexual relations. Ooh la la, no way.
** How religious leaders talk about other things while avoiding to talk about sex, sexuality, sexual identity and sexual relations
* One of the most beautiful things I am learning is that I am honestly constantly amazed by the willingness of our religious leaders, who represent these different institutions. There are over 100 religious leaders who all come from different faith traditions, including indigenous ones. I am really deeply touched and hugely moved by how willing these people are to devote time to being part of this movement, this effort, this dream of religions for peace.
** Appreciating the willingness of religious leaders of different institutions devote time to being part of Religions for Peace
* To actually stand shoulder to shoulder. And at the same time, I feel enormous pressure from the thought of, ‘Oh my god, how can we honour that? How on earth can a staff of fifteen people honour 100 religious leaders and their institutions and their networks who are willing to, and do in fact, commit their time, their effort, their money, their everything, to serving?
** looking back on her first year at Religions for Peace
* This is about both the danger to and the opportunity for the very essence of who we think we are, if we were to genuinely listen to one another. It may dramatically challenge us, because we think we know ourselves so well. We think we hear and we listen, but we actually do not. We are constantly walking this very thin line in life and in danger of falling off. If you do fall off, you would completely lose your certainty, but at the same time, imagine what you might find if you fall off.
** Her explanation of what the quote "To truly listen is to risk being changed forever” means to her
* Imagine the grace that can happen when you genuinely challenge what you hold to be dear and true. And it’s particularly in times of crisis that we listen even less well, because we are worried.
** how we listen well in times of crisis
* ...the role of civil society is not only about providing the service that governments do not provide, but also about defending and nurturing the principles of human rights and democracy that we are convinced make us human. Principles that make us safe and help us protect our climate.
** Role of civil society
* All too rarely do these two cooperate at national or global level. I see great value in strengthening the ability of religious organisations to be a better partner of secular civil society organisations. But I also see the great value religious actors can bring. If we can build bridges between these two, we will have a much stronger civil society in the future
** Emphasizing on how both secular civil society and religious society live and thrive
* In the future, I want us to work against gang violence in Latin America, and with issues related to indigenous peoples and slavery. These are areas where Religions for Peace must do something. Because therein are the deepest wounds of many people today.
** A fighter for cooperation with and between religious
* I have thought about it, even if that’s because it would be impossible for me not to see many things from a woman’s point of view, with a woman’s sensibilities. I also think there are things I could do as a Muslim. In my acceptance speech I reached out to Muslim leaders to join the Religions for Peace and there was an immediate positive reaction and many came on board as members of the World Council, our governing board.
** Her reply when asked if she had time to reflect on the significance of her being the first woman and the first Muslim to head Religions for Peace
* I am not serving as a woman or a Muslim, but there has been a remarkable flow of goodwill and a wiliness to work together, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Buddhist, Jewish or Hindu.
** Her service as the head of Religions for Peace
What in it the ground running and learn as you go?
* As an Egyptian Muslim woman growing up in a very conservative family, it would feel like whatever I did, it was not good enough. That meant I had to work harder, longer, more. The social conditions helped put me in a place where, yes, you have to hit the ground running. If you don’t, you’ll fall flat on your face.
** Her reply when asked what in her past prepared her for her role with Religions for Peace
I also feel like my personal history has made me a bit more sensitive to the struggles of those who cannot articulate their thoughts or who aren’t allowed to speak freely — men or women, or people of different races, faiths, social classes. I think there is an added layer of sensitivity, precisely because things didn’t come easy for me. It means I’m naturally on the lookout for those who
** How her personal history made her sensitive to speak up for others
* As a person who is constantly wondering and seeking, it helps to build a certain sense — not so much of fatalism, but of preparedness, of understanding that things are going to be difficult before they get easier. One of the things I’ve learned in my life, and I’m now in my mid-50s, is that there is joy in service. This belief in service is a great source of encouragement and energy that I sometimes tap into.
** How she felt about the pandemic and all its impacts, then what happened in Afghanistan
* We are living in an age where religion, religious leaders, religious ideologies, are playing an important political, social, cultural and even economic role. I’m not just talking about the spiritual space here. I’m talking very practically, about the political and the financial space. In Afghanistan, we have to appreciate how complicated the situation is.
** Role of religious leaders in the Taliban takeover after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan
* We have to remember that every religious leader in Afghanistan is not part of the Taliban. There are religious minority leaders and communities. We have to look at all of that rich tapestry of religious context in the singular. We have to be more discerning about society, politics and about the different religions coexisting.
** Noting how every religious leader in Afghanistan is not part of the Taliban
* There are many religions and many, many religious people. The number of those within those groups who are speaking out against the scientific evidence is relatively small. If we look at the broad group of religious institutions, whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and so on, we realize a large majority is actually calling for a scientific perspective regarding vaccines. There’s a great deal of thought that taking vaccines is actually almost a religious obligation. We just have to keep advocating
** Best way to confront issues of some evangelical churches in the U.S. calling on their congregations to avoid the corona virus vaccines
* Political leadership and religious leadership have to be seen as unique and distinct, when there is too much of an overlap between the political institutions and the religious institutions, it doesn’t become so much about faith anymore for the religious—it becomes more about power politics.
** Greatest challenge to interfaith peace efforts
* I think that we need to be focused on realizing that religious leaders of major religious institutions of all religions around the world are the ones who expressed and signaled their readiness to accept a woman as a leader of their joint collaborative effort and commitment towards building peace.
** Talking about how the focus of her historic appointment should not be that she is a woman
* Cooperation, collaboration, are not options. They are necessities for us to survive. Unfortunately, there are still many people who feel or believe that their nations or communities could survive at expense of everyone else. The truth, however, is we are growing, even with globalization, even with technology, even with wealth, we are growing dependent, not less dependent, more dependent on one another, economically, socially, politically, culturally.
** Extract from her speech at the webinar hosted by CCRP in 2020
* China is a nation with one of the greatest, longest civilizations in history. China is a nation that continues to teach the world many things. It is important, one of our important lessons is that we learn, that we teach, that we believe, is collaboration.
** Important lesson learnt from China
* The best scientific evidence shows, that one tree is killed, the forest can be endangered. The best scientific evidence shows with COVID-19, that one person is infected, and the entire nation can become a hostage. This is an important lesson for all of us. In case some of us are still doubting the value of working together, let COVID-19 be a lesson that we can afford. We cannot afford to not work together. We must.
** Scientific evidence
* There are moral imperative, social imperative, and healthy imperative, indeed cultural, financial, military imperative for us to work together. All religions have much to teach, and we will be humble, we should be humble in understanding that we have to learn from one another that the main and most important lesson of survival is inter respect and interdependence we have.
** Understanding the importance of survival
* There is not a single faith, tradition anywhere in the world. That says, two men, you can live on your own, and the hell with everybody else. There is not a single faith, tradition that tells human beings they must be in isolation from one another, that they must be only like, and do work with those we like, and work for those we like. In fact, all faiths, traditions, have many similar messages. The most fundamental message of our faith, tradition, is we are all connected, that we hurt one, we hurt all. There are many examples of you. Yourself, in your venerable organizations, institutions have to bring to the table to learn from one another.
** Most fundamental message of faith and tradition
* ...we don’t need to go outside to learn, if we come together in our diversity, institution diversity, religious diversity, cultural diversity, national diversity, social diversity, cultural diversity, if we come together in our diversity, all the knowledge we need is within, is between us
** Lesson she always love to share
* COVID-19 hurts our lungs. It attacks our lungs and makes it very difficult to breathe, and many have died, unable to breathe. This is one of the sufferings what our planet is suffering. As we cut the trees, as we undertake different nuclear experience, as we fight one another, we hurt the planet. And when we hurt the planet, we will have nowhere to go. That won’t be beautiful, and as one addresses as the planet, we live on.
** Relating COVID-19 to our planet
* Let us learn from one another. Let us learn to be humble servants to one another. Let us learn to stand in defense of our humanity, let us learn to stand in defense of our dignity, humanity, not only one community, not only one race, or not only one ethnicity.
** Learning from one another
* ...when our humanity is dignified, our humanity collectively is saved. Let us safeguard the dignity of our humanity and the dignity of this earth. Let us please commit, to standing in solidarity with the dignity of one another, to speaking up in defense of those are defenseless to defending those who are most vulnerable.
** Humanity
* Our power is measured not in our ability to have the most mighty armies, our power as humanity is measured in our ability to standing defense of the most vulnerable among us, that includes our planet.
** Where our power lies
* He is seen as a religious leader who articulates the moral responsibilities and even clarifies what needs to be done in order to heal communities and to prevent conflict,” said Prof. Karam. “So, his role will continue to be to map out the how and why of resolving and avoiding conflicts, including of living more peacefully with ourselves as people of faith.
** Talking about Pope Francis
* What we need to do is identify new voices, convene and re-evaluate our partnerships and lastly, identify new ways of working together. Which may force us to reconsider how we do development as a United Nations system.
** UN has key role in empowering women in post-revolutionary Middle East, experts say