Building Social Harmony through Interfaith Youth Dialogues

Bangladesh is country of close to 160 million people with different ethnic and religious minority groups. As a multiethnic and multi-religious country, the nation faces many challenges such as ethnocentric clashes, political mayhem and more profoundly inter-religious conflicts all over the country. Religion is still very sensitive in Bangladesh, which is linked to its pre-independence history. It is the then British colonial rulers who sowed the seeds of religious conflicts in the Indian subcontinent by discriminating between Muslims and Hindus, and by demarcating British India on the basis of religion. Scholars say that the 1947-demarcation of borders which suffocated ancient trade, transport and human links, still play a catalytic role in inciting ethnic, religious and nationalistic sentiments in countries of the region.
Religion has the capacity of motivating and influencing people of different faiths to become effective and powerful voices for social justice. However, it has also been used in many cases as a tool for oppression by unscrupulous elements to foment violence and carry out other forms of nefarious activities. Take the example of much talked - Ramu episode which took place in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar, in September 2012. What stirred up the violence was a doctored and tagged photo of desecrating holy Quran or defaming Islam on Facebook wall of a Buddhist man. This whipped up religious frenzy, and mobilized people from far distant places to carry out a blanket attack on Buddhist people, their temples, monasteries and living houses. This is one of so many attacks carried out against non-Muslim minorities in Bangladesh over the last few years, which were related to religions in one way or another.    
However, in such complex scenarios of religious and ethnic sensitivity, inter-faith dialogues can give Bangladesh a chance to showcase its own pluralism and thus to build communal harmony under the umbrella of civic nationalism. Interfaith dialogue is, of course, not a religious debate, nor a platform for proselytization. It is a platform for sharing ideas of different faiths/religions so that people have a greater understanding of and respect for what any faith community believes and practices.  The object of interfaith dialogue should be to create harmony (not uniformity) among diverse religious and ethnic communities, with the vision of creating a more secure, stable and sustainable society.  I am not talking about religious uniformity, but harmony. In realist sense, uniformity of religions is neither possible nor desirable, because it would result in a loss of basics of religions as well as spiritual diversities. Harmony among religious communities is both possible and desirable. Prejudice, repugnance, orthodoxy, other unwelcome elements of religions can be overcome only through mutual respect and understanding which can be nurtured through faith-based discussions or dialogues.     
 
In interfaith dialogues, youths should be given precedence over the grownups. Because, the onus lies on younger generation; a generation which is the source of maximum creativity and dynamism, and which has massive potential for playing catalytic role in social change. As per the report of Ministry of Youth and Sports, youth in Bangladesh falling in the age group of 15-30 constitutes one third of total population. Given the youth community constitutes a critical mass of population; the necessity of engaging young people in building peaceful society cannot be overlooked. Though it is quite disheartening to note that in previous communal flare-ups, some of our generation have made themselves available as tools in the hands of unwelcome elements of society, we do not feel diffident to believe that we - the youths - are yet dynamic, versatile and skilled with great passion to work together in order to build a more harmonious society. Youth’s potentials need to be harnessed to a new and positive orientation through effective coordination and leadership trainings.

However, in getting that much desired Eldorado of harmonious and peaceful society, what is needed foremost is to create an atmosphere that is conducive to accommodating youths from all faith communities and even those who believe in atheism together around a table. Government, NGOs, media, schools and youth organizations all ought to come forward to patronizing as well as organizing interfaith dialogues at both local and national levels. We expect such dialogues would be encouraging mutual understanding, increasing reciprocity, facilitating the process of living in diversity, and thus promoting sustainable peace and social harmony. n

BSS, MSS
Department of International Relations
University of Dhaka
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Cell: +801811186815
Email: [email protected]

 

Building Social Harmony through Interfaith Youth Dialogues

Bangladesh is country of close to 160 million people with different ethnic and religious minority groups. As a multiethnic and multi-religious country, the nation faces many challenges such as ethnocentric clashes, political mayhem and more profoundly inter-religious conflicts all over the country. Religion is still very sensitive in Bangladesh, which is linked to its pre-independence history. It is the then British colonial rulers who sowed the seeds of religious conflicts in the Indian subcontinent by discriminating between Muslims and Hindus, and by demarcating British India on the basis of religion. Scholars say that the 1947-demarcation of borders which suffocated ancient trade, transport and human links, still play a catalytic role in inciting ethnic, religious and nationalistic sentiments in countries of the region. Religion has the capacity of motivating and influencing people of different faiths to become effective and powerful voices for social justice. However, it has also been used in many cases as a tool for oppression by unscrupulous elements to foment violence and carry out other forms of nefarious activities. Take the example of much talked - Ramu episode which took place in Ramu, Coxs Bazar, in September 2012. What stirred up the violence was a doctored and tagged photo of desecrating holy Quran or defaming Islam on Facebook wall of a Buddhist man. This whipped up religious frenzy, and mobilized people from far distant places to carry out a blanket attack on Buddhist people, their temples, monasteries and living houses. This is one of so many attacks carried out against non-Muslim minorities in Bangladesh over the last few years, which were related to religions in one way or another. However, in such complex scenarios of religious and ethnic sensitivity, inter-faith dialogues can give Bangladesh a chance to showcase its own pluralism and thus to build communal harmony under the umbrella of civic nationalism. Interfaith dialogue is, of course, not a religious debate, nor a platform for proselytization. It is a platform for sharing ideas of different faiths/religions so that people have a greater understanding of and respect for what any faith community believes and practices. The object of interfaith dialogue should be to create harmony (not uniformity) among diverse religious and ethnic communities, with the vision of creating a more secure, stable and sustainable society. I am not talking about religious uniformity, but harmony. In realist sense, uniformity of religions is neither possible nor desirable, because it would result in a loss of basics of religions as well as spiritual diversities. Harmony among religious communities is both possible and desirable. Prejudice, repugnance, orthodoxy, other unwelcome elements of religions can be overcome only through mutual respect and understanding which can be nurtured through faith-based discussions or dialogues. In interfaith dialogues, youths should be given precedence over the grownups. Because, the onus lies on younger generation; a generation which is the source of maximum creativity and dynamism, and which has massive potential for playing catalytic role in social change. As per the report of Ministry of Youth and Sports, youth in Bangladesh falling in the age group of 15-30 constitutes one third of total population. Given the youth community constitutes a critical mass of population; the necessity of engaging young people in building peaceful society cannot be overlooked. Though it is quite disheartening to note that in previous communal flare-ups, some of our generation have made themselves available as tools in the hands of unwelcome elements of society, we do not feel diffident to believe that we - the youths - are yet dynamic, versatile and skilled with great passion to work together in order to build a more harmonious society. Youths potentials need to be harnessed to a new and positive orientation through effective coordination and leadership trainings. However, in getting that much desired Eldorado of harmonious and peaceful society, what is needed foremost is to create an atmosphere that is conducive to accommodating youths from all faith communities and even those who believe in atheism together around a table. Government, NGOs, media, schools and youth organizations all ought to come forward to patronizing as well as organizing interfaith dialogues at both local and national levels. We expect such dialogues would be encouraging mutual understanding, increasing reciprocity, facilitating the process of living in diversity, and thus promoting sustainable peace and social harmony. n BSS, MSS Department of International Relations University of Dhaka Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh Cell: +801811186815 Email: [email protected]