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The culture of peace is a way of life in which mutual respect produces social integration. There can be no peace if the respect for the other’s rights does not prevail.
S. Shushkevich: Establishing a Culture of Peace: Worldviews, Institutions, Leadership, and Practices
It is important to take steps toward deepening our understanding of how we can distill the best of globalization and at the same time to remove ourselves from its bad aspects; how we can act in unison; how to avoid dividing society as a whole into “we” and “them”; and how we can subdue the roots of aggression within the human soul and steer clear of conflicts between all the various groups.
How can the United Nations best serve the interest of the United States? And conversely how can the United States advance the mission of the United Nations in its service to humanity as envisaged in the Charter? We had a glimpse of a partial answerafter the September 11 attack when the world and the United Nations rallied to the side of the United States. Will the U.S. now rally to the side of the U.N. in building a future that works for everyone in a world that works for everyone?
The American people understand the symbiotic need the United States and the United Nations have for each other, and yet there is persistent ambiguity in official America towards the United Nations.
Just about every public opinion poll today shows that the public is very supportive of the notion of the United Nations, but when it gets down to the details and questions about performance, you get much more mixed results.
The two factors that usually explain U.S. ambivalence and sometimes outright hostility toward international cooperation are an exaggerated concern with maintaining sovereign prerogatives and exceptionalism (that is, we are so special that we need not play by the rules that we expect other countries to respect).
National interests select themselves by passing the unilateral question: Is this important enough to do unilaterally? This does not mean that unilateral action is the preferable course, but if necessary is it important enough to do without the support of our allies or over the objection of an organization like the U.N.
It is not in our interest or in the interest of the World Food Programme for the United States to become too dominant a player in any of the humanitarian organizations. This is because it could create the perception that the WFP is an arm of U.S. foreign policy, whereas their neutrality, and their perceived neutrality, is critical to accomplishing their mission.
Hamad characterizes the post 9/11 era as “a critical moment for Muslim leaders to consider the role of their faith in the world.” He considers the core of Muslim faith and argues that “Our real, daily Jihad is to achieve these internal goals, to conquer our fallen nature, not to conquer others,” a goal which if achieved will enable Islam to “be a light in the world of this new century and millennium.”
We gather from different parts of the world in this time of need to formulate what should be the position taken by the Muslims in the changing world after what happened on September 11 in New York. For me, the so-called terrorism that is perpetrated by different people from different religions and different nations is a response to something. And for the Muslims, it is a kind of response to the challenges found by Islam or facing Islam. Among the challenges, one of the most important is the challenge of modernization. Modernization came in the world in the form of westernization.
Government should provide incentives and support for couples as they walk the long lifelong path of marital maintenance because this does promote the general welfare. Let’s work together to implement incentives and programs to strengthen marriage and reduce family breakdown.
Inter-religious reconciliation and cooperation is an essential condition for world peace. If religions only emphasize narrow-minded denominationalism and fail to teach true love for God and the universe, we will never free humankind from the horrors of war. In the face of this global crisis, religious leaders have to practice true love, humbly following God's Will, walking hand in hand beyond the boundaries of their own religion.