Resources
Issue of Dialogue & Alliance interfaith journal on the theme of "Interreligious Dialogue and the Sustainable Development Goals."
Many challenges are facing Europe at this very moment. First of all, we have to look at the continent as a whole, including Russia and the former Soviet republics, the Balkans and the southern Mediterranean area.
I feel privileged to talk to you on women, the family and peace based on the intensive consultations and numerous meetings with member states, regional partners, civil society and women’s groups that the UN High Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations has held on four continents.
On July 27 I launched at the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) my diplomatic outline for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The outline was launched with the Israeli opposition leader, Member of Knesset Isaac Herzog, and more than 25 members of the Knesset, along with over 450 participants from across the nation.
In today’s world the distribution of power is changing in a basic way. The center of global gravity is indeed moving away from the Atlantic—where it has been for the last 150 years—and tilting toward the Pacific.
South Asia has experienced a long period of robust economic growth and is also regarded as one of the fastest-growing economies. It has been forecast to have a steady economic growth of 7.5 percent in 2016 and 2017. However, this region is home to 40 percent of the world’s poor (people who live under $1.25 a day), more than 200 million live in slums and half a billion go without electricity.
Every generation has its challenges. These may not be the same as those of former generations, though some have a tendency to turn up again every few years. In Germany, where I come from, the global situation has come down rather vehemently on political and civil authorities, in the last months, exhibiting in particular the faces of hundreds of thousands of refugees.
It's significant that the exchange of diverse opinions among religious leaders regarding peace and development occurred in the final session, after several issues had been considered from various angles by distinguished political leaders. [...] In my opinion, it's impossible to discover the best answer to the issues that are relevant to peace and development without considering the issue of the inner being.
Perhaps we all can agree that no religion espouses the cause of war. There is no single religion, among the main religions of the world that urges its followers to embark upon a course of war, for whatever reason. On the contrary, all religions aim at bringing about peace and harmony, and safety and security for the life and property of all.
I think the first challenge is a moral challenge, or ethical challenge. How is it that in the 21st century a continent which had been putting itself at the center of world civilization, and which has proclaimed the universality of its values – universality means the world – how come this continent has become a place where the notion of being foreigner, the notion or concept of immigration, is becoming a bad word in some way? And that all people coming from outside Europe are feeling rejected. What is the deeper meaning of this contradiction?
We in this part of this old continent should find our own way to get out from the trap in which we are at the moment. No longer can old European, or Japanese or American models be the guide; we have to emulate now under different conditions those successful models from the past.
I will deliver a few points and thoughts regarding one of the most important issues in Europe today, and that’s the issue of the huge wave of migrants coming from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and many other countries, something that has never happened on this scale in the last 50 years or more.