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R.W. Prebble: An Interreligious Council at the UN Seems Necessary
Written by Richard William Prebble, Member of New Zealand Parliament
Monday, June 16, 2008
Paper delivered at World Summit on Leadership and Good Governance, “Good Governance for a World in Crisis,” Seoul. Korea, January 25-29, 2004
It may come as a surprise to you to learn that we have crises in the Pacific Island nations. For example, my country now has peacekeeping troops in the Solomon Islands. International terrorism is a global crisis that has even reached New Zealand.
Last year, there were two different attempts on my life; there were also attacks on the life of the Prime Minister, on the American Ambassador and on the editor of the largest newspaper. While no group has publicly taken responsibility, our New Zealand security forces believe that it is a Muslim extremist group. I do not advocate assassination to you as a political strategy, but it certainly gets your attention. It has my attention. I am keen to know who it is who would like to have my life and why. I must say that I have not, as a politician, taken a great interest in the Muslim religion or in the problems of the Middle East because they seem so far away from New Zealand. Well, they now have my attention.
Recently, I visited Israel to see for myself. I looked at the security fence and the people queuing up in order to get through the fence. I also listened very carefully to those who are advocating solutions. There are those who say that, if we eliminate poverty, if everyone has an education, if everyone has a good job, if we are more prosperous, then there will be peace. I am sure that these are all worthy aims; in fact I am sure we all share them. The difficulty I have with this explanation is that, when I look at the September 11 hijackers, I see that they were all educated. They all had good jobs. They were prosperous. They were not on the airplane for economic reasons. They were there motivated by their beliefs.
How do you begin a dialogue with somebody who says that it is their religion that causes them to act? In New Zealand we are brought up to believe that politics and religion should be separate. How can I start a dialogue with someone who says that religion is now at the center and politics follows. If we are to have dialogue, if we are to have peace, we must first understand each other’s religious beliefs. Two years ago I would have said, what has religion to do with the UN? And now it seems to me that unless we have an interreligious council at the UN, we cannot even start to talk, and until you are able to talk, you have no chance of peace. So I think that this is an important idea. I think it will help bring peace to the world. It might even save my life.