Every day we receive abundant news of violent conflicts around the world thanks to the commercial mass media. They put them in the headlines. But for each violent conflict, there is also a reaction by those who seek to transform the conflict and arrive at a culture of peace. This month's CPNN articles illustrate this in Mali, Palestine, Colombia, Azerbaijan/Armenia and Newtown, USA.
Faced with the ongoing armed conflict in Mali, religious leaders in the region have increased their efforts for inter-religious dialogue and the teaching of peace to the new generation. For the first time, scholars, preachers and imams recognizing the Maliki rite from the Sahel countries, including Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Algeria met in Algiers, for a seminar to combat religious extremism. The seminar participants urged their colleagues to remove all the ambiguities of religion, "to spread the culture of peace, tolerance, harmony and coexistence with other religions and communities . . . " In Burkina Faso, representatives of the Muslim community met with those of the Catholic community "to reaffirm its commitment to promoting peace among different communities." Considering that the Mali conflict will spill over into the neighboring countries like Niger, the NGO HED-Tamat, has renewed its commitment to consolidate and strengthen its Culture of Peace Project in the Agadez Region.
One of the longest and most serious armed conflicts in the world is that between Israel and Palestine. In his article, "Resistance through non-violence in Palestine: An effective strategy to support", Ziad Medoukh makes the case that such a strategy provides the only way for a future transformation to peace.
For the first time in years, there is hope for a peaceful solution to the armed conflict in Colombia. In this context, Hernando Roa Suárez lays out in his article, "University and the peace process," a series of proposals for academia in Colombia to contribute to the "construction of a new culture of peace."
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The conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia has been going on for so many years that it no longer receives much attention by the media. The good news, however, is that the young generation no longer supports this conflict and are reaching out to each other to make peace. Albina Hajimahammadova explains it simply: "youth are interested in making peace, not war."
Finally, the massacre of school children in Newtown, United States, made headlines around the world. But what is most important for the long run, is the renewed commitment to make a nonviolent society, as exemplified by the banner at the town hall of Newtown which states "Together We Birth a Culture of Peace."
On another subject, there is more and more mobilization around the world to stop violence against women. This was one of the themes of the CPNN bulletin three months ago, and this month we feature three more initiatives:
- "One Billion Rising," Global Day of Dance Against Sexual Abuse, organized by the playwright Eve Ensler
- the book and movie The Whistleblower by Kathryn Bolkovac
- a new initiative by The Advocates for Human Rights to gather national good practices that put a stop to violence against women.
