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Question 11: Values and CultureShould Canada seek out opportunities for fostering global intercultural dialogue
and interfaith understanding? |
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| Contributor: | russilwvong |
| Date: |
2003-05-01 02:07:14 |
| Answer: |
Yes, of course. Just be aware of the limitations of dialogue. Sometimes conflict isn't due to lack of understanding, but to the struggle for power: one side is struggling to overturn the status quo, the other to maintain the status quo. No amount of dialogue will reconcile these objectives.
In particular, it seems to me that from the point of view of people in the Arab and Muslim world, there's a great deal of injustice and suffering under the current status quo. What's needed isn't just dialogue, but peaceful change that will address the grievances and aspirations of the Arab and Muslim world. (The two major grievances against the US in the Arab world have been the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the sanctions against Iraq.)
If peaceful change is blocked, ideologies justifying violence will become attractive.
I've put together a web page discussing September 11, the Middle East, and the US response, from a layman's point of view:
http://www.geocities.com/rwvong/future/mideast.html |
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