Reisu-l-ulema's speech at UN

The Inter Parliamentary Coalition for Global Ethics

Global Summit at United Nations

June 20, 2011

1: 15 P.M. Conference Room 7 NL

The Road Map to a Culture of Peace

First Session

Keynote Address

By

Mustafa Cerić, Ph.D.

Grand Mufti of Bosnia

                Without question the last century was the bloodiest century in modern history, far more violent in relative as well as absolute terms than any previous era. That 20th century was unprecedentedly violent may seem paradoxical. After all, the last hundred years were a time of unparalleled progress. For my country, Bosnia and Herzegovina, though the 20th century will be remembered by the bitter fact that the cry "never again" failed as the United Nations was not able to fulfill its mission of saving my people from genocide.

I must say, however, that the United Nations Security Council did act responsibly by establishing the International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY. This body of the United Nations, which is located in The Hague, the Netherlands, is first of its kind to prosecute serious crimes against humanity and to try their perpetrators. We should commend the recent arrest of accused Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic and support the work of Serge Brammertz, the Prosecutor of ICTY.

Nonetheless, if we really want to prevent future crimes against humanity we must do much more than sympathize with the victims. We have to comprehend the psychological depth of the perpetrators of genocide and indifference of genocide observers.  

We have to learn what makes some persons, who were once normal, to hate other persons and people to the extent that they want to systematically and methodically eliminate them all! But we also need to learn about those who support genocide against innocent people or observe it from the distance! We need to learn more about them too!

We also need to learn about the holocaust and genocide not only as of historical facts but also as a means to teach our children about the dangers of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and other examples of human intolerance.

We must teach younger generations to appreciate democracy and human rights and encourage them to reject hatred, intolerance and ethnic conflicts.

We must appreciate the value of life and respect for its integrity, the value of religion and respect for the differences of its expressions, the value of freedom and respects for its limits, because my freedom ends where the other's freedom begins, the value of property and the respect for the possessions of others, and the value of human dignity and respect for the otherness of the other.

In fact, we must have a new vision for the mission of the United Nations. Indeed, we need a New United Nations for the 21st century that will redefine its mission in the sense of the Art of Peace against the Art of War, the Just Peace against the Just War, and the Holy Peace against the Holy War. It is here that I see the significance of faith and the role of religious leaders who can greatly contribute to the change of philosophy of the Art of War, which had been inaugurated by the Chinese author Sun Tzu a thousand years ago, into the philosophy of the Art of Peace. Imagine how it would be if the human mind and energy were used for the art of peace instead of the art of war? After all, what is the art of war but the art of killing and destroying? Are we killers and destroyers only? No, I think that God Almighty has created us for the purpose of peace, not for the purpose of war.      

But, more importantly, the religious leaders must change their own doctrine of the Just War into the new theology of the Just Peace as it is evident that there cannot be just wars because all the wars are unjust in terms of human suffering and lose. Therefore, the United Nations for the 21st century must be different from the 20th century in the sense of the just peace maker rather than the just war provider; it must be equipped by the moral credibility and human integrity to carry out the mission of a just world where all humanity will have the equal opportunity for a good and prosperous life so that there is no reason for any kind of wars whatsoever.

Of course, the most critical role of religious leaders is in their obligation to change the idea of the Holy War into the idea of the Holy Peace. If for anything else, I believe, it is because of this that we need the appropriate forum at the United Nations for the religious leaders to face the challenge of the Holy Peace instead of the Holy War for the 21st century. Since it is clear that no one has monopoly on war or peace as well as on pain or happiness, we all can agree that the common destiny of humanity lies in the Noah Ark of salvation for humanity which we ought to build now before it is too late as we are faced with the threat of the nuclear flood and climate change from which it seems no one will be able to escape. This Noah Ark of salvation for humanity should be made out of our common values which are in their essence religious and have become universally accepted values and rights. They are universal as much as they are common to all human beings, irrespective of their ethnic belonging, religious commitment, cultural background and / or political orientation.

The most important of all is the value of human life and respect for its integrity. Indeed, there is no more common to all of us than the value of life. Thus,  You shall not murder, which not only means: you shall not commit holocaust, you shall not commit genocide, you shall not commit ethnic cleansing, but also: you shall not commit suicide-bombing, because killing others by committing suicide does not make you a martyr, but a twofold murderer, a murderer of others as well as a murderer of yourself.

Common to all of us is the value of freedom, because without freedom our life has no real meaning. Thus, the road from slavery to freedom has been one of the most important journeys in human history. But it is not an absolute, unlimited freedom. When God took the Children of Israel out of the House of bondage, He gave them the Ten Commandments that they may conduct their life accordingly, that is, in accordance with the requirements of the Divine law. The same, when Muhammad, a.s., and his companions arrived at Madina. The freedom of the individual is limited, because it is the freedom of the other, of my neighbour, that sets the limits to my freedom.

The right of property and the respect for the possessions of others is not only a means of decent human life that should be asserted as a common value to all human beings, but includes also that communities and states have the right of self-definition with their self-definition being respected by others.

And finally: the value of human dignity and respect for the otherness of the other(s), irrespective of whether they are males or females, blacks or whites, young or old, Muslims, Christians, Jews, or followers of other religions. Though this value is certainly accepted as a common value, we see, however, the need that it be developed further in many parts of the world, especially in terms of the fight against discrimination and denying equal rights to men and women, against xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia etc.