http://georgetownglobalforum.com/2008/03/interreligious-intercultural-understanding-panel.html Georgetown Global Forum Sat, 17 May 2008 00:52:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 http://georgetownglobalforum.com/2008/03/interreligious-intercultural-understanding-panel.html#comment-7 Afshin Pedram Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:06:28 +0000 http://georgetownglobalforum.com/2008/03/interreligious-intercultural-understanding-panel.html#comment-7 The former treasury secretary and president of Harvard Summers stressed in the recent issue of Foreign Policy the importance of opening the doors of early education to girls and women in the developing world as a vital asset in setting the groundwork for modernization. Would it be a leap of faith to suggest that the better the overwhelmingly young population of the developing world receives an adequate education, the easier it would be for us to maintain our religious faith. Recent books suggest if there had not been a historical conflict between Christianity and Islam, the conflict may well have fallen between Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. By the same token, if there was no clash beween Islam and Christianity, there would have been a growing clash within Islam between the dominant Sunni majority and Shi'i minority. I also like to point out that the Muslims of Yugoslavia were not on the same league as the Muslims of the Middle East. Although they took pride in their religious identity, they were neither practicing the rituals of Islam nor any different in culture and outlook than their fellow Europeans and yet when Serbia branded them as outsiders they were no different than the besieged refugees of the Middle East until they split and formed their own states like Kosovo. The former treasury secretary and president of Harvard Summers stressed in the recent issue of Foreign Policy the importance of opening the doors of early education to girls and women in the developing world as a vital asset in setting the groundwork for modernization. Would it be a leap of faith to suggest that the better the overwhelmingly young population of the developing world receives an adequate education, the easier it would be for us to maintain our religious faith. Recent books suggest if there had not been a historical conflict between Christianity and Islam, the conflict may well have fallen between Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodox Christianity. By the same token, if there was no clash beween Islam and Christianity, there would have been a growing clash within Islam between the dominant Sunni majority and Shi’i minority. I also like to point out that the Muslims of Yugoslavia were not on the same league as the Muslims of the Middle East. Although they took pride in their religious identity, they were neither practicing the rituals of Islam nor any different in culture and outlook than their fellow Europeans and yet when Serbia branded them as outsiders they were no different than the besieged refugees of the Middle East until they split and formed their own states like Kosovo.

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