The Salam Institute for Peace and Justice collaborated with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) to bring together Muslim scholars from Iran, Europe and the United States to Lund, Sweden for the Islam and Peace: Sunni-Shia Dialogue on Human Rights and Pluralism Conference. Participants aimed to develop a mutual understanding of Sunni and Shia perspectives and mechanisms, identify effective strategies to promote peacebuilding between Shia and Sunni communities and to familiarize participants with academic, political, religious and economic perspectives on democracy, human rights, conflict resolution and peace building. After two days of stimulating presentations and thoughtful discussions, the panelists concluded the conference by calling for future collaboration and planning a book of papers to be composed from the presentations.
The first panel of the conference explored theological and theoretical bases of Islamic peacebuilding and conflict resolution from the Sunni and Shia perspectives. The presentations began with Karim Crow of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies and Asma Afsaruddin of Indiana University exploring basic peace concepts, values and traditions within Islam. Their individual presentations explored the role of salm, peace security, and sabr, patient forbearance, by reexamining early Islamic sources. A third panelist discussed the theoretical relationship between the fundamental ethical principles of Islam and peace. Ahab Bdaiwi of the University of Exeter then presented on contemporary Shia reform movements for pluralism and peace. In the subsequent discussion, participants defined some challenges inherent in translating Islamic principles of peace into functional legal mechanisms, and further explored the relationship between reformist theology and the West.
This panel sought to define Islamic perspectives on human rights, pluralism, and democracy, and discussed the historical evolution of such concepts within Islam. Roja Fazaeli of the University of Dublin began the panel with her presentation on the influences and challenges of Islamic feminism and women in Iran. The other presenters likewise focused on Iran or the role of women to define obstacles to advocating peace and human rights within Islam. After the presentations, the participants further discussed the relationship between Islam and secularization and highlighted the potential of focusing on women’s experience as a lens for better understanding the application of human rights and democracy within Islam more generally.
This panel explored how Islamic values have been employed to resolve conflicts and build peace. The first presentation examined the importance of dialogue as the foundation for peace education within Iran. Dr. Asna Husin then presented lessons derived from her grassroots work in Aceh, Indonesia and concluded that peace education should incorporate both Islamic and international values within a local context. Dr. Qamar-ul Huda of USIP focused on Afghanistan to discuss post-conflict reconciliation in an Islamic environment. In the panel discussion, participants explored the extent to which Sunni/Shia differences are attributable to interpretations of shariah, and the universalist and contextualist approaches to human rights and peace education.
The historical evolution of and contemporary challenges to Islamic practices of democracy, pluralism and human rights emerged as the primary focus on this panel. The first presentation of this panel focused on the need for strong institutions to uphold peace, security and human rights and called for institutional reform in Iran. Georgetown University’s Mehmet Pacaci then discussed Islamic reform movements and highlighted historical examples of Islamic democratic states. Next, Muhmammed Shafiq of Nazareth College called for a development of a methodology to improve intra-Muslim dialogue. A fifth panelist called for reexamining instances of violence in scripture to focus on the Prophet’s underlying, peaceful objectives. The panel discussion examined these topics in further detail, often focusing on Iran and Afghanistan. Panelists also explored minimalist and maximalist approaches toward Islam and their respective implications for the relationship between Islam, human rights, and democracy.
This panel addressed some of the challenges in Shia and Sunni relations to the contemporary world, and explored how such challenges can best be overcome. Lund University’s Mika Vähäkangas discussed the limitations of scripture interpretation and recognized the potential tension between Islamic pluralism and relativism. Mohammad Faghfoory of George Washington University then examined the historical, legal, theological, and political points of contention between Shia and Sunni, and concluded by calling for a consensus to be reached by the highest ranking ulema. Next, Mohammad Abu-Nimer and Ayse Kadayifci Orellana of American University discussed the challenges of addressing pluralistic and human rights agendas in Pakistan’s madrassahs. Together panelists agreed on the need to institutionalize dialogue to make it sustainable and focused on Iran to discuss the challenges of modernity in moving forward with peace discourse.
Participants expressed concerted interest in publishing a book of papers based on the presentations given at the conference, and reiterated their wish to participate in a similar event of longer duration. The desire to witness a capacity building component for local actors that could implement the conclusions of the next conference was unanimous and echoed in every delegation. Participants suggested that such a capacity-building exercise would be ideal for disseminating the highly relevant messages derived from future events. Additionally, there were several new initiatives proposed by various participants that may be addressed at a later date.
Mohammed Abu-Nimer
American University
S. Ayse Kadayifci-Orellana
American University
Qamar-ul Huda
United States Institute of Peace
Asma Afsaruddin
Indiana University
Karim Crow
International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies
Mohammad Faghfoory
George Washington University
Asna Husin
Ar-Raniry State Institute for Islamic Studies
Mehmet Pacaci
Georgetown University
Muhammed Shafiq
Nazareth College