PARIS,
November 14 (IslamOnline.net) - With values of social justice,
religions could help find alternatives to Neo-liberalism, according to
a number of anti-globalization activists meeting in the
French capital for the European Social Forum Friday,
November 14.
A
seminar, entitled “Spiritual Resistance To Globalization and
Liberalism, was held with the attendance of Muslim, Christian and
Jewish scholars - all shedding light on their religions as models for
principles against exploitation and social injustice.
“Religion
champions social and moral incentives significant for fighting the
exploitation-based economic system,” said Michel Cool, a Christian
priest.
Cool
said that Islam, Christianity or any other religions are pinned to
“a spirit coveting for human liberation”.
However,
he downplayed the fact that most of the anti-globalization activists
are of leftist or Marxist backgrounds.
“They
shyed away from the Marx’ saying that ‘Religion is the opium of
nations”, and now adopt a rather scientific and positive vision in
which religion could act as a launch pad for providing freedoms, said
Cool, also the managing editor of a Christian magazine.
He
further maintained that many religious groups are now involved in
anti-globalization activities.
Liberation
Theology
For
Allan Diron, a Christian bishop and researcher, Liberation Theology
could act as a testament to the links between religion and the
struggle against globalization.
Last
century, liberation theology had emerged as a broad effort to rethink
the role the Catholic church should play in society and politics in
Latin America, with concrete efforts to enhance the role of poor
people as legitimate participants in religion, society and politics.
Allan
said the poor were central to the practice of liberation theology,
which involves an interpretation of Christian faith out of the
suffering and hope of the poor.
“Calls
for unity and equality were at the heart of these efforts, something
rejected by liberalism with its taking on a more discriminatory tone
and making the market - not the man under Christianity - into the
center of life,” said Diron.
Mohamed
Taleb, a Muslim philosopher, said the Islamic faith - now followed by
more than two billion people across the world - bears no much
difference to what has been stated above.
“Espousing
a plethora of values and principles, Islam is a tool that could be
used to face globalization,” said Taleb, also the head of French
Citizenship Circle Society.
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“Islam is a tool that could be used to face globalization,” Taleb
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“We
should avoid a tunnel vision of liberalism as an economic order,” he
said, averring that it has a much larger effect in “alienating the
world and making man nothing more than a commodity”.
However
secular, Jewish activist Yivon Disch said that Judaism “urges that
equal opportunities should be guaranteed and unity sought”.
Disch
is the leader of the Black Women Group.
In
Buddhism, there is a hostile attitude towards selfishness and a head
for “unifying the self and the other”.
“The
religion warns that violence could be a resort for realizing this
sought-for equality,” said Dali Denny, the deputy of European
Council.
In
the meanwhile, 250 delegates of various religious organizations signed
up to a petition calling for sniffing out violence and terrorism, and
appealed for social justice to prevail in the world.
The
ESF opened
Thursday, November 13, with more than 60,000 delegates from 1,750
non-governmental European organizations are expected to make presence.
The
ESF program will follow five “lines of discussions”.
The
first line against war will bring debates on international law, global
disarmament, military globalization and imperial politics. It will
propose new North-South relations based on development and economic
cooperation.
A
second line of discussion against neo-liberalism calls for debates on
citizens' and democratic rights in Europe, and an analysis of the
draft European Union constitution, said the IPS news network.
The
third and fourth lines of discussions call for an examination of
”the logic of profit and for an ecologically sustainable society”,
and of “the merchandising processes of democratic information,
culture and education
Among
the civil society representatives attending the ESF are unions,
environmental and humanitarian committees such as Greenpeace and
Doctors of the World, women's groups, supporters of immigrants'
rights, and human rights organizations from all over the continent,
including Central and Eastern Europe.
