Kjell Magne Bondevik, Prime Minister of Norway

Along with the Balkans, the Middle-East and North Africa represent a foreign policy and security challenge that concerns not only the countries lying in their immediate vicinity, but Europe as a whole.

The terrorism resulting from conflicts in the Middle East, whether it be state-sponsored or not, is not a new phenomenon. The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the region is a menace to our continent.

A conflict in that part of the world, or a social, economic and political crisis in a country from that region concerns us all, and not only with respect to an influx of refugees.

The Iraq crisis illustrates the difficult choices with which we are confronted. Although Norway opposed the war in its current context, it is still satisfied with the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. It was a regime built on lies, hatred and violence.

We cannot accept such regimes. Nonetheless, longing for regime change does not alone justify the recourse to military action.

I do not share the worry of those who nowadays argue that the conflict between West and East is a new Cold War, like the one that once existed between democracies and communist dictatorships.

The conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya, the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, and the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians are examples of an apparent “clash of civilizations,” to borrow Samuel P. Huntington’s expression. But in neither of these conflicts is it a matter of religious wars or the manifestations of an antagonism between the Christian West and Islamic East. While it is true that the 20th century and those before bore witness to wars pitting Christians against Muslims, conflicts also arose among groups within both religions.

Certainly, the West and the East are made up of heterogeneous entities, but they nonetheless form a cultural community that covers Europe, America and a large part of Asia and Africa. At the northern extremity of Europe, Norway has been part of that community for over a thousand years. The Mediterranean, as the French historian Fernand Braudel has shown, was as much a basin for the trading of ideas and goods as a theatre of clashes. Ever since the Middle Ages, goods and especially ideas and knowledge have crossed the Mediterranean to reach Norway, on the outskirts of Europe. Muslims like al-Farabi and Ibn Rushd, better known in the West as Averroes, had a great influence on medieval Christian Europe through their works on Aristotle, among others. And, in the course of the past two centuries, European ideas have in turn been the ones to leave their stamp on the modernization process in the Muslim world, thanks to figures as varied as Mohammed Ali Pasha, Ataturk and Nasser.

History shows us that, in the heart of our common cultural space, those who have been most willing to draw from the knowledge of others are also those who have developed the fastest. This is a teaching whose lessons we must know how to draw upon.

Today, the Christian nations display an often unforgivable arrogance toward the Islamic world. Part of the latter has reacted to this attitude through a defensive reserve. The fear of the “other” has been exploited by populists and extremists from both sides. We have seen its results in acts of terrorism or violence with racist connotations. As Amin Maalouf wrote, hate is the daughter of fear. This fear is due to lack of knowledge, frustration and wavering confidence in one’s own identity.

Religious faith, whether it be Islamic, Jewish or Christian, grants identity and brings security. In my view, it is therefore an element of the solution and not of the problem, even in conflicts between populations from different religions. As Gandhi used to say, religious faith is accepting the fraternity that exists among all human beings. This is why religious leaders are often the first to show understanding toward other religions. They are often the first to extol tolerance.

Unfortunately, other religious leaders propagate a type of hate that is very distant from the love underlying religions. It is thus all the more important to build networks of religious leaders likely to encourage reciprocal tolerance and love of one’s neighbor, both fundamental notions in the three religions dominating our cultural community. Not only through their words but also through their actions, these leaders are admittedly better placed than others to fight against the poison spread by extremists in the name of their religion. In January 1996, shortly after the signing of the Dayton Accord on the former Yugoslavia in Paris, the orthodox Serbian Metropolitan Nikolaj of Dabar-Bosnia held a Christian mass in Sarajevo. Addressed to all the Serbs of Bosnia, this was a message in favor of peace. Its purpose was to assert that the war had to be stopped in order to create a new future with Muslims and Catholics in Sarajevo and within the multi-confessional Bosnian State.

The absence of support for the Iraq intervention among Church leaders and the heads of several Western European States certainly did not prevent the war. But it did allow Muslim countries to mitigate their misguided feeling that the war was a Crusade against the Muslim world.

“Tell me about your country, the country resembling a dream, where my life’s horizon is lost, where it drowns”, wrote the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish about Palestine. It is a beautiful way of expressing the central place that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict holds in many Arabs’ vision of the world, whether they be Palestinian or not. There is no political issue preoccupying the Arab peoples more. Nor is there an issue creating a greater gulf between the Occident and Orient.

The search for a sustainable solution, capable of satisfying Israel’s legitimate security requirements as well as Palestinian demands for an autonomous State, must therefore be the first priority. Europe must pro-actively contribute to the peace process, in narrow cooperation with the USA and UN. Much effort and substantial sacrifice are expected of both parties, and Europe must be ready to make its contribution. It is a moral duty for us, and it is also in our own interest.

Today the West is only partially trusted in Muslim countries. We must be equal to the task of our demands in matters of democracy and respect for human rights. Political and religious non-conformism must be tolerated. Minorities must be protected. Women must enjoy the same liberty and opportunities as men. We must be able to insist on this from Muslim and Christian countries alike.

The West has unfortunately upheld regimes that have derided human rights and democratic principles. This attitude has contributed to radicalizing Islamist movements, which have been victims of injustice in some countries. On the other hand, this does not grant Islamists the right to persecute Christians or other believers, nor to make calls to violence and terror. We must stay firm on these principles.

I believe in cooperation and constructive dialogue between the West and East, based on mutual respect. Cooperation in matters of trade, development, security and culture among European States and the countries to the east and south of the Mediterranean is an important means to prevent conflict. This is why Norway supports the EU’s Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and the importance given to the Mediterranean region in the framework of the initiative for a broader Europe.

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