A Forum on Peace and Sustainability was held on Friday, 1st November. It was jointly organized by IKIM, International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB) and International Movement for A Just World (JUST). The major aim of the forum was to create greater understanding between the Muslim and Buddhist communities which in regional terms make up 42% and 40% of the ASEAN populations respectively. Given the conflicts that have occurred recently involving the two religious groups, such an occasion could perhaps be seen as an exercise in mutual tolerance.INEB’s participants included Buddhist and Muslim representatives from 20 countries around the world.
Contrary to the opinion of some, the forum did not aim to promote religious pluralism which is regarded as a spectre for diluting the faith of religious adherents in the country. The tenets of pluralism are that; (i) all religious traditions are the same as they all make reference to the Ultimate Reality or the Transcendent; (ii) all religious traditions are the same as they all profess paths (albeit different from each other) to salvation; (iii) all religions have limited experience vis-à-vis truth and they can change or evolve in their understanding of the Ultimate Reality or the Truth. None of these tenets were part of the objectives of the forum. Rather the main focus was the importance of sustainability for peace, and what the role of religion is or can be in promoting or ensuring sustainability.
“Sustainability” and its sister terminology “sustainable development” (SD) aims to ensure that the capacity of future generations to fulfil their needs are not jeopardised as a result of the current generation’s efforts to fulfil their needs. In the Islamic perspective ensuring the survival of the future generations, in essence is in harmony with the tenets of the Maqasid Shariah (the objectives of the shariah or law of Islam) especially the principle of ensuring the safety and survival of lineage which is indirectly the future generation. The 3 pillars of SD are the ecological, socio-economic and the cultural (including religious values) dimensions.SD came to the fore in 1987 because of the failure of development schemes to help the lot of impoverished people since the second World War. In this year the Brundtland report highlighted to the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development (UNCED), 2 critical imperatives, i.e. (1) that the basic needs of all humans have to be met and poverty eliminated (the socio-economic pillar of SD) and (2) that there has to be limits placed on development in general because nature is finite (the ecological pillar of SD). Although the SD definition sounds optimistic it is laced with challenges and contradictions. Besides suggesting that we have a moral responsibility to consider the welfare of both the present and future inhabitants of the planet (and this is a religious imperative as explained earlier) wealthier, more technologically sophisticated societies would have to assist poorer nations develop their capability to provide their basic needs by not exhausting the world’s resources. The latter is a moral imperative which draws heavily on a religious framework.
SD definitions and proponents also propose that the welfare of present and future generations can only be achieved by balancing environmental and social justice. To ensure ecological balance (Mizan al-biah) and social justice, SD requires restraint against greed. In the religious context, actual practice (instead of mere repetition of religious teachings/principles pertaining to it) of restraint and compassion is necessary. This is what participants of the forum reminded themselves of. As religious leaders it is their duty and role to urge their followers to live out the “ethical-moral” engine of sustainability. To effect such a religious duty they need to be assisted for example by knowledge, facts and information about ecological destruction which in itself is a dhosa (Sanskrit for destruction and injustice). The Quran in fact refers to widespread destruction on land, sea and air through the hands of man. A typical illustration of this today perhaps is the loss of biodiversity which is one of the most critical issues of sustainability.
Biodiversity expresses the range and variety of life on the planet considering the abundance of ecosystem, species and genes; human diversity including cultures and languages. These diverse ecosystems and species provide numerous service and resources, such as protection and formation of water and soil resources, nutrient storage and cycling, pollution breakdown and absorption, food, medicine resources, wood products aquatic habitants and many undiscovered applications. So fundamental is the function of biodiversity that to destroy it is to undermine life itself. This is why preservation of biodiversity is a high and critical priority today as it is a stock of potential solutions to problems, past, present and the future. Once lost, species cannot be replaced by human technology; potential sources of new foods, medicines and energies will be forfeited forever. Rainforests (such as to be found in Malaysia) supports 60% of the world’s species of which there is an estimated 100 million. Today however, we are losing (making extinct) about 50, 000 species per year and more than 50% of all forests and wetlands are already gone. To the religious, one might ask how has man been the vicegerent (Khalifatullah) of God on earththus far? Destruction of biodiversity is also a major cause of poverty, another major challenge of sustainability.
Poverty is always a threat to sustainability and peace or salam in Islam. Religious practices such as the Zakat can be activated by the psycho-spiritual principle of compassion (arRahman in Arabic, the term also denotes one of the 99 names of Allah). Zakat being also one of the 5 pillars of Islam have a great deal to contribute towards poverty alleviation and social justice. As such, the forumwas a significant token of tolerance between groups of different religions and therefore a commemoration of World Tolerance Day which falls on the 16.11.13. However, more than that, since it chose to deliberate on the topic of peace and sustainability, the forum also serves to remind faith practitioners to focus on making religious and spiritual principles the bases for translating the ideals of sustainability and peace into reality.