Maulen Ashimbayev, Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan
The world right this moment is break up between rival energy blocs in a manner that’s dangerously destabilising. From the wars in Gaza and Ukraine to numerous crises that by no means make the headlines, nice energy rivalry has paralysed efforts to resolve conflicts and forestall new ones. Even on the peak of the Cold War, when the fingers of the Doomsday Clock hovered close to midnight, the worldwide system was – paradoxically – extra predictable. The world was break up by an iron curtain, however a minimum of it was cohesive and guidelines of engagement have been clear.
Now geopolitics is extra polarising, extra fragmented, and extra unstable. Formal diplomacy – whether or not on the United Nations, worldwide summits, or by way of regional blocs – usually ends in impasse. At the identical time, the worldwide public has grow to be desensitised to human struggling. Images of battle and displacement are diminished to viral clips on social media, the place cruelty turns into spectacle and hatred spreads sooner than compassion.
In this bleak local weather, the worldwide neighborhood should bypass political paralysis and discover surprising channels for peace. One such channel is faith. Some dismiss this concept as archaic or outdated, assuming faith belongs to a bygone period. Yet such pondering ignores a profound actuality: over 80 % of the world’s inhabitants identifies with a spiritual group.
In many societies, faith stays interwoven with every day life, household, regulation, and ethical reasoning. Despite fast modernisation, faith stays essentially the most extensively shared ethical reference system in human historical past. To ignore it’s to disregard one among humanity’s deepest sources of which means and values.
Religion is usually a drive not just for particular person perception but additionally for collective reconciliation. Conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine will in the future finish – hopefully sooner somewhat than later. But lengthy after the weapons fall silent, resentment and hatred can fester between peoples for generations. This is the place faith might help heal divisions.
The latest passing of Pope Francis is a reminder of how a lot religious leaders can form the fashionable world. He was greater than the pinnacle of the Catholic Church; he grew to become a worldwide ethical voice. He condemned wars in Ukraine, Gaza, and Africa with equal urgency, insisting that peace is an ethical crucial. When religion leaders communicate out, they don’t communicate solely to their congregations; their phrases can resonate throughout spiritual divides.
In 2019, Pope Francis and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, signed the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi. It was each a religious and political milestone, demonstrating that Islam and Christianity – too usually portrayed as civilisational rivals – can as a substitute be companions for peace. Against a backdrop of conflicts infected by spiritual rhetoric, their embrace despatched a worldwide message: religion is usually a supply of reconciliation somewhat than division.
Imagine the sign despatched to billions worldwide when leaders of various religions sit collectively and name for dialogue, compassion, and coexistence. That is the essence of religious diplomacy – the deliberate effort to attract on religion and tradition to establish shared values and confront humanity’s challenges.
There are already areas the place such dialogue is occurring. More than twenty years in the past, Kazakhstan launched the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions to offer one such platform. The inaugural Congress came about in 2003, within the aftermath of the September 11 assaults and the Iraq War. At that point, worry and mistrust of the “different” have been spreading globally. Yet that very disaster grew to become the catalyst for dialogue: Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto and different leaders got here collectively in Astana to affirm that faith ought to be a bridge, not a weapon.
Nearly 20 years later, in 2022, the Seventh Congress introduced greater than 100 delegations from 50 nations, together with Pope Francis, Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, and Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem. The world was rising from a pandemic, tensions have been rising in Europe and the Middle East, but representatives of various religions gathered round one desk. Their presence was itself a message: even in instances of worry and fracture, dialogue is feasible.
The very act of assembly issues. It demonstrates that limitations, nevertheless entrenched, aren’t absolute. And it reminds us that religion leaders, usually extra trusted than politicians, can construct bridges throughout divides that states can not. When the wars in Ukraine and Gaza lastly finish, the work of reconciliation would require not solely political agreements but additionally ethical and religious therapeutic. Religious leaders will likely be central to that course of.
This will not be solely about battle and peace. Humanity faces local weather breakdown, disruptive applied sciences, and deepening social fractures. No authorities, no bloc, and no single tradition can resolve these challenges alone. But spiritual leaders might help societies confront them from a spot of ethical duty and shared values. At a time when public belief in political establishments is eroding, the ethical authority of religion might show indispensable.
Later this month, Kazakhstan will once more host the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions. Religious and political leaders will collect to seek for widespread floor and reaffirm the opportunity of dialogue. No one claims that such a gathering will resolve all of humanity’s crises. But it presents a significant reminder: the options to international issues won’t come from weapons or dominance, however from the willingness to take a seat on the identical desk and hear to at least one one other.
That is the lesson that ought to echo worldwide – into the halls of governments, and into the lives of bizarre individuals who lengthy for peace. The world has relied too lengthy on the language of energy. It is time to offer higher house to the language of religion.
Share this text:
