Proposed Strategy forSocial Peace Building

Presented to: The Islamic Committee of International Crescent

March 2013

Dr. Faiz Omar Mohammad Jamie Director, Centre for Peace and Development Studies, University ofBahri, Sudan.

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Strategy on Social Peace- Building

Conscious of the noble goals, the Islamic Commission of

International Crescent is

pursuing as a humanitarian

organ of the Organization

of Islamic Cooperation, as

clear in the Agreement

Establishing the I.C.I.C.–

Chapter (2), on “Basic

Principles”- Article (3)

sub-section (F) urging for

avoidance of war means to

prevent destruction caused

by wars and violent conflicts.

Inspired by the urgent global necessity for sustainable

peace action, and in compliance with Chapter (3)

Article (6) in the Agreement Establishing I.C.I.C. on”

Functions”, indicating the effective contribution of

the Committee in establishing good relations between

communities in support of lasting peaceful coexistence

to mitigate war effects

Guided by the deliberations of the meeting of the

Islamic Committee of International Crescent in the

Peace

“The Commission shall uphold that a genuine call for Peace must always prevail in order toavoid the suffering and devastation caused by armed conflicts and wars”

Chapter 11 Article (3) F of the Agreement Establishing the Islamic Committee of the International Crescent

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Republic of Northern Cyprus in March 2012, establishing

the “Working Group” to draft a “A Strategy for Social

Peace-Building”

Following the consultative meeting of the “Working

Group” of I.C.I.C. in Doha January 2013.

Essentially motivated by the Ten-Year Programme of

Action of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation

oriented to ( meet the challenges facing the Muslim

Umma in the 21st century), section (X) on Conflict

Prevention, Conflict Resolution, and Post-Conflict

Peace Building

The “Working Group” proposes this approach as a strategic

option for action by the Islamic Committee of the

International Crescent on the area of peace to compliment

its long tradition in humanitarian activities.

“The Commission shallcontribute to the efforts

exerted to establishbetter relations among

people, strengthenbonds of amity, and

propagate sentiments offriendship and affection,

it shall endeavor toenrich the humanheritage in such amanner, as would

spiritual and ethicalvalues, promote

solidarity to defendhuman rights, support

the call for justice, peaceand prevent the risks of

war”Chapter (3) Article (6) of

the AgreementEstablishing the Islamic

Commission

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Point of DepartureIn fact the “Working Group” holds the opinion that this new

trend in the area of peace has to be placed as a priority,

for the most basic reason that, it addresses social

problems/conflicts between groups and societies, before they

deteriorate into violent situations, necessitating

humanitarian interventions.

Background and Rationale

One important finding of research on peace and conflict

studies, in the last few decades, is to the effect that, the

major transformation that occurred in the nature of post

cold-war conflict, is the prevalence of intra-state conflict

within and between societies and communities, rather than

the traditional inter-state conflict, characterizing the

cold war era, and competition between superpowers over zones

of influence.

The other important aspect, is that most of these intra-

state conflicts occur within the developing World, between

poor societies, some prefer to call them wars of the” poor

against the poor”, not only that, but most of these poor

societies in Africa and Asia are either Muslim societies, or

Muslim societies are parties to these conflicts.

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The significance of that transformation in the nature of

conflict in the post cold War era: is that again most of the

casualties of these deadly conflicts are among civilian and

vulnerable sectors of population (women, children, aged,

….etc).

In the globalized World of the day, where Muslim societies

and groups were held responsible for every single explosion,

in any corner of the World, and where terrorism “is

classified to have a religion”,:

Who will care of preventing miserable situations of Muslim

societies and help them avoid the evils of protracted

violent conflict? The I.C.I.C. in particular and the O.I.C

in general are among those who should provide an answer.

Particularly that violent conflicts within or between

states, are more or less, considered in some cases to be

endangering international peace and security.

The Global Context of Peace-Making Efforts

In response to the mounting occurrence of inter-community

conflicts, the U.N. has increased its intervention through

the network of missions assigned in different war-affected

areas. However most of these missions did not prove success

in peace-making or even peace-keeping efforts, Somalia,

Sudan, are only examples among many other cases.

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The African Union emerged out to succeed the Organization of

African Unity in many ways, nonetheless the most significant

unanswered question was, the ability/inability of the later

to effectively deal with conflicts within and between

African countries, examples could be drawn from Chad,

Eritrea, and the Sahara conflicts, among others. Despite the

fact that our concern here is with internal conflicts, it is

obvious that internal conflicts could easily be

externalized, therefore prevention of social conflicts and

the dissemination of peace culture are necessary steps

towards the achievement of international peace and security.

Furthermore in Africa the Inter-Governmental Authority for

Development (IGAD), has developed an Early-Warning Mechanism

to provide information on where conflicts are most likely to

happen, through establishment of units with capacities to

collect, process, and interpret data on targeted communities

with latent grievances, differences, or disadvantaged

groups,…etc.

Considerable number of Western N.G.O.s are currently active

in the area of peace-building in Africa , Asia and other

conflict-affected areas, whereas International governmental

organizations are mostly involved in peace-making and peace-

keeping activities, according to the mandate of each.

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In the area of research on peace-related issues, Western

European (Scandinavian) and American universities, have

achieved the lead in designing academic programs in the

graduate and undergraduate levels. It is worth noting that

the European Church has also contributed a lot in this

endeavor, special reference could be made here to the

Institute of “Life and Peace”, associated with the church to

conduct research on post-conflict areas and disseminate

peace culture and education.

The U.S. has established the famous USIP1in this same

context. The UNESCO as a U.N. agency concerned with

education and culture has also developed a world-wide

program of Peace Chairs in Universities as “Think Tanks” and

“Bridge Builders” between the academic world, civil society

and the communities.

1 The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) is an independent,nonpartisan, national institution established and funded by theU.S. Congress. USIP’s mandate is to help prevent and resolveviolent conflicts, promote post-conflict stability anddevelopment, and increase conflict management capacity, tools,and intellectual capital worldwide. The Institute does this byempowering others with awareness, skills, and resources, engagingin peacebuilding initiatives, and funding research and appliedprojects.

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Causes of Conflict between Individuals and Communities

Assessment of Current Peace-making Interventions

Research on the occurrence rate of deadly wars last century

disclosed a constant rise over decades, that is to say,

during the 1950s the World experienced 12 wars, and during

the 1960s the record was 22 wars, in the1970s the figure was

35, whereas in the 1980s the figure rose to 40 wars. As is

clear in the diagram below.

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1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s0

10

20

30

40

Increase in Occurrence of Wars last Century

Series 1

In the period 1987-88 the United Nations issued 15

resolutions on peace and security issues on conflicts

between member states.

In the period 1989-1994 the U.N. endorsed 18

resolutions on peace- keeping operations.

In the period 1993-94 the U.N. endorsed 78 resolutions

concerning peace-keeping missions.2

The most famous international intervention in the last

two decades was that in Somalia, later on in the first

round of the Gulf War, Afghanistan, and eventually the

unprecedented unilateral intervention of the U.S, in

Iraq. It is quite noticeable that all these interventions

2 ) Wolfag Heinrich, Building Peace ,Life and Peace Institute, Sweden, 1997 p.1

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achieved very little in terms of ending cycles of

violence, rather, they stimulated more internal violence,

leading to the emergence of radical hard-line groups, in

retaliation of aggression and sub-ordination, giving

legitimacy in turn to the so-called war against

terrorism, with unidentified targets and goals but the

elimination and dissolution of any Islamic-oriented

social, cultural, or even academic group.

Moreover most of these interventions in the said areas,

and in other similar areas, seemed to be stereotyped

packages, applied anywhere and in all cases and

situations, therefore it is believed that they give rise

to quite a number of socio-political problems that follow

these standardized interventions. This is particularly

true in Muslim countries where, political infrastructure

already suffers a lot of sectarian, nationalistic,

minority-related, ….etc, issues and problems. It goes

without saying that in such circumstances, conflicts tend

to become protracted, whether we like it or not.

For all the above-mentioned reasons and others, there is

bad need for new actors in the area of peace, who could

better design interventions and methodologies which do

not reproduce unintended side-effects, and further assist

in the re-enforcement of international peace and

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security, taking into account all the human tradition

emanating from international declarations, conventions

and treaties.

Conflict in the Qur’an

The following Aya clearly demonstrates that conflict

among human beings is prohibited, and that it leads to

disintegration and destruction of human civilization:

م ك عل را ل ي� ث�� ك روا اهلل ك� وا واذ� �ت ب ث#" ا ة' ف�� ئ( م ف� �ت ي� �ق ا ل ذ� وا ا0 ت�� م ن3 ا2 ي�5 ذ� ا ال� ه� ي#� ا ا; "... ي��ون3 ) لح����� ق� �ب 45�ت ه Hذ ������ي# لوا و ش������ ف� �ت عوا ف� از� ن������ وله ولا ت' وزس����� وا اهلل ع����� ت� ط ( وا;

ال ق� ن3 .... سوزة� الات� ي#� اب ر ع الص م ن3 اهلل روا ا0 م واصي ك ح 46"زي�This is the Holy Quran offering this directive to the entire

humanity, and the Muslims are necessarily among those who

are concerned. This religious orientation is in

fact/supposed to be among the strongest drivers for conflict

prevention in the Muslim World, apart from other moral

obligations of brotherlihood, good-nieghbourlihood,…..etc.

Besides the fact that the international organization of the

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Muslims, the O.I.C. clearly points to conflict prevention,

conflict resolution, and post conflict peace-building, as

duties to be pursued by the Muslim communities, in the

current decade and the decades after.

X. Conflict Prevention, Conflict Resolution and Post-conflict Peace Building:

1. Strengthen the role of the OIC in conflict prevention, confidence-building, peacekeeping, conflictresolution and post-conflict rehabilitation in OIC Member States as well as in conflict situations involvingMuslim communities.2. Enhance cooperation among the OIC Member States and between the OIC and international andregional organizations in order to protect the rights and interests of the Member States in conflictPrevention, conflict resolution, and post-conflict peace-building.”

The Ten Year Programme of O. I.C

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Elements of Strategy in the Area of Social Peace-Building

Departing from the need for action in the area of peace, it

is relevant to recall here the central Islamic theme of

“Islahu Zat Al-Bain, as a guiding principle in social life

between individuals and communities. Apart from the

understanding that a Muslim is obligated to support his

fellow Muslim, either by assisting him if humiliated by

others, or by advising him not to humiliate others. In the

light of that all, this strategy is based on the following

strategic goals:

Strategic Goal 1 :

To launch a nation-wide project to reform relations between

groups, societies and nations.

Strategic Goal 2 :

To establish a multi-dimensional, interdependent, network of

mechanisms in the field of peace as an effective

contribution by the Muslim Umma towards the realization of

international peace and security.

Strategic Goal 3 :

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Conduct in-depth research to formulate an Islamic approach

on peace and conflict-related issues.

Strategic Goal 4 :

Explore alternative methodologies of peace-building

interventions focusing on culture-based solutions.

Strategic Goal 5:

Introduce conflict- prevention methods to avoid escalation

of social tensions into violent stages.

Strategic Goal 6 :

Design social peace-building initiatives on the basis of

studies and surveys on post-conflict situations.

Necessary Mechanisms and Means

To achieve the said goals we propose the following

mechanisms:

1. Collaboration with Peace Research Centre

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This strategy proposes some sort of collaboration with well-

established research centre from within member states of the

OIC countries, to be assigned the duty to:

Conduct studies and surveys on conflict-affected areas, and

equally,

Develop an Islamic theory in the study of conflict-related

issues.

bearing in mind that: “Asslam” in the Islamic tradition,

is one of the divine attributes of Allah (SWT).

Initially we can point to the Islamic University in Malaysia

for cooperation in this regard.

2. Conflict Early-Warning and Response

Mechanism

This is a key area relating to conflict prevention

activities, and is basically a mechanism to assist in

providing and collecting information from certain areas and

types of conflict, benefiting from studies provided by Peace

Research Centre. This of course involves:

Set-up of information collection and monitoring

networks with a capacity to provide response options,

that can help in adequate response to potential

conflicts, and

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Prepare relevant preventive measures to avoid

occurrence of conflict in similar situations in other

places.

This can easily be co-ordinate with National or Country

Committees of the Red Crescent in different states.

3. Sponsorship of N.G.O.s

As many current actors in the area of peace-building are

N.G.O.s, the idea here is that the Islamic Committee of the

International Crescent, develops M.O.U.s and Partnerships

with select N.G.O.s in Muslim World, in order to avoid

traditional stereo-type, and ready-made intervention

methodologies based on western traditions, by:

Designing and introducing culture-sensitive peace-

building approaches and strategies, based on

Islamic teachings promoting unity, integration, and

interdependence of human societies.

Act in the area of dissemination of peace culture

and peace education, drawing from shared human

principles of fraternity, solidarity and tolerance,

but also relying on specific Islamic directives on

reconciliation, “Islahu Zat Al-Bain”,

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The option is that selected N.G.O.s should be representative

of the two most conflict-generating continents, Asia and

Africa, and as peace-building activities are closely

associated with societies and communities, these

organizations are expected to be highly committed to the

Islamic principles and norms in their day-today interaction

with grass-root communities. This is essentially to reflect

the true image of “Islam”, as a holy peace educator.

4. Periodic Peace Forums

This strategy proposes the commencement of a periodic forum

with participation from; N.G.O.s in the Muslim World,( National or Multi-National),

Peace Centers,

Early-Warning Mechanisms,

Federation of Red Crescent and Red Cross,

O.I.C.,

with the aim of sharing experiences and exchange of views

and visions on different issues related to peace building

and conflict resolution approaches.

The idea is that by so doing, the Islamic Committee: becomes a “Focal Point” of action in the area of peace

building through: organization of this two-yearly

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conference-like forum, comprising briefings, presentations,

brainstorming, and workshops, by practioners and

theoreticians alike.

The outcomes and the deliberations do necessarily provide

material for the Research Centre to further develop and

include whatever it deems significant in its research

agenda, out of covered issues.

In the long run it is expected that this forum attracts the

attention of Muslims to prioritize issues of peace and

security, to further clarify the image of Islam as regards

the associated allegations of terrorism and the like.

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Implementat

ion Option Matrix

This matrix shows how these proposed mechanisms could best

be co-ordinated, and who is expected to play which role,

from among those within the reach of the I.C.I.C.

Peace Research CentreSposorship of N.G.O.sPeriodic Peace Forum

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Implementation Priorities

This project has to follow a logical sequence to set the

priorities of implementation in order to save time and

effort:

Priority one : Peace Research CentreThis is necessarily the first step because other steps will

depend on this point of departure where the initial

executive plans will be drafted.

Priority two : Conflict-Early Warning and Response MechanismThis will need further co-ordination with national

societies, and orientation of their programs to include

these components, and of course training and capacity-

building.

Priority Three: Peace ForumIn this stage, before the official launching of the

abovementioned programs, the forum could convene to give

more insights in them, and hopefully propose and suggest the

required N.G.O. for cooperation and sponsorship.

Priority Four: Select N.G.O.sThe select organizations jointly with the I.C.I.C. would

figure out the way forward in terms of the required

excellence and relevance of intervention in the light of the

principles and strategic goals of this strategy.

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Conclusion

It is only with the assistance and blessing of Allah, that

this proposal succeeds to meet the ambitions and aspirations

of the Muslim Umma, through extending helping hands to the

entire humanity in the realization of international peace

and security.