Panel 1: Faith and Fanaticism

Time: Monday, October 13, 2008

By Kristýna Syslová & Alexander Shams

The first panel of the 12th annual Forum 2000 Conference held at the Žofín highlighted faith, fanaticism and religious fundamentalism and focused particularly on the connection with dramatic global events like 9/11.

In his opening speech, former Czech President and founder of Forum 2000, Václav Havel, raised the importance of identity. He posed a crucial question: ''What to do so as not to repeat Hirosima or events like 9/11 again?“ According to Václav Havel, ''the power and self-confidence of the fundamentalists are caused by fear.'' Fear and faith are closely linked, as many people living in fear tend to look for certainty, often finding it in different forms of religion or other dogmas. He pointed out that the main problem is the fact that people do not challenge and question the meaning of their lives, but rather believe in those dogmas. ''Not being sure is a good thing, it makes people think and it prevents them from becoming fanatics,“ he concluded..

Keynote speaker Rama Yade, Secretary of State in charge of foreign affairs and human rights from France, agreed with Václav Havel saying that religion and fanaticism, which are often very brutal answers to terrorism, are closely intertwined. “In France, religion is a private thing,“ she stated, pointing out religious tolerance as well as her conviction about the dangerous sides of faith. She feels that the way to get out of this trap is through democracy and most importantly respect for basic human rights, encoded in the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human Rights) Article 19, the right to freedom of speech and expression. She concluded with the remark that the “fight against terrorism must always respect international laws and principles (...) and in order to be able to react to fanaticism we have to be able to come back to its roots“.

Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Chairman of the Board of The King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies from Saudi Arabia, supported Rama Yade's claim stating that ''fanaticism is a cult misusing religion.”' He also agreed with Václav Havel adding that not just fear but also ''pride and arrogance is the driving force for fanaticism”. Ondřej Liška, Minister of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic, emphasized dialogue as a crucial part of solving the problem of fanaticism, and he applied it to his field of specialization: ''Education, in the framework of values, is an effective way to fight fanaticism.'' Quoting Plato, he added: “True education is a dialogue (...) where faith, sense and reason should be in harmony.” In his opinion, recent upheavals in the world demonstrates that we have failed to invest enough in education and have not transferred those ideas to the educational system most importantly at the local level.

Questioning the roots of terrorism, Mark Juergensmeyer, Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies in the USA, brought a turning point to the debate. ''Even though religion brought much harm to the world it can also bring much healing to the world,'' he passionately claimed in disagreement with Rama Yade’s remarks. Robert Ménard, French journalist and Secretary-General of Reporters without Borders, enthusiastically agreed with him speaking about fundamental human rights, universal values, tolerance and respect. “Our approach is often too arrogant,'' claimed Robert Ménard. We need to make sure that we do not apply principles only when it is convenient for us.''