Wherever communities believe they face persistent discrimination, humiliation, or  marginalization based on ethnic, religious, or other identity markers, they are likely to  assert their identity more aggressively. As long as the source of resentment persists, and  particularly when it is aggravated by increased humiliation or by despair in the normal  political process, moderate leaders will always struggle to match the allure of those who  stoke feelings of collective anger and offer fellowship and redress through exclusivist  ideologies, adversarial politics and violence. Effective counter-measures cannot rely  solely on attacking adherents of such ideologies — in fact such tactics are likely to inflame  the very sentiments they seek to eradicate.

— An excerpt from the Alliance of Civilizations report, which was presented today to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan at a ceremony in Istanbul. The report argues against a notion of a clash of civilizations and claims that politics, and not religion, lie at the source of conflicts which are sometimes couched in religious discourse. The report was written by the Alliance of Civilizations, which consists of international dignitaries — including Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami — drawn from a variety of faiths, who have met over the past year.

A full copy of the report can be found here.

Mimi Hanaoka