emphasizes peace and toleration. christianity, after many years of questionable attitude, no longer condones violence committed in its name. to the contrary, it's teaching today concentrates on peace, toleration, and love for others and its message to terrorists is that their actions are against what god is expecting from them. with reflect to islam that this is complicated because, one, there is no church or single institution with authority to speak on behalf of islam, thish allows terrorist groups such as present day al qaeda and isis to claim the authority to represent islam as much as any other groups do. two. that the tool of reason that helped muslims in the past

understand their religion, as preaching peaceful coexistence and respect for diversity, has this appeared, starting with the banishment of the great muslim scholar and philosopher of the 12th century, known in the west as veros. veros's writings, which provide inspiration for european enlightenment were burned in public in his native loosa shortly before he died. three, what isioosa shortly before he died. three, what is amazingly surprisinuioosa shortly before he died. three, what is amazingly surprisicioosa shortly before he died. three, what is amazingly surprisiioosa shortly before he died. three, what is amazingly surprisiaioosa shortly before he died. three, what is amazingly surprisioosa shortly before he died.

three, what is amazingly surprisisa shortly before he died. three, what is amazingly surprisisa shortly before he died. three, what is amazingly surprisia shortly before he died. three, what is amazingly surprisi shortly befor is that a small minority defines islam as violence aggression and mayhem. it is not enough for the muslim majority to assert that muslim is a religion of peace, which i believe it is. it is incumbent upon them to face the challenge that the traditional interpretation of some of the passages of their scripture, the so-called versus of the sword. these versus of the koran, and defile their places of worship were are the same verse us that existed when mohamed pledged his word and the word of god to protect lives, properties and word of christians. they are the same versus that existed when the÷ prophet mohammed instructed his representative in yemen that no

jew shall be enticed away to leave judaism. and they are the same versus that existed when the muslims refunded to the inhabitant of hamas, when they became unable to protect them against advancing army. the role of the vision of islam in combatting terrorism is the most effective in this age where most terrorists claim to be head of islam. but this assumes that the majority of muslims are able to make their voices heard and able to reintroduce the tool of reason and then interpretation of their scripture and are able to claim the heritage of their

fallen heroes like mohamed and others. let me close by reminding ourselves of a statement attributed to shaykh mohamed abdu said in france i saw islam. i didn't see muslims. in egypt, i see muslims, i don't see islam. thank you very much.td% greetings. i hope by now you received my

gifts. one is the koran. the versus about love, compassion and peace that is the majority of the koran. also you must have received another brochure, which is against terrorism and religion extremism. muslim position and responsibilities. so please, make sure when you leave you have one copy so i don't have to discuss those things here. i want to introduce myself and i want to introduce the community that i am representing in north america. a new identity. a new reality. it has a tremendous global role to play. i came here about 40 or 50 years ago in 60s and 70s. many of the muslim countries were becoming independent this fr their colonial occupation, mostly all of them from the european colonial occupation. so therefore, the first priority

that they have is to send their students to america for advanced stage in science technology and education. so in '60s we had about a quarter million muslim student in american universities. this was a new thing for america to have that many muslims in universities. and have that many muslims in america observing fasts and so on, we didn't have the islamic centers and mosques that we have today. so it was the christian churches that open their doors to these muslims to pray so it was unprecedented. so it was new for muslims also because they had been to europe to the colonial masters, indian pakistanis going to london. algerians and moroccans would go to france. but the relation between the whole society and incoming student was quite unequal.

the colonial masters and colonized. but it was for the first time that muslims students in america saw a new reality. a plurallist democracy where they were treated asfn]ñ equals religion itself was encouraged, their practice of religion was very much encouraged. so it was very much a new part of both sides. so that was the time when muslim student association of u.s. and canada was born in 1963. that's why last year we were celebrating our 50th anniversary. so i also came to do my ph.d here as student and after a few years, i became president of the muslim students association of u.s. and canada in the later '70s. so as a president of the muslim students association of the u.s.

and canada, we have done so much good work in america so i thought this was a wonderful opportunity. it should not suggest the tern muslim student association. america deserves to have a modern day islamic community with christian communities, with jewish communities. this will be our gift america. this will be a gift to the muslim world. for the first time, the muslim will be proud that there are muslims9? flourishing in a democracy and that is the gift that muslim world should recognize. so while i was the president, we transform this student organization into islamic society of north america. so that's what we were celebrating last year. uhp &hc% happened in 1963. that was the year that had been

martin luther king, jr. was having that dream speech and taking that precession, march in washington, d.c. usually in america and around the world people when they think of martin luther king, jr. that dream speech and the march and whole civil rights movement in america, they think that 1963 was a water shed. a beginning of more inclusive society in america. which recognized people of different colors and different races and that's america became more racially in terms of kul popper but that is the year when america also became inclusive in terms of welcoming a new religion that is islam. so our growth, our development, started in 1963 in terms of having coordinated, well coordinated, growth and development of islam in america.

but the whole project was an interfaith project. our growth and development was made possible because we were working together with our christian and jewish neighbors and organizations. so closely with council nation of churches representing about 50 million protestants, so closely with catholic bishops, representing about 18 million catholics and union of reform judaism and other jewish organizations. it is amazing what could be achieved when you have such a multiple denominations supporting and helping you to move forward. now, i told you when we came here we hardly had islamic centers. now we have 2 to 3,000 centers. every one has a story of how

they were able do it ands stab lish it. it was in 2010 that we thought our honeymoon in america was going to end. what happened is the pastor in florida, he threatened he was going to burn the koran. that was the time when in new york the ground zero mosque was under attack. they didn't want -- there were q.ñ up of the ground zero mosque. that is the same time, 2010 august. the same time when we have problem in building the community centers, islamic centers, in say midwest and so on. so we thought that there is a way of entering muslim sentiment in america. and that is the time i'm getting

letters of support from catholics, jews, tell meg that we condemn this, those in the muslim rhetoric and posing growth and development. we are posed to them. we don't -- they are not representing christianity. not representing judaism. like they had done many times as before. but they said this time we need do something much more. so they decided they would come to washington, d.c. and they would articulate this kind of sentiment growing that time. so september 19 -- 2010. we add major press conference in the national press building. where we had the summit of religious people there representing all these different organizations. and there they did the same

thing that they had been doing. that they rejected this muslim, this bigotry. but tle did something more than that. they sat together and they created a campaign called shoulder to shoulder with american muslims upholding american values. and you know what american values are. they said that if these people who are christians and jews, who are attacking islam in america, are not a loving muslim to freely practice their religion, we cannot allow this to happen. because attacking one religion in america is attacking all our religions and they are actually robbers. they are robbing america of the great legacy of religious tolerance and respect for diversity that what generations have done in this country. so therefore we are going to

pose this kind of brand in america. they raised about a quarter million dollars. and they advertise the position of the director from shoulder to shoulder with american muslims against bigotry. they created an office, you know my office is now on the capitol hill. islamic society ]er north america. and the shoulder to shoulder with american muslims is hosted by us. it is there in my office. so you are welcome to come and discuss how christians and jews are defending muslim interests or muslim reputation in america. and they have done a wonderful job. four years in its four years growth and you must have seen

yourselves, you are mentioning yourselves and at that time, in 2010, andis limb bigotry is a respectful discourse. but these people have made sure that they cannot totally destroy that kind of anti-muslim sentiment but it is no more. respectable discourse. now, when you have -- you are living in an environment where islam, christianity judaism, organizations and institutions together are participating in creating an environment of mutual respect and religious -- religious freedom then you can imagine what that means. that means then when i turn on the television, and i hear that church has been burned in pakistan or i hear that something of this nature happened anywhere in the world, it becomes my responsibility.

it becomes a part of my islamic responsibility to come forward and see what would be done. and exactly that is what we have been doing. i have just come back last week as you know, from abu dadi and we have learned to deal with this violent extremism. so we go country to country dealing with our christian and jewish partners. in different countries. every country we have now religions for peace and then we have the world religion ises for peace. we are part of that. and i'm president from here. so we go to different countries. identify muslim scholars and leaders and leaders from other communities who have a similar understanding of their fates. so if we are able to create a new reality, it is amazing.

i mean, i can't read to you the community that we have in there, i've been to pakistan with a similar kind of delegation met with christian leaders and leaders of the minorities there and we raise funds for reconstructing churches that had been burned and it was amazing part that muslims in america are collecting funds to help the christians in pakistan to rebuild them. and this is happening from country to country. amazing, our major impact you will feel in the sense that when the arab spring came, there was an opportunity to redefine how they are going, what kind they will have and we are very keen that now that they have this freedom, they should have

democratic where there is total freedom of religion. we have succeeded in tunisia because we have direct islamic organization there with the leaders there. and several of their cummings andwvñ goings here that showed m that our success in america, our prosperity of the islamic community in america is because america has given us freedom of religion. therefore it is the ideal, islamic understanding as enshrined in those new constitutions that they should give also full freedom to their minorities. so that is, we will have more details later. best wishes and make sure that you have my brochures for more understanding. [ applause ] >> thank you very much.

>> i don't know about you but i've learned a lot already. impressive panel. i'm tempted to start with a joke, the only terrorism joke i goes on to an airplane. he is stopped because in his suitcase he is carrying a bomb. they say to him, what are you doing? he said the chances of somebody on a plane carrying a bomb are 1 in a million. but the chances of two people on a plane are 1 in 100 million. so that's why he walked on with the bomb. anyway -- i think with this topic, one of the first things required is a sense of honesty. we have to be honest. we have to be willing to face ourselves. we have to be willing to look in

the mirror and look into our own faith traditions and each other. and in that context, that's why today's discussion is so refreshening and enlightning. one of the mistakes we often make is we don't realize how seriously people take religion.+ we in america are such an open and intolerant society. and professor saed spoke so eloquently and how you speak about the images of 9/11 and how we showed the world the faith images and people arm to arm from the full retrospect of religious purposes. even most americans that practice religion, we don't quite understand how religion

can drive spln to commit acts of extremism. how people can feel so passionate by about religion. we perceive it as being irrational. we instead perhaps try and attribute root causes of violence. to economic issues to other as sim imas eye deal ji and religion. so we dare not ignore how important and significant that is. we ignore it at our own peril. thirdly, what is the crux of the problem? part of the crux of the problem has do with the inability that people have to be able to be tole rent and accepting of those whose belief system is different than their own. at the end of the day, if you strip it away, isn't that so much of whatitesis is saying? isn't that what al qaeda is saying and what other extremist groups promoted by religion, are

saying. that is that they wish to seek to impose their religious beliefs upon others and have difficulty accepting the fact that not everyone is going to believe what they believe. practice what they practice. if we understand that, we also understand that it has two aspects in which is t is played out. number one is the one we think about so much. that is in terms of, the churches that are blown up in muslim countries that were alluded to before. it is the reason for the boca horan group taking and seizing and converting several someone. but the other dimension to it also is internal. and it is the reason why actually within this past century there have bp more acts of violence committed by muslims against other muslims than by any other -- by outsiders. so the problem is a manifestation of this particular

aspect of having a very narrow belief system and one which then seeks to impose it on others. i want to say that i think this is something that all of us need grapple with. all of us who believe in the power of religion. all of us dedicated to the principles of religion. because at the end of the day it turns off everyone to religion, it turns off many people to religion all together. i know i've had members of my congregation who have questioned me or said something know and said, you know, apox on everyone. not only do they feel turned off and disappointed by their own religion but religion as brand, as a whole. so we need to be cautious about that. more so we need to be proactive. so what is it thatc;í3 we can l? what can we learn? i think we need to turn to history. which is it alluded to by the

misser historical examples given today. in the 1,000, 1100s or so, christianity was a religion bent upon construction, bent upon pull mull gating giving rise to the crusades. but eventually christianity came to turn from that particular way of life. i think fo example for the holocaust, at seminary where i teach jewish history, if you look at 2,000 years of ju dayis aenl christianity, in so many respects, while the holocaust is unique, it is a progression and extension of 2,000 years of anti-jewish violence and of all kinds of anti-jewish ideology. not to say that it's not unique, it is unique. but it is possible to see that as that extension. so where do we stand today? today i've participated in

numerous jewish christian, especially jewish catholic dialogues. encounters where people of thec christian faith use the term for holocaust. using the term asking and wishing to heal and to repent and to turn and turn away from their way. so it can only happen when there's that honesty that i referred to at the outset. so when christians are willing to honestly deal with their past that's why there's been able to be a new path that has been charted between the jewish world and christian world since world war ii. so one of the central issues is how does a society deal with its extremist. as the professor alluded to, in every society, every religion, every society in every country, there will be their extremists. there are going to be those who will advocate for violence and the question really is, how does the rest of the society deal with that? does that become mainstream?

does that become what is praised or is it what becomes margin alized? we are now celebrating the holiday of hanukkah. and i know this is being broadcast. i don't know if you a have a close-up of the tie but i'm wearing a hanukkah tie. i want you to know. some of you may know the story of hanukkah is the story of the miracle of this cruise of oil, found in the temple. it was supposed to last one night but lasted how long? eight days. that's why we light the hanukkah menorah. it is the miracle of light. a miracle of what they were able to achieve and the only problem with.úca that is as many of us, it is not really what happened. what happened is it is a victory

of the mcabees, very violent battle that existed. we know parts of that story. but there was even against jews violence that occurred. even all kinds of things that happened and what we know about is from the book of mcabees, one and two pf the story that i told of the miracle of the oil, which is such a wonderful story and one we tell our children and one that most people or so many people are familiar with. was that the creation, its belief was a creation of the rabbi several hundred years later and why did they come up with that story? precisely because of the fact they were upset and concerned about the violence of the story of the mcabees. so in order to diminish that aspect of the story, we have this other part which was raised to prominence. what i would like to suggest is it shows an example of how religion can be and conserve a corrective and how it religion can serve that role of helping to promote theññ values of pea.

the values of bringing light to the world. there are numerous other examples because sometimes i get frustrated when i hear people say to me, you know, if we were to read the bible we would find there are instances of extremism there. and while there are, the thing i want to say that i think is so important is what the response of normative judaism. and here is something i think we can all learn from. we take for example not to give too many examples but just the other one that cups to my mind, in the story in the bible, wentus what stabbed individuals, minionites, cou-habitating. and he was given a covenant of peace. on one level that seems if he was rewarded for what he did but again the tradition, that same tradition that basically pulls the story of the mir kaflt oil

was quick to and it wasn't necessarily given to imh as an award but rather presented as a corrective. and that's why he was given the covenant of peace in toward restrain him, not to reward him. and so i think what we need to do is to emphasize those aspects of our tradition. if we fast forward to today, how is it that we deal with extremism. it ultimately will be the responsibility of the religious organizations. we look at for example, the horrible situation several years ago. when there were cartoons in the danish papers which brought about violence and so much death andsome different capitals of the world because of the portrayal of month hammed in those cartoons. i couldn't think about that instance and what happened a couple years before that. some of you may remember that in brooklyn, brooklyn museum of art when giuliani was the mayor,

there was a portrait of jesus that was extremely offensive. ás absolutely absurd and offensive. but there were no riots. maybe it has do withd ãwhat i sd before. people not taking religious seriously. maybe it has do with that corrective. maybe it has do with that understanding of being in an american society where0ebd we talk these things out. and i think those are the examples we need to keep in mind. when way is in israel, there was graffiti written on a wall. there was a trial for a whom wrote graffiti on the wall. i hesitate to say, but it said, mohamed is a pig. and the woman who wrote it was caught and sentenced to four years in prison. that's what i say how society deals with the extremist sends a message to the rest of the society. can religion play a role?

absolutely. after 9/11 and people were carrying out suicide terrorist attacks, the threat is real and also elsewhere in the world as we see just even in the past week so many instances in pakistan and elsewhere. i would love to see and maybe professor you can promote this, i would love to see an international statement come about by leaders of faith religions across the world saying there is no place in heaven for suicide bombers. just as simple as that. let's get as many faith leaders as we can. i'll sign it later. okay. and because we all need do that. i'm saying, because have you better international connections than i do, that's why i point to you. i want to conclude with the story of one of my favorite develop the talmid as well. abraham, seen as the father of

three great religions, was in the desert. the theme of welcoming strangers and guestsq7"ñto his home, in fact, his tent, was open on all four sides so you wouldn't have to walk around it in toward find the front door to come in. in the middle of a terrible wind to him in the middle of the night. as he was speaking to him he found out the man was fire worshipper. when abraham learned of this, he was sonp innocenced and so upse buzz he knew that toe ring that god prohibited and other kinds of forms of worship that we are not of one god. so he kicked him out into the night. vision. him, abraham, don't you realize i have put up with this man's ignorance for 70 years. couldn't have you tolerated it for just one night? so that's part of the message of tolerance and understanding that we need to bring as well.

thank you. [ applause ] well, thank you so much for having me here today to share with you, and i've spent ten years in d.c. so this is a little bit different thann 4 any of you th know me or know what i usually talk about, which might be refreshing for some of you. in september, i had an opportunity go iraq, which all of us are very aware of the situation there with isis and what's happening to riftians and to many other religious communities. when i was there, one of of the questions that kept coming up and really follows on a lot of what the rabbi had to say, is

what is -- how do we respond to this. what do we do. how can we survive in the future. is there a way to overcome this terrorism. this violence as a society. and one of the women i met, who many of you may remember, was the zidy member of parliament who gave that passionate plea to parliament in august saying my people are dying on mount sin jar, please help them. finally after eight days they sent in helicopters and began to rescue soma zidys. she said, we have had 72 genocides, this is the 73rd and we can't survive in this continues. and i asked her, i said, you know, when i was working on iraq policy at the commission and when i worked for the congressman and afterwards, we kept trying to discuss the need to

toin vest in religious freedom in iraq. it was constantly ignored. i said whab is your response to that. she said we cannot ignore future for demock ra racy, for peaceracy.democracy.it is impossible for us to ignore this if we want a future.t is imposs ignore this if we want a future. hard wired, i believe how you'll of us are made, is to worship or believe in something bigger than ourselves. who we believe as human beings ignored. 86% of the world's population roy recognized some kind of religion. the rest so i leave you with

that question then i went to move on to sue dan. the question is, what can we do. i will respond to that bit end.. the question is, what can we do. i will respond to that bit end.. the question is, what can we do. i will respond to that bit end. when i began hard wired, i worked with many countries. working with religious working with religious communities go officials, civil society leaders and many others to help them at a very grass roots level understand what religious freedom means. and under societies where religious oppression is prevalent. and violence and terrorism are very prevalent. so over the last few years we have developed a training curriculum we used in many countries but i want to explain how we use it in sudan. there is something very practical done. as many of you know in sudan you have the sitting president who

is the only person indicted under the war crimes tribunal that is a current sitting president head of state for crimes of genocide and humanity against his people, muslims and christians. even though he does it on the basis of a religious belief. he harbored osama bin laden. many respects, cred such under the u.s. sanctions. so not a great place to be. a few years ago, when the south sus succeeded from sudan, some christians approached me and said we want it advocate for our rights in the constitution we don't know how do that. can you help us. so i went and i brought together the head of the sudan6hrñ councf church answers we taught them what international law says about their rights. how religious freedom is in the interest, not just of them but other members of society tk press bed think

government. so women, under shria laws, and also victims of2ñceq genocidesu and many others. their provision ended up defending all of these communities and the general principle of religious freedom as norm for everybody. and they recognize if this basis of religious freedom isn't protected in our society for everybody then we won't be able to move forward. so we came back together a few months later with several christian lawyers that were members of the/d" council of churches as well as muslim lawyers indigenous believers and women that were involved in the womewell.t were involved in the so pretty broad sector of society. and when the women heard what these men have come up with, these christian men, they

realized that they were willing to stand in their defense because if they didn't have a constitution or protect the rights of everyone, if they are women under certain laws violating their freedoms and dignity then they wouldn't have any freedom in the country, in the few tour. and darfur also felt the same way. so the group went back to sudan, got this provision drafted andú adopted one of the main draft constitutions and they began to work with civil society throughout sudan to build education and awareness at a very local level of why religious freedom, freedom of religious expression, of belief, of thought, of conscious for everybody was critical of the foundation laid in sudan at the time. so that is happening over the last few years. this past summer everything that we are doing is put to the test because many of you may have

heard the story of the young woman who was as pregnant as i am, 8 1/2 months, she was sentenced to death for apostecy. what is the response in you may remember in sudan, an incident with the british school teacher to have a teddy bear and one of the students in her class was allowed to name the school teddy bear and he named it mohamed and there are major riots and violence and calls for the it death of theg finally the british got her out of $eómthere. so sevenmab years later, what happen said that the same response, no. and i think the reason there wasn't the same response is because of theed kag we invested over the last several years and also becausei of the openness t democracy and what happened under the peace agreement. let me skplap what happened behind the scenes that most people will never hear about in the media. most of our work we're very quiet about so you probably wouldn't have heard about it

anyway. the lawyers we had trained began to work with her lawyers and she had two of at the time and it expanded to five. all of these lawyers, by wait, were muslim. not christians standing in her defenses. even they made statements saying that every human being, everybody in sudan deserves religious freedom. this isn't just for us. this is for everybody. students that we worked with over the years stood out in front of the courthouse, unheard of, and protested in her defense and made statements saying we are miriam. wo aapostate. they stood in her defense. opposition leaders stood in her defense and made statement. journalists and others!i&uv on ground were able to get statements from the opposition leaders. even the islamic party in sudan made a statement in her defense. at the same tooe they were improis dwroend but they still made a statement in her defense. they held press con frnss.

the amount of activity that happened on the ground at a grass roots level by the people standing in defense of a woman considered an ai postate saying she deserves religious freedom and this is what we want in our country is remarkable and that happens because of years of effort at helping them understand what religious freedom really means. wh is going to counterterrorism in countries like is you did not and iraq and many other countries. that's what hard wired does. so take that example now and go back to iraq. as i was there and i was meeting with the leaders i had worked uáj and hearing the stories of what was happening through their community and to the syrians and others is heart breaking. as anyone watching the news feels. u breaking. we don't want to see that for

any human being. but the key!k8dñ is that with i can't spread through the local level an understanding of the equal dignity, and humanity of the other person they won't be able to break down tolerance, bigotry, things do within their own religious communityn(.v9 as the other pan willielists mentioned, necessary for challenging ideologies,r$9+ñ bashir's idology of islam which a majority of the population rejected. so empowering those local communities through education, through training, has been a critical aspect of what we do at hard wired. it is because for years working in congress we were always too late. because usually the problems have been going foreign so many years in these countries and the people didn't know how to respond themselves. governments for leadership. that comes with a lot of political baggage as we all

know. if we can help them on the ground respond, there's two things that need to happen. one is legal shift that needs to occur. but the other is a social one. so what i've mention said so what i've menñ on said local level. but that is to help the population think differently about the other person or about religious freedom. that's critical to mobilize public support. if you don't1gáj have both of t, you really can't have either as a defense mechanism to preventf. so you need legal changes. that's one of the things that hard wired does. we were just in nepal working with leaders on their constitution. i want to add something, not about nepal, but about india. most of the conversation has been about the middle 8yxwweast. but 1.2 billion people live in india. it is one of the fastest growing

places for homegrown terrorism in the world. the reason i say that is because you have the only sitting head< of state, denied vees wvisa to the united states because he gave towards hpolice to stand down when hindus were threatening in 2002. both republicans and democrats wanted to bring this man to our country and offer him a free place to sit in congress speaking to both houses of congress to talk about whatever it is he wanted to talk about. maybe economics or prosperity. while ignoring the fact that this man is responsible for the growth of one of the greatest threats to religious tolerance, plur pluralism in the world today. and the threat posed against

india. this threat is real with isis. what i have seen in iraq happened at such a large scale in india for so many years and it can't be ignored. except at our own pearl. that what we've seen in iraq. religious conflict was ignored. that's why we have the situation today. we can change that in iraq and in india andsome other places where we can have a huge percentage of change on the scale of how much growth there is of religious oppression and extremism if we invest in education and training at the local level. if there are ideas intolerance allowing for violence and terrorism, we should not expect anything different. and a lot of the discussion about religious leaders needing to speak out is extremely important. i would actually change the title of the topic from the role of religion in combat and

individual. because most people are religious as i mentioned. we have a belief that we follow whatever belief system they follow believe in the dignity of the other human person and their ability to have freedom of religion thought conscious belief that will enable greater defense against the growth of extremist ideas allowed when people use religion to their own political advantage. i will conclude there. thank you. an i look forward to answering questions later. [ applause ] >> i am aware that i am the last thing between you and conversation. but i do want to start off and

i'm just going to give you three concepts that i think will help us sum up some of the things tha4uóq been discussed today and will address how yes religion is still relevant in combatting radical extremis appand what are some of the best practices. the religion is that the word has three is. they bring institutions, they imagination. three is. imagination.ibfz now governments are not wired to deal with all sorts of nonstate actors. violent nonstate actors. terrorist nonstate actors. governments are wired to deal with other states, sovereign states. they don't get shft&nonstate ac. they particularly don't get religion. they have a difficult time. when they do get them in areas of perhaps relief and development, they got first i. the way in which religious

institutions may be able to helg of clarity and relief and development and response to famili famine or natural disaster. they may get that "i" a little ç bit. but not the nonmaterial aspects. the other two is, ideas and imagination. when you bring all three of the is together, institutions, ideas and imagination. i think we need to demystify some smiths that are out there. both about religious actors and about the overlay between religion and terrorism. one is that religion is resurgent around the world at a time when states are challenged but also when peace is breaking out. i know that sound count are intuitive. we have seen headlines$l screag

everyday. tina brought up that religion is resurgent. 80% of people around the planet report that they believe in a supreme being. they practice religious or spiritual practices. this is against the grain of what was predicted through out the 20th century. that god was dead. religion was dying p. that turned out not to be true. the great soviets and communist experiments did not succeed and religion turned a5b[ñresurgent. so religion is expanding, not dead. but peace is breaking out. conflicts declined by more than half since the end of the cold world around the arm. that's major arm conflicts. the world. so those are decreasing p. that context does not help you if you are in one of the areas where hot war stid"á5 exist. that global trend line is great

if you're in colombia where 40 years of civil war are starting to come to a conclusion with peace accords are under way. it helps you there. it doesn't help you if you are in iraq, syria--" or afghanist. we have to be nimble enough to understand that just as we understand it can be sunny in florida and raining in new york, that peace can break out globally. &háhp &hc% particular areas. and we can understand that religion can be expandingj=&ñ globally and still be part of the scene of the crime in some areas of violence is. what do we know about the data lines and data trend regarding terrorism? we know that most terrorism does not succeed. most terrorist organizations go out of business in less than year. they have a poorer start-up rate than a new business operation. we know that most terrorist attacks kill no one.

however, we also know that high casualty terrorist attacks are on the rise and that most terrorism occurs in war zones. so terrorism is a very serious1 problem particularly in those remaining hot spots. those remaining war zones. okay? so what does that mean for religious actors in if religious actors want to help contain a help contain the world's worst wars. we have to help bring the wars to an end. and that will bring the worst terrorism to an end. most all acts of terrorism occur in the world war zones and all of the acts of high impact terrorist attacks. high casualty terrorist attacks ç>!. so ending the wars in iraq, ç>!. syria, afghanistan, those would do a great deal towards declining terrorism and declining terrorist casualties. so that kind of focuses our efforts a little bit. there are lots of efforts by

religious actors to curtail violent extremis apple endo religious peace building. some have been mentioned here. public statements. to crying violence. crying suicide bombing. decline in terrorist attacks an stating that religious ideas do not support terrorism, do not support suicide bombers. both activities are great. they are really only getting at one of the three is. statements respond to a particular act of terrorism and say our ideas don support that. that's one of the is. that's not all three. there a program that some of my former students, there is a counter violent extremism program in afghanistan where they took afghan community lead, young males, pretty illiterate

and not well versed and swayed by taliban ideas. they brought them to jordan and responded to religious leader in the jordan. them helped them to very much understand. there are ideas of what islam global islam and what an islamic community could and should be like. and we're able to bring them back to afghanistan to help them be very important centers for l legitimizing and moderating the tone of the local community. that's a very interesting program.c2( that gets toñ x two of th. ideas and imagination but still not well institutionalize and not a good mod old going forward. the u.s. government is not a good actor to be doing religious education on islam. that needs to be locally owned, locally operator, et cetera. what are some of the best programs out there where religious actors are helping to

get at the root causes of violence to redouse the world's worst wars and to counter terrorist extremism. i think those are ones in which we see relimgous actors working together across sectarian lines bringing institutions behind programs and not just for interreligious dialogue but for interreligious action. okay? we've talked a lot about how religious ide']ñu can be used a sourcetjlj of peace or to promo violence. peace is really a very high level concept. you know. certainly everyone can say we are in favor of peace. how to operationalize that in i think a better term would be < cohesio. what are religious actors doing to promote social cohesion. if you think about for example 10 command abrahamic tradition.

they are very practical. can't have social cohesion in a community if people are killing each other, taking each other's stealing each other's property. dismissing an dishonoring each other's elders. that's not a recipe for social cohesion after community. so the abrahamic rules are really a recipe for social cohesion. are at their root trying to help promote. so how are religious actors out there creatively working to build social cohesion. either in war zones or in areas where conflict looms large. if they are trying to inoculate, prevent conflict from spreading over into neighboring communities. we see catholic relief services and1:u they are working to buil cocoa cooperatives in ghana. among islamic and christians in

i areas to have an economic development model. owned and op righterated by the groups. so that is an economic development model. it has a peace building lens to it. it has social cohesion, imagination after larger community and institutional support of these religious ooktors in helping that development model go forward. and in the inner religious action in counter malaria programs, trust-build programs, and help increase relationships among the community and get at the some of the root causes of conflict. we mentioned that in the -- in my own field in international th tendency saying it is all about economics and politician and you can go in the other -- the other extreme as well as saytcvmp it l

about religion and both are a f1 o what do we know about conflict? ar where conflict returns, thattt6r subject to the conflict trap are those that have declining economies, declining gdp. high youth bulge. and thato@=z have a history o p conflict in the last five years and economies not well diversified and natural resource dependent. that arc of stability we started without is a map of countries that have almost all of those red flags. so we know that countries that have red flags are ones prone to conflict, okay? concerns. and then when you throw religious actors into that mix that can be actual fot fire on an already tenuous rcircumstanc. one other myth to bust, you often hear religious actors

refer to as tran estate nongovernmental actors. a friend and colleague at harvard said they are like doctors without borders. that is just false. okay. that is really, really false. we have to understand that religious actors are not nonstate actors. they are prestate actors. this is not an academic splitting of the hairs. this is understanding that religious actors with the exception of a very few)rra new ones, the mormons andp d church scientologist new religious actors, major world religions are prestate actors. they existed millennia before the founding of the modern sovereign state in 1648. what does that mean? it means there are three is are very well developed and very old. okay? you do not turn to doctors

without borders and ask them for their law. to resolve disputes among competing communities. doctors without borders doesn't have laws. it doesn't marry people. it doesn't have a book of holy scriptures and ideas that people pray to. screeria -- nigeria. -