The Seven Burning Issues of Our Time.
It was a privilege to take part in a concluding discussion at the Inter Parliamentary Union Conference held in North Africa on Inter Faith Dialogue.
Morocco’s impressive Dr.Houda Abadi had brought us together to discuss pressing issues and on which faith communities and Parliamentarians had a duty to engage.
Professor Katherine Marshall, Courtney Erwin, Jihad Bnimoussa and Rayhana Mouaouia were the other distinguished panellists.
In my own contribution I referred to the root causes of displacement – citing the UNHCR figures of over 100 million people displaced – a number which is growing exponentially, not least because of the conflict in Sudan.
We were meeting the day after 78 bodies had been recovered after a fishing boat packed with migrants sank 45 miles off southern Greece. A large number of women and children were among those who were missing.
I argued that in the long term tragedies like this will only end when we provide security and opportunity for desperate people and their families.
Applauding the Moroccan project to generate vast amounts of renewable solar energy from the Sahara, I suggested that if it was combined with clever Israeli desalination plants along the North African Coast, and generous Marshall-aid project to build new settlements – new Carthages – it could remove the need for people to make perilous and dangerous journeys.
Deploring the failure of so many international institutions, I called for an annual COP-style conference on tackling root causes of displacement.
It is the duty of the faith communities to be like the geese on the citadel who woke up the citizens and politicians in the face of impending danger.
I also raised the plight of minorities subjected to genocide – some of them with distinctive religious identities which had made them susceptible to rank discrimination and subsequently to persecution, atrocity crimes and ultimately genocide. Among the examples I gave were Rohingya and Uyghur Muslims, Yazidis and Nigerian Christians and called for greater accountability for those responsible.
These were among other areas raised:
