The Cordoba Update, June 2023
Dear Reader,
Here we are at the start of summer, six months into 2023, and the world continues to face difficulties caused by armed conflict and the dramatic effects of climate change. For many, the crisis in Ukraine remains the focus, distracting attention from other hotspots around the world, many of which are in regions covered by CPI. From Afghanistan to West Africa, from Iraq to Mozambique, hundreds of millions of men and women, young and old, are victims of endemic bad governance, rampant authoritarianism, violent extremism or lack of vital resources such as water and food.
Iraq is suffering from water scarcity, with all that this implies in terms of regional conflict and social tensions. In Tunisia, the actions of an autocrat are derailing a decade-long process of democratisation and heralding an uncertain future for the country. In Sudan, militarism is once again rearing its ugly head, making a mockery of the peace and security of the country and the heroic efforts of its citizens to achieve stability and prosperity.
In the face of all this, we have no choice but to act with determination and optimism to reduce and prevent violence against all living creatures and the environment which is our home.
In this issue of Cordoba Update, we present some of the activities and events that have taken place during the first half of 2023. You will also find two articles, one by Ozair Khan on the internal tensions within the Taliban in Afghanistan and the other by Meg-Ann Lenoble on the mediation process in Sudan. We hope you enjoy reading them.
We wish you a peaceful and refreshing summer.
The CPI-Geneva Team
News of the Institute
Burkina Faso – As part of the project supported by the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT) to help reduce inter-religious tensions and promote social cohesion in Burkina Faso and Nigeria, CPI organised a two-day hybrid face-to-face and distance learning training workshop on 30 and 31 May 2023 for a multi-faith media group in Burkina Faso, working together to inform and raise awareness in the local media of the importance of positive interaction between different faith groups in the country. A number of topics were covered, including conflict analysis, the causes of extremism and ways of preventing it with a view to conflict transformation, as well as the basics of peace journalism.
https://cpi-geneva.org/inter-religieux-in-action-journalisme-de-la-paix/
Iraq – Cordoba Cultural Café contributed on 22 February 2023, in coordination with the Talafar Municipality, to the Khader Elias Festival, a religious holiday celebrated by Iraqis every year and inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The people of Sinjar were invited to participate in the festival in order to revive and strengthen relations between the Turkmen and Yazidi communities.
https://cpi-geneva.org/khader-elias-festival/
Iraq – CPI organized a training workshop on International Humanitarian Law and Islamic Law in Erbil on 7-8 March 2023. More than 33 Peshmerga officers from different governorates of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq participated in the training. The training, which consisted of presentations, exercises and discussions, focused in particular on how to deal professionally and respectfully with the affected families of missing persons.
https://cpi-geneva.org/training-workshop-for-the-ministry-of-peshmerga/
Iraq – During the World Youth Day celebrations, Cordoba Peace Institute – Geneva (CPI) and the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sports highlighted the marginalisation of the youth of Tal Afar. CPI emphasised the importance of sport as a means of promoting community cohesion and reintegration among the youth of the city, districts and villages of Tal Afar. That’s why CPI sought to revive the Tal Afar Youth Academy football team, founded in 2019, by providing moral and financial support to the team. The team won a tournament in which seventy academies from Nineveh Governorate participated. The final match, held on 21 March 2023 at the Martyrs Stadium in Tal Afar, attracted thousands of fans. The Tal Afar Youth Academy football team won the final match and secured the championship title. This helped to reduce the marginalisation of the youth of Tal Afar.
https://cpi-geneva.org/reintegration-through-football-in-tal-afar/
Mali – During a communication workshop held from 15 to 19 May 2023, CPI facilitated exchanges aimed at adopting a common language to promote clear and transparent communication with the public about the process of integrating Quranic schools into the national education system. The workshop was organised by the Ministry of National Education (MEN), in collaboration with the NGO ENDA, and was attended by 30 participants (MEN officials, representatives of the National Federation of Quranic School Teachers (FENAMEC), and other MEC organisations such as the Coordination of Associations of Quranic Teachers and Pupils (CGMEC) and the Association for the Mutual Aid of Quranic Teachers and Pupils (AMEC).
https://cpi-geneva.org/arrimage-des-ecoles-coraniques-au-systeme-deducation-nationale/
Nigeria – As part of the project entitled “Interfaith in Action” funded by the Templeton Religion Trust, our partner Dar al Andalus Center (DAAC) organized a second two-day workshop in Abuja from 22nd to 23rd of March 2023 gathering 15 representatives of religious organizations. This project aims at reducing interreligious tensions and promoting social cohesion in Burkina Faso and Nigeria, brings together participants from different religious backgrounds and allows them to set up collective micro-projects with a social and humanitarian scope. Based on the “Diapraxis” methodology, the workshop was intended to support participants in identifying the social and humanitarian needs of their communities in order to develop initiatives to be implemented jointly in the coming months. The three micro-projects selected by the group are: 1) a Radio Talk Show in Abuja promoting interreligious relations between Christians and Muslims; 2) Awareness-raising and advocacy sessions with women and influential actors in Abuja and Niger State; and 3) Creation of a youth-led early warning rapid response mechanism to prevent interreligious violence. These actions will be carried out by mid-July 2023.
https://cpi-geneva.org/interfaith-in-action-in-nigeria-2/
Nigeria – CPI is implementing a project entitled “Constructive Alternative Narratives” in partnership with DAAC, funded by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. On 17 and 18 January 2023, a workshop was organized with the 10 representatives of 5 communities (Bama, Gwoza/Pulka, Konduga, Magumeri and Maiduguri Metropolitan Council) involved in reconciliation and reintegration efforts at the local level. This workshop concluded the work undertaken throughout the project which aims to promote the forgiveness and reintegration of men and women associated with Boko Haram through capacity building in alternative conflict resolution methods and by promoting the use of different tools for conflict transformation and peace-making by communities.
https://cpi-geneva.org/constructive-alternative-narratives-in-nigeria-2/
Nigeria – Within the framework of the new project supported by the Swiss FDFA, entitled “Promoting Social Cohesion and the Dissemination of Constructive Alternative Narratives in Northern Nigeria”, which started in March 2023, CPI’s implementing partner, DAAC, organised a series of workshops in June 2023 focusing on the promotion of inter-faith dialogue. The aim is to create a dialogue between the Muslim and Christian communities among youth and women in order to contribute to a better inter/intra religious knowledge. Two workshops, which brought together 50 young people and their teachers from Muslim and Christian communities, provided space for the creation of interfaith peace clubs, training on early warning mechanisms and exchanges on “interfaith and peace”. Two further workshops were organised with gatekeepers from the same communities to ensure sustainability and empowerment of key gatekeepers in promoting interfaith relations. Understanding each other’s views and values in Taraba and Adamawa states will help to consolidate social cohesion and promote alternative narratives to extremist messages.
https://cpi-geneva.org/constructive-alternative-narratives-in-nigeria-3/
Engaging Across Religious Difference – In February 2023, CPI launched in partnership with the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich (CSS) a two-year research project on “Engaging Across Religious Difference: Evidence-Based Research on Islamic Jurists Shaping the Actions of Armed Groups and their Ability to Craft Practical Solutions to Conflict”. This project funded by the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT) aims at exploring in five different contexts how do various Islamic jurists interpret Scripture to shape the behavior of armed groups, and which kinds of dialogue engagement allow such jurists to develop, support or legitimize practical solutions to conflict on the level of governance, the conduct of hostilities, or negotiation processes.
https://cpi-geneva.org/engaging-across-religious-difference/
Publication – The Origin, the Way and the Goal: Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim’s Typology of Conflict – One of the most commonly used definitions of conflict focuses on the goals of the conflicting parties and sees conflict as a relationship between parties with perceived incompatible goals. However, the scope of conflict and its roots may be broader than the goals of the parties. In his theory of conflict presented in The Unleashed Thunderbolts, the fourteenth-century Islamic scholar Ibn Qayyim Al-Jawziyya provided the basis for a typology of conflict that goes beyond the goals of the parties to include their references and the processes by which they achieve their goals. The aim of this paper is to shed some light on Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim’s typology of conflict. It begins with an introduction to the concept of conflict and the duty of conflict transformation in the Islamic tradition; it then presents the conflict typology proposed by Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim, gives some examples of conflicts of different types in Muslim majority contexts, and elaborates on how to deal with each type.
https://cpi-geneva.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Ibn-Al-Qayyim_Typology_of-_Conflict_Aroua.pdf
External Event – Religion for Peace: CPI participated on 5-6 June 2023 in a workshop on “Religion for Peace? Identifying Conditions and Mechanisms of Interfaith Peace”, organised by the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Berlin. The workshop, which brought together some twenty scholars and peace practitioners, focused on various facets of interfaith relations, particularly the role that religion can play for peace.
https://cpi-geneva.org/religion-for-peace/
Recording of the celebration of CPI’s 20th Anniversary
Speeches and conference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnCZFuJ2pqE
Guitar concert:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxTYFYcDgQA
Photos:
https://cpi-geneva.org/celebration-of-cpis-20th-anniversary/
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