Religious meeting calls for world peace

[rug]

AP / September 11, 2012

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Representatives of some of the world’s major religions have concluded a three-day interfaith meeting in Sarajevo by calling for peace around the world.

The meeting involved officials from Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Buddhist communities, and they walked together through Sarajevo’s streets Tuesday evening before issuing their joint commitment to peace.

Their choice of Sarajevo for the meeting was significant because it was here that the 44-month Bosnian Serb siege took place during the 1991-95 Bosnian war, killing more than 11,500 civilians.

The interfaith meeting was the last in a series of similar events organized annually since 1986 by the Rome-based Catholic lay community of Sant'Egidio.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/2012/09/11/religious-meeting-calls-for-world-peace/2SlOpf2sLNraV5F1ZZG1nM/story.html

http://www.santegidio.org/index.php?&idLng=1064

More on Sant'Egidio.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_of_Sant'Egidio

http://www.santegidiousa.org/

[ladjf]

1. Well, good. I'll rest easy now. nt

[rug]

2. That's not the way to get peace.

[cbayer]

3. It's more than I did to promote peace over the last 3 days.

How about you?

[rexcat]

4. It would appear that the Serbian Orthodox Church...

was left out of this as was the Russian Orthodox Church. If memory serves me the Serbian and Russian Orthodox religions are more closely aligned than with the Greek Orthodox Church. Not much will be accomplished when they leave out a major player or two in the region.

Good luck with peace on that note.

[rug]

7. That's an interesting point.

Since this is Serbia it's a glaring omission.

[rexcat]

9. The conflict between...

the Roman Catholics (Croatians), the Serbian Orthodox (Serbs) and the Muslims (can't remember who they are) has been going on for a 1000 years. The hatred goes back too long. The only reason this came to a head in the 1990's was the collapse of the Soviet Union. They kept a lid on it. The most recent (prior to the 90's) was in WWII. The Serbs were aligned with the Soviets and the Croatians were aligned with Germany. Both sides committed many atrocities against each other. They might as well be talking to a brick wall as talk about peace.

As a side note my wife and I lived in Omaha, NE for 5+ years. Every year there is an ethnic festival and every year they put the Croatians and Serbs as far away as possible. This situation is similar to the Armenians and the Turks. Every generation is taught the hate.

What needs to be done is to address the underlying issues. If that is done and all sides reconcile then peace has a chance!

On edit: it might not be a glaring omission. The other groups may have wanted them to participate and they may have declined. That would be my bet.

[rug]

12. There is undoubtedly religious jealousy and rivalry at play.

[rexcat]

13. If I have it correctly...

sometime between 900-950 CE there was some transgression where a lot of people were slaughtered. I don't remember which side stared it and it has been tit-for-tat ever since. It is probably more ethnic than religious but religion definitely plays a part in it at this point. I wish I could remember the details or the book I read but it escapes me.

[rug]

14. What a mess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Croatia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_serbia

[mr blur]

5. Shame those damned atheists don't want peace.

Oh, wait...

[cbayer]

6. You draw the strangest conclusions.

[rug]

8. Lol!

[rexcat]

10. Looks like another group excluded!

There are a lot of atheist in that region but again, the major issue is the ethnic tension and religion is the primary underlying issue. I have done extensive reading about this region and I don't think there will be peace and harmony for some time to come.

[Jim__]

11. Being for world peace is easy.

It's getting along with those bastards down the block that's hard.