IAF Seminar - Friedrich-Naumann

Facilitators
Arno Keller
Arno Keller has been the representative of
FNF in Pakistan/Afghanistan, in the Mediterranean Countries and in West Africa from
1998 until the end of 2007. Since then he is working as a
freelance consultant of FNF in several countries and as a
facilitator of IAF seminars. Based on his CV his main focus
lies on Political Management and Political Leadership, Strategic Political Communication, and Civil Society Development. As he has been an elected city councilor for 15 years
everything in context with Local Government is part of his
activities.
Keller is member of the advisory board of the liberal Wolfgang Doering Foundation. In addition he is working as management consultant for some German and international
companies.
Sagarica Delgoda
Sagarica Delgoda was the Representative of
the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung für die Freiheit (FNF) in Sri Lanka from 1996 to 2013.
She has a degree in Political Science and English and a
Masters in International Relations. She was instrumental in
establishing several successful and sustainable projects
both in political and economic liberalism in Sri Lanka, especially targeting youth. Her scope of work involved :
- sensitizing people to political issue and motivating them
to get involved,
- providing liberal answers to the burning issues of the
day,
- Incorporating new findings and experiences (including
those from other cultures) into liberal solutions.
She was also one of the first to start robustly promoting
work on the topic “Freedom and Religion” in South Asia.
Venue:
International Academy for Leadership (IAF)
Theodor-Heuss-Straße 26
51645 Gummersbach
Germany
www.visit.fnst.org
www.facebook.com/FNF.IAF
Organisation/Contact
Martina Hutten
Phone
+49(0)2261-3002-161
Fax
+49(0)2261-3002-165
[email protected]
Religious Power in Politics –
Political Power through
Religion?
14.09. – 21.09.2014
Gummersbach, Germany
IAF Seminar
Religious Power in Politics – Political Power through
Religion? The Protection of freedom of belief and the
liberal answer to fundamentalism.
Ideological, political and religious fundamentalism today
is one of main source of problems in many parts of the
world. At the same time fundamentalism creates severe
conflicts within societies and states. Not even fifty years
ago we assumed that scientific, political and economic
progress would promote freedom and peace, internationally and within societies. Especially religious fundamentalism should not be able to take ground after the
worldwide accepted UN “Universal Declaration of Human
Rights” that declares in Article 18 “Everyone has the right
to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right
includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and
freedom, either alone or in community with others and in
public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in
teaching, practice, worship and observance.”
This freedom of thought, believe and religion is not only
an idealistic but unrealistic element of this UN Declaration. Quaid-e-Azam Ali Jinnah, the founder father of
Pakistan as a homeland for Muslims, declared in his inauguration speech in the first Parliament of Pakistan, 1949:
“You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are
free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any
religion or caste or creed -- that has nothing to do with
the business of the State”. By this he underlined, that
politics should not interfere in religion. A truly secular
state charter?
Jesus according to the New Testament answered a question about the relation between politics and religion:
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is
God's.” Teaching this he underlined, that religion should
not interfere in political matters - and the other way
round.
Similar elements you will find in the various texts of at
least the monotheistic religions. Why should there be a
problem of or even a conflict between politics and religion?
Liberals will never accept the totalitarian ideologies of
fundamentalists, political or religious. The liberal value
system safeguards the freedom of every individual human
being. That is why not only secular humanists consider
themselves to be liberals but also many members of religious denominations are attracted by the values of liberalism. But hopw can we protect these values against
religious fundamentalism?
cial live? Should we communicate with fundamentalists
and how does such a communication look like? How
can we engage religious communities to negotiate a
new arrangement for relations between religion and
state that might represent a compromise between the
expectations and aspirations of both sides, not leaving
the field to fundamentalists?
At the end the overall objective of this seminar is to
develop distinctly liberal responses to the many challenges of religious fundamentalism throughout the
world.
Target Group:
The seminar is directed at liberal politicians, both secular and religious, seeking answers to the above questions.
The object of the seminar is to determine what a liberal
approach to religious fundamentalism consists of and
which answers liberals have. Is “secularism” as a simple
response sufficient or should we be more specific and say
“secular state” in order to void misunderstanding in societies in which the term “secular” is understood to have a
different meaning? Do we have an international liberal
consensus on the subject and what does it consist of?
How could a liberal strategy to counter religious fundamentalism look like, not falling into the trap that equals
“liberal” to “unmorally”? Which steps we have to go to
transform such a strategy into the real political and so-
Closing Date
for Nominations:
20 July 2014
Languages:
English, Arabic, French

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