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Azza Karam

166 quotes

“Religions for Peace is essentially the United Nations for religious institutions. It’s not about the government, as the UN is – it’s about religious institutions and faith communities from around the world and their leaders who have been selected to represent them. When I saw the chance to serve this expansive community, I seized the opportunity.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religions for Peace is founded on the premise that faith is a very strong motivator. And when I say faith, I don’t just mean religions, I mean the belief that so many of us hold that there is something greater than us. This belief is a powerful motivator, and if we are able to connect through our faiths—if we’re able to find commonality in our spirits, the very fabric of our existence, in our purpose to live—it becomes much harder to divide us.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...religions have been addressing social needs for centuries! They are the original healthcare providers, hospices, schools. It’s an ancient practice. But what is new and necessary is the idea that these religious institutions and faith communities can come together. We need to pool our moral and practical resources to support our communities better. I think of how a single stick can be easily broken, but when you’re part of a bundle of sticks, it’s much harder to break you. So that’s the idea. And it’s an enduring idea – one that predates Religions for Peace and one that will always exist.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...every single religion and faith has its own practices. The number of Christian denominations alone is very large. So to try to bring together all the religions and faiths of the world – it’s not easy.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...Humanitarian crises, such as natural disasters, wars, famine, etc., make it imperative to work together. Governments are hardly capable of addressing everyone’s needs during those times, so folks often come together naturally. That has led to the formation of numerous of our Interreligious Councils.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It was essentially as if a tsunami had hit everywhere in the world, if you can imagine that—there seemed to be a bit of this primitive instinct to protect one’s own. People looked after their communities as if “It’s me, my church, and I.” That’s what led us to creating a humanitarian fund – to support collaborative efforts around COVID-19 by providing financial support to those who had the will, the vision, and the passion to address the immense needs that the pandemic created and to do so while recognizing the multireligious world we live in.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that’s a natural response for women – to want to help as many people as possible. And for young people, they are often the ones to get out there and do something. And then seeing this response from the women and youth, I think encouraged those older, more established religious institutions to say, “Absolutely, we must come together and address the needs of our entire, multireligious community.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's one thing to work at an organization, it’s an entirely different thing to lead it. When you work at an organization, it’s easier to be the “servant of it.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...when you lead, you become very visible. And I think my leadership is seen as directly challenging the way things are.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In a way, religions are the last bastions of patriarchy. And so, to be a leader of an endeavor like this—where my role, essentially, is to ask people to be of good conscience and do the right thing by working together—that can be met with resistance.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“it doesn’t matter whether I’m actively asking people to work together. It’s the mere fact that I sit in this space that means people perceive me as someone who will hold them accountable. And because I am who I am—a woman, Arab, Muslim, Egyptian, North African, the “other” in so many ways—it’s hard for a lot of leaders, both male and female, to embrace me as the head of the organization.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think that misperceptions are always going to be part of our lives. I also think that diversity is meant to be our key challenge in life.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are not meant to be the same, to live in our enclaves, to speak the same language, and to look alike. Coming together, and forming alliances through that diversity, can be challenging and it’s also an incredibly empowering thing.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Faith is one of those things that adds to that empowerment. Having a shared faith in faith itself and a willingness to serve together as faith-inspired folks—albeit very different faiths—to me, it’s the most beautiful thing. It might sound mushy, but I think that act is the spirit that moves. It moves mountains, it really does.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are created diverse in order to love one another – to love precisely that which is different from oneself. Religions for Peace will always be committed to this. And even if it’s challenging, we see that it continues to happen worldwide.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The lockdowns that were imposed around the world during the pandemic created a remarkable sense of isolation. We suffered loneliness hugely. People of faith struggled with not being able to go to church or synagogue or the mosque. And even nonreligious people, who found themselves alone within four walls, felt that same despair. It tends to make you question your very existence: What am I doing here? What is this all for?”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think it was one of the moments where faith in general becomes very important. You realize the pandemic isn’t something you alone can stop, but it’s also not something that the most powerful government or military can stop. So many of us tended to go back to that which is original – our faith in something bigger and more powerful than us – and more powerful than COVID.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...each religious community on its own is very rich. But when it comes to religious community members who are willing to stick their necks out, come together, and work across religions, there is very little money for that. Even the biggest governments don’t provide financial support for that kind of work.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Churches don’t give money to each other and certainly not to other religious organizations; mosques and Islamic establishments won’t give to other religious organizations; and on it goes. So, ironically, we’re in a place where there are a lot of individual pools of resources, but the collective pool has very little, indeed. And we’re not interested in growing each of those pools into lakes. Instead, we want to create an amazing, abundant fountain that can support everyone. That’s why we need a Director of Resource Development.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We will always be striving to ensure that our Interreligious Councils are well-resourced, supported, and better capacitated to be financially accountable and actionable entities. That is a lifelong process.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want our world leaders to consult not just the pope, but an imam, a rabbi, and so on. Together, they can hold each other accountable.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Two phenomena are happening at the same time. Either we are ignoring religion altogether or we are identifying individual religious actors as the most important. And both are actually problematic.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's critical that we do not place emphasis on a particular religion, but rather hold religious leaders accountable to working together for the human rights of all. It’s okay that we’re different.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Difference is good! But when we come together in our diversity, we will learn to be civil with one another. I believe this country is suffering a crisis of civility in this moment. We need to be able to have a conversation and debate, while always granting equal importance to each perspective. If we are able to say, at the minimum, “I do not agree with you, but I love the human being within you.” – that would be a really big thing right now for this country – and for the whole world, actually.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The main challenges for religious leaders in addressing sexual and gender-based violence are intimately connected to the fact that sexuality is a deeply taboo area in most faith traditions around the world, but especially institutionalized religious faiths.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religions for Peace looks at aspects of gender-based violence from the lens of where religions agree. We have in Religions for Peace an agreement on the common denominator which is that any and all forms of violence are absolutely rejected as totally outside of any religious acceptability.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Violence is against the very fabric of any faith tradition. When the faiths come together, any form of violence is absolutely abhorrent and out of the question.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The religious common ground to all faith traditions is that human life is sacred. And the most vulnerable amongst us are the ones that deserve the most from each of us.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...power of solidarity comes a moment of intense healing like no other.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no space for gender-based violence ever to be acceptable or accepted, or indeed for it be condoned through our silences. The more faith communities remain silent, the more we are culpable.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to be able to serve that sense of unity of purpose around an issue of deep pain in the great hope that this is also a source of relief and healing for so many even as we stand together while many are still suffering on a minute-by-minute basis around the world. We stand together emanating a sense of responsibility to try and ensure that our respective positions where we stand can be committed to the healing that is absolutely needed especially as the world has just become much more complicated with the pandemic.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe in the power of pebbles, and I believe what we are trying to do is collect the pebbles, one by one, and as many as we can, to slowly make those transformations.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The transformation begins within ourselves, in our own families, in our own relationships, in our communities, in our voice and in the power of our voice to carry the messages of healing.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I see hope and change in attitudes and practices through the voice of women and men of faith as they stand in solidarity with one another.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The UN Interagency Task Force on Religion was founded to inform and support UN system actors as to the ‘why’, ‘how’, ‘who’, and ‘what’ of religion, and engagement with religious actors, around the UN’s main areas of work: peace and security, human rights, and sustainable development.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since 2000, religious engagement (in diverse forms) has become the ‘normal’ for many inside the UN system. But the question is—or should always be—are we wise about the how and why of this?”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Working with religious actors on all aspects of human rights carries both challenges and opportunities.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...gender equality and women’s empowerment are the most stubborn litmus test of religious’ buy-in to all human rights, these are also the areas in which seeing faith-based partners advance can be the most awe-inspiring.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No partnership anywhere in the world does not carry at least a seed of suspicion in it. The point is not to cover or pretend it is not there and that we are all lovey dovey”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yet the realms of religion dwarf all of us. At the same time, we are living in times where power brokers communicate in soundbites (if not tweets), and this only complicates how we understand.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“we have to be committed to questioning what we think we know, and few of us have that bandwidth (some call it a luxury). But how can we inspire and transform if we are always in a hurry to work only with the like-minded?”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Goal 17 of the SDGs notes that a successful sustainable development agenda requires partnerships between governments, the private sector, and civil society.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...the Kofi Annan Briefings are a space carved out inside the UN infrastructure to give voice to the faith-based and faith-inspired actors to communicate, in their own words, with the governments, with the secular civil society, and with the UN system. And it’s a space for all to hold one another accountable through witnessing one another’s work”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You don’t really become politicized by a certain event; you grow up politicized.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The trend towards politicization was all around us and is still there today. No single event triggered my awareness. It was normal, the blood running through your veins, part of your average conversation around the dinner table, and we have plenty of those, because we’re always convening around meals.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Any conversation touches on the political context and what’s going on. When you live in a context where one cousin and a best friend and the brother of the neighbors and many people are being incarcerated for no obvious reason apart from the fact that they look suspicious, it becomes part of what you want to know and understand.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My early studies and work brought me very much within the sphere and domain of religious groups, particularly Islamic ones, but my perceptions and understanding started from my family and my university experience. So my interest, and the reason that I became involved in these topics, stem from a very personal and professional place.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The 1980s was a very intense period for the Arab world in terms of the growth of religious politics. There was a strong politicization of religion throughout the Arab region and the Middle East in general. Thinking back, I realize that while we only focused on the Islamic political domain, plenty was going on within the Christian communities also across the region, though frankly that has not been well studied.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“... in the West we tend to see only the Islamic vantage point, but the religious politics overall was very intense; it was Islamic, and Christian, and Jewish.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Exploring this field of human rights was far from easy, and my interest in the links to religion was even more difficult. The religious groups were, putting it mildly, not the most accepted by the governments. A lot of my work involved coming sitting through many discussions in meetings of men, and of men and women, and of women. I listened to many debates and discussions, and many tried to get me to see their point of view.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source