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Azza Karam

166 quotes

“Indeed, secular human-rights actors complain of the negative influence of religion. So why not harness the positive, transformative influence of religion that can help societies overcome harmful social norms and practices?”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is an organisation that was convened when religious leaders from each religious tradition from around the world came together for peace against nuclear armament and all forms of conflict and whose first World Assembly had three themes: human rights, development and disarmament. This is an organisation that has never been a platform for empty slogans.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Over the years the RfP has supported, facilitated and guided the establishment of 70 national Interreligious Councils and five regional Interreligious Councils from around the world. Each council brings together the leadership of the various religions in a manner reflective of the local religious demography, and they act as entities which create an inter-religious space within each nation’s civic infrastructure.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is a convening place in which those who speak in the name of people’s religions come together regularly to assess issues of national concern and to rally and mobilise around shared well-being. This is, especially in today’s contexts, a space of light.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need these Interreligious Councils to be strengthened so they can serve the shared well-being of their nations effectively and in a timely manner.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need these spaces of light to radiate the language of peace, and for those religious leaders and institutions that convene together to symbolise and realise a precious reality: when faiths come together for the common good, then the common good wins against all odds.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My role as coordinator is to convene the 20 UN system focal points working on, with, or about religion and religious engagement for the sake of realising the UN system’s three pillars of sustainable development, peace and security, and human rights.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since 2015, the 193 UN member states have agreed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs or Agenda 2030), which elucidate 17 global goals meant to be realised by 2030. These SDGs are in many ways the practical translation of the three pillars of the UN system’s raison d’être.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Task Force is an inter-agency mechanism that came together first in 2010 to help the focal points on religion understand what religion has to do with the UN’s commitments and to be more effective and strategic in how and whom we engage with in the realms of religious spaces in order to better serve the purposes of the UN system.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Once I take up my position in the RfP, I will have to leave the UN and will therefore no longer be able to serve inside the UN system. However, since the RfP has traditionally partnered with the UN for most of its existence, I look forward to continuing and deepening partnerships with diverse UN system organisations on the shared goals of peace-making, education, environmental stewardship and freedom of religion, belief and conscience.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...there has been a re-awakening of a sort of “religious” consciousness and emergence in public life all over the world. As a scholar of these trends, I have written elsewhere that this has had a great deal to do with the loss of the traditional meta-narratives we were familiar with, such as liberalism, socialism, and communism. I believe that some have sought recourse in religion partly because political spaces offered an ideological vacuum.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...we are living in times when traditional institutions of all types are fast losing their legitimacy and their public support. Indeed, we are facing a crisis of all things institutional.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“faith in its myriad formats, languages, institutional set-ups and outreach, appears attractive, all the more so when you realise that many social services around the world, especially in the realms of health and education and certainly in humanitarian crisis contexts, are still being offered through religious institutions. So “religion”, whether in terms of faith or in terms of social service, is pervasive.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...some of the reappraisal of the religious social-service sector is sensible and timely — after all, hands-on innovative partnerships are required for us to target some very basic humanitarian and social needs. But I also see a huge challenge in having some religious actors and some religious institutions becoming too closely aligned, some even vested, with political spaces and actors. History has taught us that when political and religious institutions collude, human welfare often suffers, and tragically so.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is a massive difference between strengthening social services by engaging with all service-providers inclusively and working with religious actors to change harmful practices as part of building a stronger civic consciousness around social justice on the one hand, and between religious actors seeking political power, or political actors seeking religious cover, on the other. It is the latter that I believe we need to be vigilant about.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religion is, or should be, primarily about faith and not about political power. But when religion is used as a tool for those in power to influence politics, then religion can become a tool for harm, whether in the short term or long term.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...it is important not to use religion, as belief, as actors, or as institutions, in the business of politics. We need to remember that colonialism began with a missionary zeal to “civilise” the other — the “civilising mission” was a feature of the 19th and 20th centuries in much of the world, in other words not so long ago.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The instrumentalisation of religion is as old as religion itself. So it behoves us to be alert to both the goodness and the harm which “using religion” can cause.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“By understanding or appreciating the religious as part of the civic, and thus “right-sizing” the role of religion rather than assuming it is the answer to all things, whether good or evil.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Equally unwise is ignoring the reality of the religious presence, belief, and service in most communities, or seeking to use religion to serve a political purpose, no matter how noble it may seem.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“No one religion on its own is “the answer” or the solution to all of society’s ills, and thus it is imperative that all religions, whether majority or minority in size, are consulted and engaged as part of a nation’s social infrastructure and by extension part of a global civic community.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ignorance about the role of religion in people’s lives, or a secular fundamentalist attitude which essentialises religion, seeing all religions as the same and all as being largely harmful, are major hindrances to those of us urging a better understanding of the role of the religious in civil society.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“For religions to be about peace requires many things: we need to appreciate that religious consciousness, spirituality, or belief is a force for good in most people’s lives, and we need to appreciate that religious institutions suffer from some of the same ills as all other institutions populated by humans, but that this is no cause to dismiss all the institutions.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We need to appreciate that just as the Divine created us as different and diverse so that we may know one another, we also need to honour the purpose of that creation by appreciating that no one religion trumps all or can be all things for all people. Instead, all religions need to work together so that we may know one another, or in other words, know peace.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“when it comes to issues like climate change, what the world needs is more women like you.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Service is a call beyond our professional commitment. I believe that service is the quintessential raison d’être of religion and that we are faithful when we serve. We are people of faith and therefore we serve one another without discriminating.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The more we love the divine—in whatever shape or form it is—the more we love one another and want to serve one another. To show love we serve the people we love. This is why every single religion speaks about the imperative to do good. I do not see a dividing line between service and love.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My very first experience of interreligious dialogue happened at the level of human rights. I was an intern in a human rights organization and the conversation was very legalistic and political. The question was how to maximally serve the human rights of everyone, including those in jail. In the midst of this conversation, which was very secular, we had to confront situations in which those who were detained or missing were actually in trouble in the first place because of their religious convictions or what they understood to be their religious convictions.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How can you defend the human rights of a person who takes actions which are deemed harmful by society and governments, but this person believes that he/she is acting out of religious convictions? This actually opened for me the door to a conversation about convictions and faith. This evolved into learning about other people’s beliefs and trying to understand what it is that moves people to behave in certain ways. This is how I got interested in the “pulse of faith” inside each of us”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is clear that religious institutions and leaders have a very critical set of roles to play, especially in this moment of global pandemic. They are needed now more than ever because of the spiritual sustenance that people are looking for due to their rising sense of helplessness.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religions are therefore more necessary than ever, but let us take our reflection one step further. It is not good enough nor helpful to have any single religious entity more powerful in its range of services. It is not about serving to become more powerful as one religion, it is about serving in this moment of dire global need to become more cohesive as a social entity. I do not want to see some Muslims becoming more powerful, nor Jews or Christians. I do not want to see any religious institution becoming more powerful. I want to see them all coming together to serve everybody better.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Netherlands was the perfect environment for me to learn and eventually to strike out on my own. I didn’t really have a choice about coming to the Netherlands, because my father was posted to the Egyptian Embassy in The Hague. And as a good Muslim daughter, who really didn’t have much say in what happened to her, I was transplanted from Egypt. To be honest, I didn’t want to go at the time, but my family insisted.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Gender is very often intimately connected to sexuality – who we believe we are, how we feel and see and use our bodies. For this reason, almost all faith traditions have an opinion on the matter. The more institutionalised the religion, the more dominant the framework of gender, sex and patriarchy.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Sex is for procreation, nothing else. God forbid you should even think of enjoyment.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Religious institutions in particular are not prepared to negotiate on sex and sexuality, because once you start looking at how these norms are built up from sexual relations and sexual identity all the way up to leadership, you begin to question that foundation, that authority, and even the primacy of that institution. This means that no religious institution is willing to discuss sex and sexuality in any open way.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I saw this so clearly when I worked for the UN (United Nations). Religious leaders were all prepared to speak about the environment and children’s rights and promoting equality generally for all people and refugees. But if you bring up sex, sexuality, sexual identity, sexual relations. Ooh la la, no way.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the most beautiful things I am learning is that I am honestly constantly amazed by the willingness of our religious leaders, who represent these different institutions. There are over 100 religious leaders who all come from different faith traditions, including indigenous ones. I am really deeply touched and hugely moved by how willing these people are to devote time to being part of this movement, this effort, this dream of religions for peace.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“To actually stand shoulder to shoulder. And at the same time, I feel enormous pressure from the thought of, ‘Oh my god, how can we honour that? How on earth can a staff of fifteen people honour 100 religious leaders and their institutions and their networks who are willing to, and do in fact, commit their time, their effort, their money, their everything, to serving?”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This is about both the danger to and the opportunity for the very essence of who we think we are, if we were to genuinely listen to one another. It may dramatically challenge us, because we think we know ourselves so well. We think we hear and we listen, but we actually do not. We are constantly walking this very thin line in life and in danger of falling off. If you do fall off, you would completely lose your certainty, but at the same time, imagine what you might find if you fall off.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Imagine the grace that can happen when you genuinely challenge what you hold to be dear and true. And it’s particularly in times of crisis that we listen even less well, because we are worried.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...the role of civil society is not only about providing the service that governments do not provide, but also about defending and nurturing the principles of human rights and democracy that we are convinced make us human. Principles that make us safe and help us protect our climate.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All too rarely do these two cooperate at national or global level. I see great value in strengthening the ability of religious organisations to be a better partner of secular civil society organisations. But I also see the great value religious actors can bring. If we can build bridges between these two, we will have a much stronger civil society in the future”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the future, I want us to work against gang violence in Latin America, and with issues related to indigenous peoples and slavery. These are areas where Religions for Peace must do something. Because therein are the deepest wounds of many people today.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I have thought about it, even if that’s because it would be impossible for me not to see many things from a woman’s point of view, with a woman’s sensibilities. I also think there are things I could do as a Muslim. In my acceptance speech I reached out to Muslim leaders to join the Religions for Peace and there was an immediate positive reaction and many came on board as members of the World Council, our governing board.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not serving as a woman or a Muslim, but there has been a remarkable flow of goodwill and a wiliness to work together, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Buddhist, Jewish or Hindu.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As an Egyptian Muslim woman growing up in a very conservative family, it would feel like whatever I did, it was not good enough. That meant I had to work harder, longer, more. The social conditions helped put me in a place where, yes, you have to hit the ground running. If you don’t, you’ll fall flat on your face.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As a person who is constantly wondering and seeking, it helps to build a certain sense — not so much of fatalism, but of preparedness, of understanding that things are going to be difficult before they get easier. One of the things I’ve learned in my life, and I’m now in my mid-50s, is that there is joy in service. This belief in service is a great source of encouragement and energy that I sometimes tap into.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We are living in an age where religion, religious leaders, religious ideologies, are playing an important political, social, cultural and even economic role. I’m not just talking about the spiritual space here. I’m talking very practically, about the political and the financial space. In Afghanistan, we have to appreciate how complicated the situation is.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have to remember that every religious leader in Afghanistan is not part of the Taliban. There are religious minority leaders and communities. We have to look at all of that rich tapestry of religious context in the singular. We have to be more discerning about society, politics and about the different religions coexisting.”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are many religions and many, many religious people. The number of those within those groups who are speaking out against the scientific evidence is relatively small. If we look at the broad group of religious institutions, whether Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh and so on, we realize a large majority is actually calling for a scientific perspective regarding vaccines. There’s a great deal of thought that taking vaccines is actually almost a religious obligation. We just have to keep advocating”
Azza Karam (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source