The World Economic Forum (WEF) holds its principal, and best known, meeting at Davos each January but regional meetings in different parts of the world are taking on increasing importance. The annual Middle East meeting, which has for the past few years alternated between the Dead Sea complex in Jordan and Sharm El Sheikh, in Egypt, took place this year at Sharm El Sheikh, from May 18-20. As part of this large gathering (some 1300 participants plus staff), a series of private meetings about the state of West Islam dialogue was organized by the WEF; Tom Banchoff and Katherine Marshall from the Berkley Center participated.
West Islam issues were discussed at Sharm El Sheikh primarily by a special group organized over the past few years by the WEF: the Council of 100 Leaders on West Islam Dialogue. The discussions focused on the January 2008 report: Islam and the West: the State of Dialogue and on leading issues that emerged from it; President Jack DeGioia was its lead author and Georgetown University's Berkley Center, led by Professor Tom Banchoff, coordinated this multi-partner effort that included Gallup work on polling attitudes, Media Tenor analysis of media, a Berkley Center review of dialogue efforts across the world, and commentary by some 32 public intellectuals.
The C100 Meetings
This Council has existed for four years, a loose gathering of some 80 people, notionally divided between "Muslim World" and "West", and five sectors: politics, religion, business, civil society/academia, and media. Chaired jointly by Lord Carey (former Archbishop of Canterbury, member of the WEF Board) and Princess Lolwah Al Feisal (Saudia Arabia), it meets around WEF meetings and particularly Davos and the Middle East regional meeting (though it addresses the Muslim world, not the Middle East per se). The C100 was inspired by September 11 and global tensions around a host of West Islam issues, and has focused largely on dialogue and networking (in many respects its principle lasting mark).
A persistent issue has been disappointing engagement of most business leaders, after all a major raison d'etre of looking to the WEF as a convenor in this rather atypical WEF activity. C100 Executive Committee members include John Esposito (Al Waleed Center for Christian Muslim Understanding) and Katherine Marshall (who brings to the group a focus on links between interfaith issues and social and economic development). The C100 currently faces a rather uncertain future. It has made a significant mark with the publication of the ambitious and unique Islam and the West: Annual Report on the State of Dialogue, in January.
However, the C100's future within the WEF is not clear. It appears likely that it will form part of a new WEF initiative, an ambitious global issues and agenda structure announced in early May. But this is not yet defined. What is clear is that the Annual Report will continue, with Georgetown University and the Berkley Center centrally involved, but its supporting structure is still to be determined. These clouds hung rather heavily over the meetings at Sharm El Sheikh. About 56 people were listed as participating there in C100 events, perhaps half of them "regular" C100 members. The C100 private meetings were organized, as has become the tradition, around topical themes, with members leading off with presentations and an open discussion. Non C100 members are included based on personal invitations. Members of the C100 also participate in "public" sessions of the WEF meeting; in this case Lord Carey, Ismail Serageldin, and Rabbi David Rosen were particularly active.
Three Private C100 Meetings
The first meeting addressed the theme of interfaith and particularly Christian Muslim dialogue, centering on the Common Word statement signed in September 2007 by a large group of Muslim theologians and leaders (initially 138, with more still signing up). The statement and commentary on it is available on a special website: http://www.acommonword.com/. Jorge Sampaio, UN High Representative of the Alliance of Civilizations led off, followed by a short statement by Ali Gooma, Grand Mufti Egypt (who was absent because of illness so the statement was read by a colleague), and two academic commentaries (David Ford, Cambridge University and Miroslav Volf, Yale University).
The overall tenor of the discussion highlighted the significance of this effort to establish the significant common ground that does exist between Islam and Christianity, and the theological focus of the statement. The discussion was framed, though, against statements that the state of West Islam relations is today at its lowest point since the Crusades. While there is a realistic appreciation that statements like the Common Word and ensuing dialogue about the issues raised do not change the position of extremists, the hope is that over time such dialogue can go a long way towards isolating extremists; as David Ford said, there are centuries of pollution of relationships to contend with, and the processes launched will be long and laborious. There was considerable focus on the Common Word emphasis on love of God and love of neighbor, and a hope that the planned next steps will allow leaders and thinkers to work together wisely, to overcome prejudices and to appreciate and celebrate differences.
The second meeting (which followed a brief interlude on scent and religion which I describe in my Newsweek/Washington Post blog) was on business engagement and West Islam dialogue, with the lead presentations by one of the meeting Co-chairs, Khalid Abdulla-Janahi and Muna Abu Sulayman, Executive Manager of the Kingdom Foundation. The announced Iranian presenter could not participate because of visa issues and Xavier Simon Guerrand-Hermes was delayed by airline difficulties, so Mark Ebert (Three Faiths Forum) and I filled in. In this session, the Annual Report was highlighted as having particular significance, with an emphasis on the importance but also difficulty of engaging business leaders more actively. The growing importance for all sectors to manage, more creatively and wisely, cultural diversity was a "bottom line". Young people come together in jobs and cultural clashes spill over into the business world, so companies need to be as much engaged in the dialogue processes as any stakeholder, not for pure altruism but from enlightened self-interest.
The third private meeting (moderated by Tom Banchoff) focused on global politics and Muslim West tensions - titled "Thirty Years after: New World Disorder". Its focus was on Muslim minorities in Western countries and associated tensions as well as opportunities, and was structured to link to the Iranian revolution as a central turning point (though again the Iranian presentor could not be present). Kjell Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway led off, with a concern that political leaders are far too little involved in the plethora of interfaith dialogue efforts that are underway at many levels, The root cause of extremism, he observed, is the experience of humiliation and sense of being looked down on, and it can be and all too often is reinforced through both education systems and media. Further presentations and exchange highlighted both similarities and differences between European minority perspectives and those in the United States. What was striking was the diversity of views, both on sources of the problem and its intensity, as well as how it is linked to various geopolitical events, notably the Iranian Revolution and the Israel Palestine conflict.
The WEF Middle East Meeting Overall
The WEF website has quite detailed information about the meetings. Briefly, it consisted of plenary opening and closing sessions (with very prominent speakers - like George Bush and King Abdallah - plus the meeting's co-chairs), and several additional plenary discussions on specific topics including prominently discussions about environment as well as trade, business climate etc,. These were supplemented by smaller sessions with varying degrees of participation. An estimated 1300 people participated. There was considerable stress on youth woven throughout, as well as entrepreneurship (Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, was a co-chair of the meeting).
The meeting involved a fairly elaborate scenario exercise linked to the meeting theme: "Learning from the Future". The three scenarios were described as the "hyperlinked world", the "sustainable world", and the "multipolar world" (Ismail Serageldin was "champion" for the sustainable scenario). There were televised debates (CNBC, Al Arabiya and BBC - the latter involving Tony Blair, Ehub Barak, and Salam Fayyad, with a group of young people selected through a British Council process). A series of "workshops" with heavy facilitation allowed active participation and there was a series of "Leader in the Spotlight" session with both political and business leaders. One evening reception was hosted by Kazakhstan, the other by Egypt. Egyptian issues, business, and leaders were prominent throughout the events. The plenary address by President George W. Bush sparked considerable discussion, with its focus on democracy and freedom and a sense that the tone was unduly lecturing.
The meetings had their moments of brilliance and brought together fascinating and engaged people interested in the Middle East, business primarily but also an impressive array of political leaders, media, and nongovernmental organizations. A frequent comment, though, was that this meeting, in contrast to prior Middle East meetings and especially Davos, was more focused on the here and now of business transactions and interests. There was a generally quite gloomy perspective on the nearby Israel Palestine conflict (and one very heated meeting involving Israeli mayors).
