Who knows the full text of the Alliance of Civilizations promulgated by the United Nations in 2006?

Pan Guang: "Clash of Civilizations" and Dialogue among Civilizations —— Speech at the Doha Meeting of the Celebrity Group of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations

Pan Guang June 6, 2006 09:2 1

Biography of the speaker

Pan Guang: A native of Wenchang, Hainan, born in Shanghai, Ph.D. Now he is a researcher and doctoral supervisor of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, director of Shanghai Jewish Studies Center, vice president of China Middle East Society and president of Shanghai World History Society. He is also the director of the Shanghai Center for International Studies, the director of the Institute of International Politics of Tongji University, the director of the International Council of the Asia Society of the United States, and the decision-making consultant of the Shanghai Municipal Government. He has been engaged in the study of international relations and world history for a long time and has achieved fruitful results in Jewish studies. His major works include Jewish Civilization, The Road to Jewish National Rejuvenation, A Study of Contemporary International Crisis, Jews in China (China, Britain, France and Germany) and From the Silk Road to the Asia-Europe Meeting.

The world is rich and colorful, and a history of human civilization development is a history in which different civilizations learn from each other's strong points in competition and comparison and develop together in seeking common ground while reserving differences. Differences, competitions and even collisions between different civilizations are natural, and there are similarities and similarities between them. Why do collisions between different civilizations sometimes turn into vicious conflicts? The main reason lies not in the differences of civilizations themselves, but in ignorance, narrowness, prejudice and the resulting extreme ideological trend. Economic and political unfairness is closely related to the emergence of extreme thoughts, especially when this unfairness leads to social marginalization, spiritual hopelessness and lack of rights protection mechanism, the hotbed and soil of extremism exists.

First, question the "clash of civilizations"

Many vicious conflicts actually occur between extremists with different civilization backgrounds, not between the broad masses of people with different civilization backgrounds.

After the end of the Cold War, with the breaking of the original international power contrast and the re-differentiation and combination of various forces caused by it, ethnic and religious conflicts and "cold war fog" covered by bipolar confrontation suddenly emerged on a global scale. Professor samuel huntington's so-called "clash of civilizations" was put forward in this context. Its central argument is that the future development of international politics will be affected by the clash of civilizations. The "9. 1 1" incident intensified the opposition between the west and the Islamic world. Huntington declared in the article "The Age of Muslim War" that the world has entered the era of "Muslim War", that is, most wars occurred between Islamic civilization and other civilizations or between different sects in Islamic civilization. The Iraq war triggered a new round of violent attacks. Not long ago, some European newspapers published cartoons insulting the Prophet of Islam, which triggered a wave of protests in the Islamic world. All these are regarded by some people as manifestations and examples of the further development of "clash of civilizations". However, more people disagree with this view, which makes the discussion around this issue a hot topic.

So, are these conflicts in the world caused by "clash of civilizations" or "clash of civilizations"? My answer is no, first of all, many conflicts and wars in the world actually happened in the same civilization at the beginning, such as World War I and World War II. Secondly, there are many conflicts and wars that originally occurred outside the issue of civilization, that is, they have nothing to do with the differences of civilizations. For example, the Korean War and the Vietnam War were originally caused by political and ideological conflicts, and both sides of the conflict belonged to the same language and species. Third, even if the two sides of some conflicts have different cultural backgrounds, such as the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq, their root causes are mainly political, economic and social factors, not cultural differences. Fourthly, it must be pointed out that in Huntington's theory, the concept of "civilization" is very confusing, and historical, regional and political standards are often arbitrarily replaced, so the conclusions drawn are often one-sided; At the same time, although he emphasized "the clash of civilizations", he also believed that "all civilizations should learn to exist"; Interestingly, his views have also changed in recent years. For example, when many people regard "9. 1 1" incident and Iraq war as "clash of civilizations", he thinks that "9. 1 1" incident and Iraq war are not "clash of civilizations". Therefore, it is doubtful whether Huntington's theory can be summarized as a kind of "clash of civilizations" and used as its theoretical basis.

Of course, we should really pay attention to the civilized factors in the current international disputes and crises, that is, the possible negative effects of differences and collisions between different religions, nationalities and cultures. On this issue, I think two points must be emphasized.

First, the world is rich and colorful, and the diversity of national civilizations is the basic feature of human society and an important driving force for human progress. A history of the development of human civilization is a history in which different civilizations learn from each other's strong points in competition and comparison and develop together in seeking common ground while reserving differences. Greek culture, Roman culture, Egyptian culture, Persian culture, Indian culture and China culture. In contact with other cultures, it absorbed many foreign essences and exerted an important influence on other cultures. From this perspective, the differences, competitions and even collisions between different civilizations are natural, and there are also similarities and similarities between them. Professor Ihsanuglu, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, spoke at the meeting as a special guest. He believes that even between Islamic civilization and western civilization, there are "similarities". I agree with this view.

Second, why does the collision of different civilizations sometimes turn into a vicious conflict? The main reason lies not in the differences of civilizations themselves, but in ignorance, narrowness, prejudice and the resulting extreme ideological trend. For example, Islamic extremist theorists, from Hassan Bana, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, to Osama bin Laden and Zawahri today, have tried their best to advocate the idea of dividing the world according to religion and the idea of crusade against paganism, which is essentially a "clash of civilizations". However, the reason why so many people follow them has profound political, economic and social roots. For example, economic and political unfairness is closely related to the emergence of extreme thoughts, especially when this unfairness leads to social marginalization, spiritual hopelessness and lack of rights protection mechanism, the hotbed and soil of extremism exists. This is exactly what I want to focus on in the second part of my speech.

Judging from the above two points, many vicious conflicts actually occur between extremists with different civilization backgrounds, rather than between the broad masses of people with different civilization backgrounds. Those who have the most extreme words and deeds are not representative at all. For example, bin Laden cannot represent the Islamic world, and those who deliberately insult the prophet of Islam cannot represent the broad masses of people in western countries. Therefore, although there are civilized factors in current international disputes and crises, that is, religious, ethnic and cultural factors, there is no pure "clash of civilizations" or conflicts caused entirely by civilized reasons.

Second, the political and economic perspective of the rise of extremism

Anarchism is the product of despair. Anarchism can easily lead to extremism and even terrorism.

It should be acknowledged that the current rise of extremism and its irrational actions have indeed posed a serious threat to international peace and security. If it is wrong to attribute it to a "clash of civilizations", what is the reason for this situation? I think there are four fundamental reasons that need our special attention.

First, issues left over from history are intertwined with real political and economic rights disputes. What needs special attention is that the religious and ethnic disputes left over from history are often aggravated by the incorporation of realistic contradictions, which makes both sides of the conflict adopt irrational means. This phenomenon can be seen in the conflicts in Iraq, Lebanon and the former Yugoslavia.

Second, some conflict hotspots have not been resolved fairly and reasonably for a long time. Many root causes of the conflict have not been solved fairly and reasonably for a long time, so that the weak side of the conflict takes extreme measures to attack the strong side and its supporters, which is an important reason for the rise of extremism and even terrorism. For example, the conflict between Palestine and Israel is one of the root causes. If this problem is not completely solved, suicide attacks and other terrorist attacks against Israel and even the United States will probably never stop.

Third, power politics and unilateralism are strongly involved in some disputes that have not been universally recognized by the international community. In this case, if the intervener and the intervener belong to different religious and cultural circles, it is particularly easy to cause misunderstanding and confrontation between different civilizations. For example, the United States launched the Iraq war, which greatly aggravated the misunderstanding and confrontation between the West and Islam, intensified the sectarian conflict between Shiites and Sunnis and the national contradiction between Kurds and Arabs within Islamic civilization, so that today's Iraq has become a fertile ground for extremism and terrorism.

Fourth, the gap between the rich and the poor and the gap between the north and the south has widened. In the process of economic globalization, some countries and social groups are getting richer and richer, while others are getting poorer and poorer, so there are "weak areas", "weak countries" and "weak groups". Anarchism is the product of despair, and despair often comes from desperate vulnerable groups. Anarchism can easily lead to extremism and even terrorism. As mentioned above, if the widening gap stems from injustice, especially if it occurs between different religions and nationalities, it provides an economic and social basis for extremism in different civilizations.

Third, the role of the media

The best way to prevent the differences between different civilizations from turning into vicious conflicts is to promote exchanges, dialogue, understanding, respect and cooperation among different civilizations.

The best way to prevent the differences between different civilizations from turning into vicious conflicts is to promote exchanges, dialogue, understanding, respect and cooperation among different civilizations. At this point, many people have reached a * * * understanding. In particular, the media can play an irreplaceable role in promoting communication, dialogue, understanding, respect and cooperation among different civilizations.

First of all, freedom of the press and speech should be respected, but this does not mean that you can make fun of and insult other people's religions, cultures and traditions at will. Doing so is essentially using your own freedom to damage the freedom of others. In fact, every civilization and religion in the development of human society embodies the historical cognition, realistic feelings, spiritual pursuit and code of conduct of its creators. The media should highly respect various civilizations and religious beliefs, and don't deliberately go beyond its sensitive "red line".

Secondly, cultural isolationism and cultural extremism are often caused by ignorance and prejudice. Therefore, the media should promote exchanges and understanding between different civilizations, instead of encouraging ignorance and inciting prejudice. In the cartoon incident that happened some time ago, the Austrian media did not publish similar cartoons because their media leaders paid attention to learning and understanding the teachings, customs and knowledge of Islam. This shows that it is extremely important to do a good job in publicity and education and promote mutual learning among civilizations.

Thirdly, political differences, economic competition and cultural differences are common. We can communicate through dialogue, overcome prejudice and misunderstanding, and transcend obstacles and barriers. However, the current abnormal phenomenon is that one side uses the media to "demonize" the other side, which will turn the collision between the two sides into a vicious conflict and even go to extremes. Under the current situation, it is very important that the western media should not demonize Islam, and the media in the Islamic world should not demonize the West.

Fourth, the rapid rise and popularization of online media, with the fastest and widest communication function, is bringing mankind into a brand-new network era with magical power. The increasing popularity of the Internet has not only changed people's way of life, work and communication, but also changed people's thinking values and spiritual world gradually. Internet media is a double-edged sword, which may play a very irresponsible negative role in encouraging extreme ideological trends, but it can also play a very important and positive role in promoting dialogue among civilizations. We should pay special attention to the positive role of online media and minimize its negative impact.

Fifth, one thing that government departments and responsible non-governmental organizations can do is to take preventive measures among the people, make corresponding explanations, and resist attempts and behaviors that mislead public opinion. In July 2005, the Declaration of Heads of State adopted by the Astana Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization put forward international cooperation on this issue for the first time, and also emphasized "establishing an effective mechanism to deal with new challenges and threats in the field of mass media". This has important demonstration significance.

Four. Education and youth

We should pay special attention to protecting, respecting, understanding and studying the cultural heritage of ethnic minorities, vulnerable groups and religions.

I would like to express some opinions on the role of education in promoting cross-cultural and cross-religious exchanges, which is also related to our discussion on youth.

1, I think different civilizations should strengthen mutual understanding. The non-Islamic world should strengthen its understanding of Islamic civilization, and the Islamic world should also deepen its understanding of non-Islamic civilization. This requires education, especially impartial, factual and easy-to-understand textbooks. Some young people think of bin Laden and suicide bombings when they talk about Islam, which is influenced by incorrect propaganda on the one hand and the lack of books and teaching materials introducing the true Islamic spirit on the other. In fact, many remarks about tolerance, harmony and opposition to extremes in the Koran are unfamiliar to people in the non-Islamic world. I hope our Islamic counterparts can provide some easy-to-understand books and teaching materials for non-Islamic readers, which will be of great benefit to us. Our alliance of civilizations can also make a difference in this regard.

2. When conducting civilization education, we should pay special attention to protecting, respecting, understanding and studying the cultural heritage of ethnic minorities and vulnerable ethnic groups and religions, because compared with the dominant ethnic groups and religions, their existence and development are often ignored, and sometimes they are attacked and "cleansed" as "heresies". We have not forgotten the foolish move of the Taliban authorities to destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. Recently, a serious incident occurred, and the medieval Armenian cemetery in Nagorno-Karabakh was destroyed. All these show that religious buildings and cultural heritage in some areas are being seriously threatened. If we don't pay attention to this problem, these treasures in the treasure house of human culture may disappear.

Music, sports, fine arts, drama and movies are all different forms of education. When Israelis and Palestinians sing on the same stage, when American athletes play football matches with Iranian athletes, we see dialogues and exchanges across cultural and political barriers. Compared with classroom teaching, ordinary people sometimes accept these lively forms of education more easily. The upcoming World Cup, Olympic Games and World Expo will be attended by thousands of people, which is an excellent opportunity for us to organize education and publicity activities on dialogue among civilizations. We can seize these opportunities and encourage people all over the world to carry out civilized dialogue and exchanges by holding forums for dialogue among civilizations, culture and art weeks and other colorful forms.

In the process of promoting cultural exchange through education, we should pay special attention to strengthening the education of young people, because they are the future and hope of the development of various cultures and civilizations, and they are also the most plastic and easy to understand and accept in other cultures and civilizations. Therefore, we should actively organize transnational and cross-cultural schools, forums and training courses. We should promote more international student exchanges between countries, especially encourage young people to study and visit countries with different cultural backgrounds, so as to promote two-way exchanges between civilizations. At present, there are more young people in Islamic countries studying in the West, while young people from other civilized backgrounds rarely visit and study in Islamic countries. We should try our best to change this situation.

More support should be given to scholars who study culture and promote dialogue among civilizations. Generally speaking, the number of scholars studying civilization, especially traditional culture, is decreasing, and their research has encountered many difficulties, especially the lack of funds. Their work is hard, but it is of great significance, and their income is very small, at least much less than that of economists and jurists. Therefore, we should give them more financial support and help them organize more academic seminars and exchange activities. To this end, we can set up funds or foundations to seek the support of the government and the business community.

Verb (short for verb) migrate

The international migration movement not only promoted the exchange of culture, talents and labor, but also brought about cultural collision.

With the continuous advancement of economic globalization, the scale of international migration is increasing. Undoubtedly, this development has positive significance. First of all, it is conducive to mutual understanding, communication and integration between various cultures. Secondly, it plays an important role in promoting exchanges between sending and receiving countries. Third, promote the rational flow of talents and labor on a global scale according to market demand. At present, the number of immigrants from EU countries alone is as high as 20 million, among which foreign immigrants from Germany, France and the Netherlands account for 8%, 8% and 17% of their total population respectively. According to the EU research report, with the development of European economy and the arrival of the aging era in Europe, by 2025, the EU will need to add 2 1 10,000 labor force, most of which will be supplemented by immigrants. In the United States, Australia, Canada and other countries as immigrant countries, the great contribution made by new and old immigrants is even more obvious.

However, the international migration movement not only promotes the exchange of culture, talents and labor, but also brings cultural collision. Different from the transnational flow of information, commodities and capital. Every immigrant is bound to carry the cultural imprint from his home country and accumulate the innate experience and memory, so their migration will inevitably lead to the collision of different cultures. Due to the unbalanced development between North and South, immigrants from poor countries usually flood into rich countries. Poor immigrants can not be accepted equally in rich developed countries, and often have no social space to express their cultural and religious identity, so they have been marginalized for a long time. The increasingly prominent international problems such as illegal immigrants, refugees and transnational crimes have also adversely affected the integration of legal new immigrants into the mainstream society. Recently, there have been more and more unrest and conflicts related to immigration around the world, such as riots in the suburbs of France and large-scale demonstrations against the first employment law, and large-scale protests and demonstrations against laws related to illegal immigration in the United States. These developments show how serious the consequences will be if immigrants are excluded from civil society for a long time. In fact, immigrants' demand for economic equality and social security is getting higher and higher, which has been reflected in the political field and has become a potential unstable factor.

Although the international community has reached a consensus on racial equality, traditional racial prejudice and new racism characterized by hostility towards immigrants are still developing today. In a recent speech, French President Jacques Chirac mentioned that job resumes with foreign names and addresses of poor communities are often thrown into garbage bins in France without review, which shows how serious this new racial discrimination is. No matter what form it takes, racial discrimination will only deepen the gap between nations, reduce the communication between civilizations, provide opportunities for extremism and terrorism, and ultimately be detrimental to the peaceful development of mankind as a whole. Faced with this situation, how to transcend the traditional nation-state by promoting cultural diversity and make immigrants and local citizens live in equality and harmony has become a key issue in the process of civilized dialogue.