Wisdom Has Not Been Globalised

M o s c o w -- From 9 to 13 October, the World Public Forum’s “Dialogue of Civilizations” convened on the Greek island of Rhodes very close to Turkey for its 6th annual session. The event was attended by 700 political, cultural, business and religious leaders from no less than 60 countries. A Russian Baptist was invited to the Forum for the very first time: Pastor Vitaly Vlasenko (Moscow) from the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists (RUECB) was even asked to speak at a smaller meeting. After the event, the Director of the RUECB’s Department for External Church Relations declared: “The Dialogue of Civilisations has opened up a new world for me. I think such meetings are of vital importance in the effort to obtain global peace and understanding.” Pastor Vlasenko especially appreciated the oft-repeated comment: “We have globalised everything – except for wisdom.” He added: “Only the open, trustworthy dialogue between the political, religious and economic sectors can make it possible for us to attain international peace and understanding. The world continues to resemble the Tower of Babel. It is therefore critically important that Christian leaders are present in the public arena.”

Vlasenko praised the lecture of Damir Mukhetdinov, Rector of “Nizhny Novogord Islamic Institute”. He had distanced himself strongly from fundamentalist Islam and stated: “Original teaching on the Koran proclaimed a pluralism of religion, culture and civilisation for all time. Pluralism is an integral part of earthly existence and disagreements are a natural part of being human.”

The World Public Forum was founded in 2002 by Vladimir Yakunin, now President of Russia’s national railways, and one representative each from Greece and India. Instrumental in its founding was also the relatively-liberal Mohammad Khatami, at that time the President of Iran. Khatami had called for the creation of a “Dialogue of Civilizations” as response to the concept of an inevitable “Clash of Civilizations” as propagated by the US-political scientist Samuel Huntington. The Russian government supports this movement - initial opening festivities had been held in the Kremlin on 19 May 2002. The Forum is a strong advocate of the multi-polar world and rejects any concept of globalisation assuming the primacy of a single world power. A leading speaker at this year’s event was Alfred Gusenbauer, Chancellor of militarily-neutral Austria.