In the year 2000, President Mohammad Khatami of Iran called for a global Dialogue of Civilizations.

Believing in dialogue paves the way for vivacious hope; the hope to live in a world permeated by virtue, humility and love, and not merely by the reign of economic indices and destructive weapons.

Mohammad Khatami, President, Islamic Republic of Iran

That call was taken up by Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations, and the year 2001 was proclaimed the international Year of Dialogue Among Civilizations. (Sadly, the events of September obscured what might have been a dramatic step by the UN.)

The United Nations itself was created in the belief that dialogue can triumph over discord, that diversity is a universal value and that the peoples of the world are far more united by their common fate than they are divided by their separate identities. Alongside an infinite diversity of cultures, there does exist one global civilization in which humanity's ideas and beliefs meet and develop peacefully and productively.

Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General

This paper will reflect on a particular approach to the dialogue of civilizations in the context of a deeper understanding of the dynamics of globalization and in the light of an emerging global consensus of transformative values.

At the threshold of the 21^st century, globalization can be viewed from at least two contrasting perspectives. As a "top-down" phenomenon, it is often marked by the locally destructive global interpenetration of markets, by a disconcerting cultural homogenization with a distinctive western and American flavor, and by a corresponding felt threat to social, political, economic, cultural, and religious identity in many regions of the world. Top-down globalization – as is evident in the astonishing range and complexity of current worldwide tensions – lends credibility to the otherwise questionable notion of an impending "clash of civilizations." On the other hand, considerable evidence suggests a countervailing phenomenon that we can call "globalization from the bottom up". It is manifest in an emerging global consensus on the most critical issues facing the human community at the threshold of the 21^st century – a consensus that is observable among activists to be sure, but increasingly evident in significant segments of the larger world population.

Those who are deeply concerned about the future of the human community often cite the steadily worsening problem of cultural injustice. They speak with mounting alarm about the gradual "northernization" of the planet, with the resultant diminishment or even extermination of so much of the world’s cultural, social, political, and economic authenticity. The promise of globalization, heralded by the developed (and over-developed) nations of the North, differs dramatically from the reality that is experienced by the great majority of those who dwell in the planet’s South.

One need only compare and contrast the conversations that take place yearly at Davos, Switzerland and Porto Allegre, Brazil. The former is the site of the World Economic Forum, a gathering of some of the most influential players in the new Great Game; the latter hosts the World Social Forum, a loosely structured network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), experts, activists and others who regard unchecked and uncritical globalization as a major social, economic, and cultural danger. The elites at Davos tend to see globalization as a triumph, involving what the New York Times’ Tom Friedman has termed the "democratization" of technology, communications, and finance. The view from Porto Allegre is less sanguine. In addition to concern about the pervasive influence of creeping global "monoculture," the World Social Forum and similar networks argue compellingly that globalization too often means the impoverishment of local economies, ecological devastation, labor exploitation, and the widening of the dangerous gap between the rich North and the poor South.

Kamran Mofid, an articulate advocate of "globalization for the common good" and thoughtful critic of top-down globalization, expresses a widely-shared concern (in an address delivered at the third meeting of the international forum on Globalization for the Common Good, Dubai 2004):

The neo-liberal ideology has created a globalized world in which we are dehumanised and turned into producers and consumers devoid of any true human values. There has, for example, been a particularly marked decline in traditional religious values. This decline with the accompanying rise in materialism, the pervasive philosophical incoherence and the scramble to pursue happiness under false assumptions, have produced a generation of spiritual nihilists, forever substituting aesthetic or emotional pleasure for authentic human purpose. The absence of spirituality and love in the economics of globalization is profoundly injurious, as it has frozen our imaginations.

The term "neo-liberalism" refers to the rebirth in the 20th century of the free-market "liberalism" associated with economist Adam Smith and others in the early 19th century. Ironically, the economic appetites of northern neo-liberalism (long misnamed, many believe) are now ironically abetted by the unilateralist political will of the neo-conservative movement now ascendant on the American political scene. The result is that the northern program of globalization seems more and more characterized by destructive, anti-democratic capitalism. As such, globalization also seems far less likely than ever to realize the dreams of those who once fervently believed that it held the promise of assuaging planetary ills, even as it met the needs of the world’s people.

As we’ll see, however, there is another prism through which to view the dynamics of globalization.

The mindset we call "modernity" with all of its interrelated values, models, assumptions, and predispositions has long been dominant; but in our own time we have begun to discern evidence of the weakening of its essential dynamics and to recognize the growing strength of a countervailing set of values. Take the example of patriarchy. There's certainly no more characteristic feature of modernity than the cultural assumption of the native superiority of the male and the concomitant notion that men should dominate every aspect of public and private life. To be sure, patriarchal assumptions have shaped the human social order for most of recorded history. Today, however, patriarchy's long dominance has been so powerfully challenged that it is at least beginning to decline on every continent.

And that’s just the beginning. To the elements of the emerging set of values we can add: a new commitment to human rights, an unprecedented range of concern for (and new models of) social and economic justice, a profound awakening of the long dormant human sense of respect for the Earth, and a growing and vocal movement insisting that war has outlived its usefulness and legitimacy. Before we protest that the state of the world seems to reflect just the opposite, we must consider that we live not in the time of the ascendancy of newer values but in a time of value shift. The ideas, assumptions, and habits of thought that have nurtured patriarchy, harbored racism, tolerated injustice, presided over the rape of the planet, and refined the arts of war are being challenged as never before. Their influence is being significantly undermined, but many of their institutional and cultural infrastructures remain in place. However, a compelling array of countervailing values, understandings, hopes, and dreams is shaping a new cultural evolutionary moment.

There is no shortage of evidence that a transition may be underway. Consider the dramatic transformation of cultural attitudes and structures in the wake of the movement for the liberation of women or the hesitant but persistent "greening" of values that found expression at the Johannesburg Earth Summit in 2002 Earth Summit. The current global anti-war movement, to cite a more recent example, has given rise to protests and concern on a scale never before witnessed yet tempered by a range of thoughtful new analyses of violence and the human condition. The struggle for human rights, in the 55 years since Eleanor Roosevelt fought for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on the floor of the new United Nations, has brought issues of racism, sexism, and social/economic injustice to the fore in global politics. Moreover, the growth of interreligious and intercultural movements around the world has shaped a powerful counterpoint to regressive and reactionary religious fundamentalism. Taken as a whole, the address to issues of peace, justice, and ecological sustainability now forms the core of a new world activism confronting the dangers of "globalization from the top down".

The rising tide of the current cultural evolutionary value shift incorporates new understandings of the physical world, new social structures and interactions, new cultural and religious as well as intercultural and interreligious dynamics, and a revaluing of the inner dimension of human existence. The brief list that follows hints at the energy and hope of countless people who are committed to trusting forward toward a better future. To be sure, many of the events and trends listed below are in their early stages; some seem to be fighting long odds. But that’s the nature of a movement or a major value shift, and the following patterns are indicative of the rise of a new culture wave: an emerging global consensus. Some of its principal components are:

• An emerging global consensus with respect to the world problematique – the interdependent character of the most critical issues of our time – and a rapidly developing list of appropriate and convergent strategies to address these problems

• Dramatic evidence that the value-shift is not confined to northern developed cultures but is becoming planet-wide

• Positive demographic suggestions that the growth rate of the human population may be declining

• The birth of a worldwide movement of unprecedented scope opposing war as an instrument of state policy, coupled with the advance of non-violent approaches to conflict resolution

• The decline of patriarchy and the rise of new models of gender partnership

• Feminist contributions to the emerging culture: in the arts, politics, philosophy, religion, theology, spirituality, science, psychology, healing, and development

• New initiatives to combat the universal problem of intimate, coercive violence against women and children

• Growing recognition of and efforts to address the crisis of hopelessness afflicting over one-half of the children of the world

• A new global awareness of and focus on universal human rights

• The strengthening of global civil society, through the efforts of non-governmental organizations, inter-governmental organizations, and individuals working to address systemic crises of social and economic injustice

• A resurgence of environmental awareness, new models for and commitment to ecological sustainability, and unprecedented planetary activism in opposition to discredited but powerful anti-ecological values

• Efforts to develop and advance a comprehensive inter-species ethic

• Developing research and applications in ecologically sustainable agriculture, food production, building, housing, energy, and transportation

• A gradually emerging but already worldwide openness to interreligious encounter, dialogue, and engagement: the growth of inclusivist and pluralist thinking as a counter to exclusivist and fundamentalist intolerance

• The global interreligious movement, bringing religious communities together to address issues of peace, justice, and sustainability

• A variety of serious efforts to shape multiple "dialogues of civilization" as a real alternative to self-fulfilling prophecies of an impending clash

• The new interspirituality, active awareness of and engagement with the unique but convergent spiritual paths that have shaped the world’s great traditions

• Rising spiritual hunger, a revitalized spiritual search, and deepening of spiritual practice

• The rediscovery of the dimension of the sacred: understanding the ancient links between "wholeness" and "holiness," spirituality and service, humanness and divinity.

• The convergence of wisdom teachers, experts, dreamers, and activists from a multitude of disciplines in new efforts to produce truly integral approaches to learning, personal and social development, activism, service, spirituality, and the channeling of evolutionary energies.

These values form the nucleus of an emerging consensus that directly confronts the dangers of "globalization from the top down" – the creeping westernization and Americanization of the planet. The younger wave clearly represents a very different global order, a sort of "globalization from the bottom up". Around the world, there is a noticeable shift from ethno-centric to world-centric values. As the Kericho Declaration of the 2005 Conference on Globalization for the Common Good put it:

Events of the past several years make it clear that inter-civilizational dialogue is both a stark necessity and a path of great promise. Open dialogue, engagement, and cooperation between leaders, activists, educators, and others representing Muslim cultures and western cultures is essential for the future of the human community and the earth. Broadening and deepening the global consensus of world-centric values is the essential challenge facing such a dialogue project. Moreover, a global inter-civilizational dialogue can provide a rich source of cultural inspiration and energy for such a global convergence.

Through the centuries, Islamic religion, philosophy, spirituality, and culture have made profound contributions to western civilization. In turn the western world has touched the Islamic in equally significant ways. Today, the two great cultures – once separate – are becoming steadily more interconnected and engaged. In a world increasingly transformed and challenged by globalization, their interactions cover the spectrum from cooperation to confrontation. Today, Muslims play a significant role in virtually every "western" society; and Europeans and Americans live in and influence traditional Islamic societies. In a very real way, it is no longer possible to speak of a sharp distinction between Islam and the West. Nevertheless, the issue of relations between Muslim cultures and Western cultures is for many a central concern in the early 21^st century. President Muhammad Khatami’s call for dialogue among civilizations seems a vastly preferable and more productive approach to the all-too-familiar warnings about an impending clash of civilizations.

To be sure, civilizational dialogue must embrace all peoples and cultures. We believe, however, that as an initial effort, this approach to mutual encounter, exchange, and engagement between Muslim cultures and the cultures of the western world offers great promise as a model and a place of beginning.

The Dialogue of Civilizations project is designed to engage the global Muslim community and representatives of western cultures in deeper encounter and dialogue in order to promote greater understanding, mutual respect, and cooperative common action. The project is an ongoing undertaking, culminating in a Conference to be convened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the next few years. That Conference will be preceded by a series of Internet (and e-mail) Roundtables. These exchanges are designed to build a sense of community among participants and to begin to to refine the themes, format, working sections, agenda, and draft plan for the event.

The Malaysia gathering will involve a well-prepared dialogue engaging broadly representative leaders, scholars, and activists drawn from Muslim cultures and western cultures. In addition, a group of prominent leaders from the world’s religions will play a prominent role in the work of the gathering.

The Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21) will have the principal organizing role but will work closely with the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations (WCMIR), the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), and Supporting Organizations in designing and implementing the project. Jim Kenney, Executive Director of IEP21, will serve as Project Director. At this preliminary stage, we can identify the following key sectors that will be emphasized as the outreach process continues:

• Religion

• Government

• Civil Society (NGOs, etc.)

• Business and Labor

• Education

• Science

• Media

• Intergovernmental Organizations.

• A visible demonstration of the potential for meaningful and productive inter-cultural, inter-civilizational dialogue at a very high level;

• A global manifestation of the possibility of productive dialogue and engagement between Muslim cultures and Western cultures;

• A platform for the identification and exploration of major obstacles to harmonious relations between Muslim cultures and Western cultures;

• Western cultures hearing the authentic voices of Islam; Muslim cultures hearing the authentic voices of the West;

• Exploration of the deep mutuality and interconnectedness of Muslim and western cultures;

• Open mutual media access for each side;

• The design and implementation of new educational programs to develop greater inter-cultural understanding, including popular educational textbooks and multi-media programs;

• The launching of significant, public, cooperative efforts to build a better world, including joint programs in non-violent conflict resolution, economic and social justice, and ecological sustainability. Design, development, and implementation of a range of pragmatic projects will be a major focus of the Internet / e-mail Roundtables and of the Dialogue event itself.

In a sense, movements like Globalization for the Common Good and the Global Dialogue of Civilizations – by no means restricted to western cultures but growing on every continent – "globalization from the bottom up" – an emerging worldwide consensus of values sharing a central focus or pulse that can be discerned in each of the developments we’ve noted: the long, slow, and painful shift from a range of what might be termed "mono-centrisms’ (ego-, ethno-, religio-, gender-, etc.) to worldcentrism (concern for the whole). Each failing cultural dynamic of the older era – sexism, racism, intolerance, religious exclusivism, injustice, imperialism, eco-abuse—manifests the essential blindness of ethnocentrism, the conviction that one’s own group, gender, race, class, nation, religion, or species is somehow inherently superior to every other.

Make no mistake. The values of the declining order still possess tremendous influence and command significant institutional infrastructures; but their radical disconnect with changing human and planetary realities becomes more and more apparent every day. The belief that the other is "alien" and always deficient in some critical regard requires at the very least a deep ignorance of that other, an ignorance that becomes more difficult to maintain with every new interhuman network link or interculturally shared "aha" experience. And that’s the undeniable advantage of the worldcentric movement.

Perhaps the clearest mark of the steady progress of cultural evolution shows itself in the reaction we begin to feel in the presence of stark ethnocentrism. The unapologetic hater – the racist, sexist, homophobe, eco-predator, warhawk, or cultural despoiler – every day becomes more of an anomaly and an embarrassment to those who realize that they live in age of transition. In an age that learns more every day about other ways of life and about the wonderful complexities of interdependent existence, worldcentrism has just the right resonance for the interreligious commitment to dialogue, engagement, and globalization for the common good.

Those interested in participating in the "Global Dialogue of Civilizations: Muslim Cultures and Western Cultures in Quest of Justice and Peace" should contact:

Jim Kenney (jim@seachanges.net) or
Dr. Irfan Ahmad Khan (raoirfanahmad@yahoo.com).

Visit the Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21) at http://www.iep21.org.