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Posted by N on May 15, 2002, 11:01:11 MIA The conference on confidence building among the churches and religious communities in Macedonia by dialogue ended Tuesday in Skopje. The proposals on establishing Council of Inter-religious cooperation, holding periodic meetings and establishing contacts of the Macedonian Orthodox Church with the various religious communities in the country, and establishing cooperation among their educational institutions have emerged from the conference. Fifty representatives from the Macedonian Orthodox Church, Islamic Religious Community, Catholic Church, Evangelist-Methodist Church and the Jewish Community as well as forty representatives from different countries and religions attended the conference. The conference was initiated by the Macedonian President, Boris Trajkovski and is organized by US "Global Dialogue Institute" in cooperation with the Macedonian Center of International Cooperation. The meeting was financially supported by the US Institute of Peace, Open Society Institute - Macedonia and several US churches. Trajkovski congratulating to the conference organizers and all those who participated for their contribution in interfaith dialogue spoke of "how we deal with people of different religions and cultures." "First, there has been the typical expulsion and subjugation of people with different beliefs. In this case, we simply reject the beliefs of the other person as wrong, we accuse them as being heretics and we do not make any effort to understand how or why the other came to his or her beliefs. How many wars have been fought in the name of religion?" Trajkovski said, adding that "the misunderstandings originated when the personal interests were put ahead of the absolute truth." He emphasized that the only way for living together was to "remove all misunderstandings and to tolerate each others." Asked for his comment on the future of the different communities in Macedonia, he said that they were the "abundance of one country." In the respect he pointed out to "the favorable climate in the surroundings, the neighbors of Macedonia that develop themselves as independent states, also developing the democracy." Trajkovski thinks that the role of civil society in the interfaith understanding is very important and Southeast Europe should focus on reconciliation and equality building. He announced that similar meeting is foreseen in November, when the head of states and non-governmental organizations from the region would participate. Asked whether true relation of reconciliation could be built as we used to live in the past 50 years in a system in which the religion and the faith were opposed, Trajkovski said that the "state should guarantee the basic human and religious rights" and "in that respect it should not create a climate of restrictions." To a question whether he would undertake something about the "concern of the Muslim population in the country regarding their inequality," he said that "the Constitution guarantees the religious rights." "In the Article 19 from the Macedonian Constitution there is no difference between the Macedonian Orthodox Church and the other religious communities, on the other hand there should be an understanding of MOC's status as the historical circumstances and the fact that it was not recognized in those circumstances implied the Article 19. It does not mean that MOC was privileged in comparison to the other religious communities," Trajkovski believes. He explained that "Law is being developed at this moment on the freedom and rights of the religious communities, according to which all churches and religious communities would be given an opportunity to fulfill their functions equally. Asked about the Macedonia's experience with the democracy, Trajkovski said that "in the past decade Macedonia was known as democratic state." "The clash in the conflict was imposed, but with the Framework Agreement and the constitutional amendments referring to the health system, education, use of languages and the other issues, the conflict was absorbed." he emphasized. According to Trajkovski "there is no 'soft dictatorship' of the liberal democracy in Macedonia, but the countries with far more developed democracies can learn from it." The moderator of the meeting Paul Mojzes told the press conference that "the foreigners in Macedonia did not come to teach someone how to behave," as according to him "the idea on peace should arise in anyone as a result of the personal conviction." Jakub Selimovski from the Islamic Religious Community said that "the stimulation for organizing the conference did not come only from abroad, as all religious communities in Macedonia wished that, and the initiative for the meeting was coincidental with their views." The military conflict in Macedonia, according to Selimovski "was not a result of the inter-religious misunderstanding, and the religious communities did not deepen the conflict." According to Viktor Mizrahi, president of the Jewish Community in Macedonia, "the religious community in Macedonia had several meetings during the conflict focused on avoiding the military crisis." Mizrahi thinks "that there were no religious conflicts in Macedonia and there has always been co-existence." Monsignor Ante Cirimotic from the Catholic Church considers "that the peace is built only with true religiousness." Dragi Kostadinovski, the Archpriest Very Reverend, a MOC representative said that "the military conflict that emerged in Macedonia in 2001 was a religious clash and there were elements of religious hatred." "Surely, the members of the religious community imbued with hatred participated in the conflict. Churches were destroyed, mosques were desecrated, but however I do not think that the conflict was initiated by the religious communities as we are peace-keepers," Kostadinovski said, adding that "not a single crime should be justified in the name of religion." "In conflict times, the religious leaders must condemn the criminal acts as we must live together," Kostadinovski emphasized. "We want to establish free flow of people and ideas, without any manslaughter and arson and we should not try to take away the believers from each others. The faith should not be a reason for conflict, although some political structures use the religion for manipulating with the people," Kostadinovski said. "First we must build the spiritual prism, and then the social one," Kostadinovski emphasized.
CONFERENCE ON CONFIDENCE BUILDING AMONG CHURCHES AND RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES.
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