Azza Karam Quotes

Let us learn from one another. Let us learn to be humble servants to one another. Let us learn to stand in defense of our humanity, let us learn to stand in defense of our dignity, humanity, not only one community, not only one race, or not only one ethnicity.

Equally unwise is ignoring the reality of the religious presence, belief, and service in most communities, or seeking to use religion to serve a political purpose, no matter how noble it may seem.

...some of the reappraisal of the religious social-service sector is sensible and timely — after all, hands-on innovative partnerships are required for us to target some very basic humanitarian and social needs. But I also see a huge challenge in having some religious actors and some religious institutions becoming too closely aligned, some even vested, with political spaces and actors. History has taught us that when political and religious institutions collude, human welfare often suffers, and tragically so.

We need to appreciate that just as the Divine created us as different and diverse so that we may know one another, we also need to honour the purpose of that creation by appreciating that no one religion trumps all or can be all things for all people. Instead, all religions need to work together so that we may know one another, or in other words, know peace.

COVID-19 hurts our lungs. It attacks our lungs and makes it very difficult to breathe, and many have died, unable to breathe. This is one of the sufferings what our planet is suffering. As we cut the trees, as we undertake different nuclear experience, as we fight one another, we hurt the planet. And when we hurt the planet, we will have nowhere to go. That won’t be beautiful, and as one addresses as the planet, we live on.

Once I take up my position in the RfP, I will have to leave the UN and will therefore no longer be able to serve inside the UN system. However, since the RfP has traditionally partnered with the UN for most of its existence, I look forward to continuing and deepening partnerships with diverse UN system organisations on the shared goals of peace-making, education, environmental stewardship and freedom of religion, belief and conscience.

Exploring this field of human rights was far from easy, and my interest in the links to religion was even more difficult. The religious groups were, putting it mildly, not the most accepted by the governments. A lot of my work involved coming sitting through many discussions in meetings of men, and of men and women, and of women. I listened to many debates and discussions, and many tried to get me to see their point of view.

Sexuality is something that is deeply, deeply problematic. It’s the innermost sanctum of relations between human beings, and religions have traditionally been the guardians of that sanctum. So opening that space for debate is often almost as if we are opening the space to debate the religions themselves, and the authority and the legitimacy of the voice of truths of those religions, which is deeply problematic for almost all religious leaders and, again, especially those within an institutionalized framework that they need to uphold and to protect. In more loosely-formed religious groups or faith communities, it is often less problematic to debate gender-based violence or gender in general, relating to issues of sexuality

For religions to be about peace requires many things: we need to appreciate that religious consciousness, spirituality, or belief is a force for good in most people’s lives, and we need to appreciate that religious institutions suffer from some of the same ills as all other institutions populated by humans, but that this is no cause to dismiss all the institutions.

The experience taught me that I did not want to end up just yet as a professor. I needed to continue active engagement. I was restless, even a bit impatient, constantly saying that with so many different aspects of me, by doing only one thing I felt I was missing out on the rest of me.

In the reasoning of Amartya Sen, the Indian economist who was awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to welfare economics and social choice theory, the process of development is best understood as an expansion of the freedoms people enjoy in five spheres: political, economic, social, and transparency and personal security. These are precisely the spheres of development that require transformation.

We are living in a global context where freedoms, all freedoms, but especially the freedom of thought, religion and belief, are seriously under attack. If religious leaders are not part and parcel of protecting these freedoms for all people of all faiths all over the world, then who is or will be?

All too rarely do these two cooperate at national or global level. I see great value in strengthening the ability of religious organisations to be a better partner of secular civil society organisations. But I also see the great value religious actors can bring. If we can build bridges between these two, we will have a much stronger civil society in the future

After about two years in this fascinating and dynamic environment, I realized that I did not want to be teaching only. I missed the actual work—working 24 hours a day on cases and situations and peoples’ lives. I suddenly found myself in a very academic context, torn between a university which was very English-dominated, in a country which was struggling to find its own voice—Northern Ireland.

...I did not feel as if I was estranged from the region in any way, shape or form. But I was aware that my parents, and especially my father, were disappointed that I was not serving the region more directly. He wanted me to be closer to the family and to try to do something more directly in the region.