Using education and conflict transformation tools within a process to facilitate dialogue among diverse religious community leaders, elders, youth and women to eradicate extremism.

Wijerama shops set ablaze is an incident that clearly shows us how the climate in Sri Lanka is prone to religious and ethnic tensions today. Although, the general public often feels safe to beileve that war is over and peace is sustained, a series of these events outs all of us into a fragile state of peace. 

Through this article, we aim to inquire from a conflict transformation view point, how religious perspectives maybe useful when engaging with conflict to bring about a positive outcome, and generate awareness of better and non-violent ways of how to deal with diversity. Diversity in the realms of culture, religion, language, ideology and ways of thinking in a context where conflict is an inescapable factor in human progress. Promotion and awareness of conflict transformation tools, it is envisioned, will pave way to society’s appreciation of the idea of diversity-and-interdependence as an asset instead of an encumbrance. Such a transformation is needed to propel conflicted communities to the forefront of the progressive nations in the world.

Moreover, to combat religious prejudice between people of different faiths, we should convene interfaith conferences and collaborative events, and train clergy along with women and youth together from all faiths in the skills of peacebuilding to bring their unheard voices to the mainstream and enhance power-within to freely express themselves through a step- by step process.

1. The initial step is to work separately with one religious group out of a variety. During this stage we facilitate dialogue within each group and help build group capacity and strengthen their knowledge of the faith they embrace.

a. looking at the definitions and symbols of conflict transformation within one's own religious doctrines and learn about one’s own identity and improve understanding of religious symbols, traditions, customs and rituals so forth in one's religion and how it's contributing to the human web in a society.

b. The selection of delegates is purely on merit based after a rigorous selection process, that includes referral checks, personal interviews etc.

c. (Sharing examples and success stories of grassroots)

d. Getting to know religious leaders irrespective of gender at a personal level

e. Gather as a small group of leaders from one religion and share social, political and scholarly knowledge through training on conflict transformation

f. Through an interfaith dialogue of each religious group broaden the understanding of the diversity even within a single (intrafaith) religious group and learning how to come into terms with that. Through that acceptance an individual comes to identify that there is a gap between what is taught in religious texts and what is practiced in the real world. Then they discover that the change should be within themselves is the best path to reduce the gap between religious teaching and the practice.

g. Incorporate the religious knowledge with that of the newly gained knowledge on conflict transformation and identify how each person could contribute to transforming selected social, political or economic conflict in one’s own community

h. To engage in community building activities as a team to strengthen the bonds they’ve created

3: The second step is to work jointly with the different religious groups and thereby help build relationships and trust among all. This will be achieved through the activities to understand one another and each other’s group.

a. They come to realize in detail the teachings of each faith. The step improves communication and cross cultural cooperation as controversial issues are discussed leaving no room for negativity and confusion further. 

b. As John Paul Lederach suggests that Peacebuilding requires a vision of relationship (Lederach,35) As a part of field learning experience, each religious group visits the region and communities the other group was from and understand the other’s context. The exposure also fully opened one’s eyes to the life style and daily realities of one another. This activity develops sensitivity towards another culture and communal living by being knowledgeable about the overall context of the community where the other religious groups live and experience it in reality.

c. Carry out activities to build friendship, trust, and hold interfaith dialogue.

4. The third step is to lay the ground work for conducting Inter-Faith Dialogue

a. Holds interfaith dialogues pertaining to religious, social, cultural and contextual issues

b. Develop skills and knowledge on non- violent communication, community organizing, community mobilizing and the languages of the other

c. Make people feel confident to discuss issues that concern their lives and use it as a safe space in case of emergency and come together during adversity (

d. Identify socio, economic, health, education and social issues faced by the community as a whole and collaborate as an interfaith group to change some selected issues.

5. The fourth step is to hold Inter-Faith Dialogue and to commence peace building activities at the grassroots level.

- Stage for engaging with the outside world, namely our communities and our society.

-hold dialogue about different religious events and jointly celebrate them as an interfaith group. In Sri Lanka,

- Learning the life story and strategies followed by two exemplary religious leaders whose story is a great source of motivation and inspiration for us- Pastor James and Imam Mohamed Ishaf from Nigeria and their selfless commitment to build peace in Nigeria is monumental. Their contribution to the field of inter-faith dialogue through their experience and knowledge is so paramount.

- Now that the religious leaders have gone through the process, they now collaborate with the elder community, women and youth communities and organize intra-faith dialogue to learn the gap between religious teaching and practice.

- In separate groups of women, youth, elders, they identify issues and solutions to tackle some burning social problems in the community and share their recommendations for those for their own community, policy makers at the national level as well those for other community groups and at the regional levels.

In conclusion, using education as a platform to promote conflict transformation and its useful tools to support communities affected by the conflict in the form of promoting inter-faith coexistence, and supporting reconciliation processes regionally and nationally.

The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace, By John Paul Lederach