Faith in Action

Katherine Marshall
Katherine Marshall is senior fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and Director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue. Her blog, Faith in Action, tracks the activities of people of faith across the globe and across religious traditions. It maps their engagement around critical issues, from global health to the environment -- from AIDS to zebras. It explores the struggles, alliances, and common efforts of people of faith, public and private, local and global. And it highlights how important it is for Americans to look beyond their borders and to appreciate the struggles of the "bottom billion" people in today's globalized world. Her long career with the World Bank (1971-2006) involved a wide range of leadership assignments on issues of international development, with a focus on issues facing the world's poorest countries. From 2000-2006 she served as a counselor to the World Bank's President on ethics, values, and faith in development work. She is the author of several books including "Development and Faith: Where Mind, Heart and Soul work Together." Close.

Faith in Action

Katherine Marshall
Katherine Marshall is a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs and Visiting Professor. Her blog, Faith in Action, tracks the activities of people of faith across the globe and across religious traditions. Full bio »
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Clash of Civilizations?
As the new year dawns, India is massing troops near its border with Pakistan after the Mumbai tragedy, and Israel is wreaking havoc in Gaza to stop the rocket attacks from its hostile neighbor. Just days ago, the political scientist Sam Huntington died, bringing his controversial theory of "the clash of civilizations" back into the public consciousness.
I explored the Indian conflict recently with one of India's religious rebels and activists: Swami Agnivesh. His orange-swathed figure is well known in global interfaith circles and indeed he was en route from Guyana where he participated in a UN meeting on HIV/AIDS. We are collaborators on many issues of common concern - bonded labor, the "disappearance" of female children in India and elsewhere, and social justice.
We went together to visit our common friend Akbar Ahmed and his family. Ahmed is the former Pakistani High Commissioner to the Court of St. James, now at American University. The two friends and Akbar's family were looking for answers in territory where nothing is clear and simple.
The good news, we all agreed, is that the Mumbai attacks inspired wide revulsion, going well beyond intellectuals and activists. Indian Muslims demonstrated against terrorism and an interfaith mobilization to contest terrorism is taking form especially in India. In Pakistan, the group had heard, many leaders are embarrassed by the shadowy links of official bodies to the terrorists of Mumbai.
But there is plenty to be gloomy about. Even at our sub-continental tea, some viewed terrorists as evil people akin to savage beasts, but others cautioned that there are reasons for their anger, and that unless those reasons are addressed the fringe elements will always be ready to rise up. Sam Huntington's theory--that tension between cultures and religions will define the conflicts of the future--hovered in the atmosphere.
So it comes back to the classic dilemmas of our times: the tight interconnectedness of today's world coupled with its diverse beliefs. The change that disorients, spelling hope for some and despair for others.
Swami Agnivesh gave up a prosperous life as a professor from an elite family to fight for social justice. I remember a meeting on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq when, among prominent ex heads of state and religious leaders, he suggested that we all go to Iraq as a human shield, in the name of social justice and perhaps to halt what seemed the inevitable coming clash. Everyone, myself included, blanched, and the idea did not go forward. But he like others is wrestling with the Huntington theory - is a clash of civilizations that pits religions against one another inevitable? Or can a more just world forestall those conflicts?
As we look to 2009, that's a question that really demands our hearts, minds, and souls.
Posted by Katherine Marshall on December 31, 2008 11:04 AM