2nd Discourse - Religion, Conflict and Poverty

Next Discussion will be held on: Monday the 26th, 18:30 in the IWK - Institut für Wissenschaft und Kunst, Berggasse 17/1, 1090 Vienna

What is it all about?
Bringing together students and others who are interested in Peace- and Conflict Studies and/or the Middle East. Furthermore I hope to build up an ongoing discourse outside university within a specialized field of interest.

The topic:
Religion, Conflict and Poverty is of course a very wide field. What I would like to talk about is first: How religion can help to solve conflicts and how it can be abused for violenct means. Second: Is it more likely for religious fundamentalism to develop militant forms when people are poor and deprived of basic necessities, or is there no evident relation?

Poverty is in this sense understood as the deprivation of basic human necessities including aspects like access to education and rights and human security.

Summary - 1st Discussion

We indeed had an interesting Discussion on the 3rd of april.

Thanks to all participants for joining and their contribution to the conversation, which was very relaxed and likewise informative.

Summarizing I would say, that we were able to highlight some very basic problems of the Palestinian Situation as concerns Politics, Ressources and humanitarian needs. It was evident, that the ignorance of Hamas electoral legitimacy didn't contribute to anything good, neither does the continous extension of Israeli settlements.
Palestine is a case for itself, cannot be compared to any other political entities and cannot be judged without a reflection of this very fact.
"Feed them and they will give you their vote" and "there is no five star colonialisation"! are The comments of the evening ;-)

So see you next time, Regards - Andreas

First Meeting: 3rd of April

Topic and Ideas for the first meeting on the 3rd of April

Since it is the first meeting, we will of course take it easy and slow. We might collect some ideas and start to talk a bit about the Topic:

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Here you can find some information on the Conflict history and today developments:

Country Profile: http://www.irinnews.org/country.aspx?CountryCode=OPT&RegionCode=ME

Conflict History: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?action=conflict_search&l=1&t=1&c_country=52

„Crisis Group“ Reports zum Konflikt:
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=1271&l=1

What importance has history for the conflict?
What are the prospects for peace?
What efforts have been made to reach peace?
What countries and parties are active players in the conflict?
etc...?

So see you on Thursday, the 3rd of April, at 18:00 in the Café Stein, Währinger Str. 6-8.
There is a quiet room on the left side when you enter the place, there we are.

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