THE SASAKAWA PEACE FOUNDATION

Voices from West Asia: Promoting Dialogue and Mutual Effort within and from the Region

12,000,000 yen [Grant Project]
Royal Scientific Society (Jordan)

Dichotomies, such as those between Christian society and Islamic society, and Palestine and Israel, have been becoming prominent while an international consensus against terrorism is yet to be obtained. Learned individuals in the Middle East and Islamic world are concerned that in world opinion, the Middle East and Islamic world are breeding grounds for terrorists. In the first year of the project, learned individuals, representatives and leaders from NGOs and social activist groups in South West Asia, including India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, joined an intellectual forum created through the initiatives of Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan, and discussed the importance and means of collecting and disseminating the voices of civil societies in West Asia.

This year, the project plans the following activities.

1. The First Round Table Meeting in West Asia (Amman in July, 2006)
About 30 participants, including Government leaders, intellectuals, and people from NGOs in the Middle East and Islamic society, will discuss problems common to Islamic society such as the low rate of social participation and tendency for political violence in the name of Islamic extremism.
2. The Second West Asia Round Table Meeting and the Islamic NGOs Meeting (March, 2007)
Based on the results of the First West Asia Round Table Meeting, intellectuals from outside West Asia will be invited to discuss the promotion of democracy in West Asia and to develop a platform for civil activist groups.
3. Preparation for “Voices from West Asia” (March, 2007)
The contents of the above round table meetings will be published in both English and Arabic.

(Final year of a 2-year project)