Monique Wonner

Personal impressions about IHEU-UNESCO work

My feeling about our representation at UNESCO is one of cautious hesitation between optimism, discouragement and the realisation of the importance of not giving up!

It is beyond doubt that UNESCO is the UN body with which IHEU has a most natural affinity; during the General Conference itself, the general flow of proceedings is heart warming, but one often finds out how some facts that seem elementary and basic to us may not necessarily be so evident to others. One is also astonished at the degree to which all this causes matters to drift...

Religions are not major powers in themselves here, but playing on the theme of cultural heritage, at times finding an in-road through the culture of peace, representatives of religious groups reduce surreptitiously the notion of tolerance to that of an inter-religious dialogue. Also, ecumenism often substitutes the universal. This unfortunately has also found a favourable echo in UNESCO itself. Note for example, the unfortunate comment during a Commission's meeting by a UNESCO official from the Department of Education who was underlining the importance of inter-religious dialogue:

Of course, this comment must be put in context (at the end of Rob Tielman's speech, the President of the session applauded the founding fathers), but more than ever, it signals ever more vigilance and presence from our side...

Religious Killers

'The Army of god' is the latest extremist religious group highlighted in the US. The shadowy clique took credit for two 1997 Atlanta bombings -- at an abortion clinic and a gay nightclub -- and is suspected of planting the nail-studded bomb that killed a woman and hurt 100 at last year's Olympics.

What is the Army of god? Nobody is sure, but the name has been used for 15 years. Among their activities are the following: O mobbing a women's clinic in Illinois in the 1980s plus kidnapping the clinic operator in 1984 the firebombing of a women's clinic, the initials 'AoG' being scrawled on a wall the shooting of a clinic doctor in Kansas, by someone who claimed she was 'doing god's will' in 1997 two more nail-studded bombs in Atlanta -- at a women's clinic and a gay nightclub. A letter to Reuters said the bombs were placed by 'units of the Army of god'

Sadly, the Army of god story underscores an ugly fact of life: that the most dangerous people are often the most religious. (Secular Humanist Bulletin, Vol 13, No 3, Fall 1997).