An Open Letter to Politicians Regarding the Alliance of Civilizations Initiative

Early in my research I couldn’t help but notice New Zealand’s heavy participation in the Alliance of Civilizations initiative. New Zealand is strategically important to the Alliance of Civilizations in that it is considered to be the bridge between Asia and the West. New Zealand planned the advancement of the Alliance of Civilizations throughout the Asia-Pacific during its 2007 Auckland Symposium. What a thrill it must have been for Javier Solana as he witnessed first hand the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (AESAN) officially incorporate his Alliance of Civilizations social cohesion policy into its framework during the 40th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting.




One morning early this year as I started my routine of coffee and checking e-mail, I noticed a letter from one of my New Zealand readers. This gentleman asked for my opinion on a letter he had received from his country’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters. Mr. Peters’ letter addressed an inquiry questioning why New Zealand had financially supported an initiative such as the Alliance of Civilizations which sought to syncretize religion. As I read Mr. Peters’ letter I was troubled by his assurances that Christians need not worry as we have representation by respected “Christian” theologians and historians on the High Level Group. I thought to myself you are going to have to do better than that. Giving Mr. Peters the benefit of the doubt, I proceeded to provide my reader with educational materials he might pass along to Mr. Peters if he were so inclined. To date, Mr. Peters has not responded. I’ve been told not to expect a response from Mr. Peters anytime soon as he is preoccupied with a financial scandal for failure to disclose a $100,000 gift.

What follows is Winston Peters’ letter regarding the Alliance of Civilizations. Click on the files to expand them. Following that is the letter that was sent to Mr. Peters. This letter is not only for Mr. Peters, but to all politicians who may be mislead and involved with the Alliance of Civilizations initiative. To those, I urge you to examine the evidence and reconsider your positions.




Follow up letter to Mr. Peters or whomever this may apply:

Dear Rt Hon Winston Peters:

Thank you for your response to my inquiry regarding the Alliance of Civilisations (AoC) initiative. I believe you have correctly stated that New Zealanders are concerned with countering violence and terrorism as well as avoiding Samuel Huntington’s theorised “clash of civilisations”. However, I believe that once New Zealanders become aware of some of the underlying aspects of the AoC initiative that they will call for a different solution to the problem. The purpose of this letter is to alert you to some of those aspects which you may not be aware.

A paper prepared for the August 2007 Clash or Cooperation of Civilizations Workshop questioned why Spain choose to introduce the Alliance of Civilisations initiative to the United Nations rather than the European Union?1 It concluded that the European Union already has an alliance of civilisations in the form of the Barcelona Process and that implementation of the initiative at the international level would globalise Spain’s social cohesion policies. The social cohesion dimension of the Barcelona Process was first developed and introduced by Javier Solana in 1995 while he served as Spain’s rotational president on the European Council. The social dimension has the objective to create a common civilisation through cultural integration and the combating of religious fundamentalism worldwide2. Approaching its10-year anniversary in November 2005, the Barcelona Process appeared to be a European embarrassment and destined for failure.3 Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had warned a month earlier that the EU could not become a global power without the Alliance of Civilisations.4 During the Barcelona +10 Conference, Javier Solana took measures to strengthen the Process by partnering the Anna Lindh Foundation with the AoC5. The Process of social cohesion was solidified as a result of the cartoon crisis in which Javier Solana, Zapatero, Erdogan, and the AoC High Level Group (HLG) were able to act quickly and turn crisis into opportunity.6

Solana’s social cohesion policy objective to combat religious fundamentalism is one that deserves scrutinisation and definition. A thorough examination of AoC’s writings begins to show we are presently at a dangerous intersection of state regulation vs. religious freedom. The AoC has said that rather than ban religion, it should bring it under the control of a centralised governing authority.7 The Final Report of the High Level Group calls for registration of all religious schools8 as well as a requirement that they teach “sound” interpretation of their texts9. The Alliance of Civilisations has said that it has conducted an exercise in truth and intends to provide that truth to all individuals. Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero has said that religion is the “tobacco of the people”.10 His government’s contribution to the initiative directs the Alliance to counter “those who feed on exclusion and claim sole ownership of the truth”.11 This direction ought to make one pause especially since the HLG has been placed in the position of formulating the global conscience for the United Nations’ Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy12. HLG member John Esposito has said that any person who believes their religion to be true and another’s to be false has adopted the “theology of hate” which Esposito continues on and associates them with terrorism.13 It escapes Esposito’s attention that every religion makes an “exclusive” truth claim, including the theology currently being advanced by High Level Group.

I would like to briefly discuss Karen Armstrong as you indicated she provides Christian representation on the HLG. Karen Armstrong, a former Catholic nun, after leaving the church identified herself as an atheist. Following a television career in which she says she attempted to destroy religion, she had what she describes as a mystical experience. This is reflected in her approach to religion. Armstrong is openly sympathetic to and espouses Share International’s14 “Maitreya the Christ is now here” doctrines15 which are anti-Semitic, anti-fundamentalist, and anti-Catholic. In a recent Share International interview, Armstrong launches various attacks against Christianity and, in particular, the core theological foundation of Christian belief, i.e., Christ’s divinity.16 Having been a former nun, surely she must realise this would be considered heresy by Vatican’s standards.”17 It is these types of inflammatory remarks that the AoC claims to avoid. It appears this may be a doctrine derived from the AoC’s exercise in truth and may foreshadow what we might expect of “sound religious interpretation” to be provided to Christians. Armstrong further accuses Christians of anti-Semitism for opposing mandatory “baptism” which Share International refers to as mandatory “initiation.”18 She also incorrectly accuses Christians of opposing democracy. Perhaps she has confused Christians’ opposition to democracy with that of Giandomenico Picco’s AoC-advanced “safe democracy” which calls for the exclusion of the people and national parliaments from the political process.19

Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s has advanced the same theological arguments. Along with his attacks on Christian and Muslim theology, he has aligned himself with extremist organizations. An example may be found in Desmond Tutu’s service on the World Commission on Global Consciousness & Spirituality20 which seats individuals such as Barbara Marx Hubbard who openly calls for planetary genocide to be conducted through what she identifies as a “selection process”.21 By Hubbard’s account, one is given the opportunity to undergo planetary “initiation” or face personal extinction. Hubbard says that ‘we come to bring death…we do this for the sake of the planet…the riders of the pale horse are about to pass among you…they will separate the wheat from the chaff…this is the most painful hour in earth’s history.”22 Clearly Hubbard’s writings epitomise extremism and violent radicalisation. Should not Archbishop Tutu denounce such extremist theology rather than align himself with it?

Finally, the AoC, the Helsinki Process and Religions for Peace have jointly introduced the doctrine of “Shared Security”23 which incorporates the doctrines of Canadian-architected Responsibility to Protect and the European Union’s Human Security. On the surface these doctrines appear benign, but an in-depth examination shows a security model in which the military polices the civilian population. A summary of this model may be found in Javier Solana’s Human Security Doctrine for Europe where he calls for “the human security response force should be multinational with national military building blocks not below battalion level.” 24

In conclusion, the AoC’s formation to counter “cross-cultural polarisation” involves a militarised interlocking network comprising mainly of NATO, the EU, and UN “peacekeeping” forces. As Australian Dr. Mike Ellis has correctly observed regarding the AoC’s mission to address cross-cultural polarisation, “Is this not indeed, a euphemism, for the involvement of the military using "dual-use" technology in law enforcement affairs in secular society?” 25 These are but a few criticisms of the Alliance of Civilisations initiative. As Jean Monnet Chair of European Integration Angelo Santagostino has concluded “the UN has been often under attack as a useless institution. This time it has shown itself to be not so much useless but actually dangerous.”26


1. Koussay Boulaich, “The Alliance of Civilisations: a global project or a key aspect for the European Foreign Policy?”, College of Europe, http://www.ccis.aau.dk/GetAsset.action?contentId=2158460&assetId=2361376

2. Magda El-Ghitany, “Partnership in Question”, Yale Global Online, http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=6589

3. Álvaro de Vasconcelos, Director IEEI Lisbon, “Summit Drama – and Beyond”, EuroMeSCo e.NEWS, http://www.euromesco.net/images/enews_2_en.pdf, December 2005

4. “Turkey Rejects Latest EU Proposals”, China Radio International, http://english.cri.cn/2239/2005-10-3/51@275026.htm

5. “The Euro-Mediterranean Summit in Barcelona and the Anna Lindh Foundation”, EuroMed, http://www.assemblee-nat.com/europe/euromed/anglais/doc1.pdf

6. Bertrand De Crombrugghe, “The cartoon issue: Turning crisis into opportunity”, OSCE Magazine, April 2006 http://www.osce.org/publications/sg/2006/03/18565_569_en.pdf

7. Gaspar Martinez, “Report of the Hearings with the International Community & Civil Society regarding the United Nations High Level Group for the Alliance of Civilisations”, United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, http://www.unaoc.org/repository/hearings_report.pdf, 17 July 2006, pg. 29

8. “Report of the High Level Group, VII. Recommendations, Section 3”, United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, http://www.unaoc.org/repository/HLG_Report.pdf, 13 November 2006, pg. 34

9. “Report of the High Level Group, Section 4.15”, United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, http://www.unaoc.org/repository/HLG_Report.pdf, 13 November 2006, pg. 14

10. Angelo Santagostino, “Alliance of Civilisations and Solidarity Between Civilisations: A Lost Occasion for Europe”, Global Jean Monnet Conference ECSA-World Conference, http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/jm/more/confglobal06/contribution_santagostino.pdf, 23/24 November 2006, pgs 4-5

11. MINISTERIO DE ASUNTOS EXTERIORES Y DE COOPERACIÓN, “Alliance of Civilizations”, United Nations Alliance of Civilisations, http://www.unaoc.org/repository/statement_foreign_ministry_english.pdf, November 2005, pg. 10

12. Eric Rosand, “Symposium on ‘Advancing the Implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy’”, Center on Global Counter-Terrorism Cooperation, http://www.globalct.org/images/content/pdf/Remarks/er_vienna_symposium.pdf, pg. 2

13. “The Doha Debates Special: Extremism”, “The Doha Debates”, http://www.thedohadebates.com/output/Page59.asp, 18/19 March 2006

14. http://www.share-international.org/

15. Constance E. Cumbey, “Karen Armstrong and the Alliance of Civilizations”, News With Views, http://www.newswithviews.com/Cumbey/constance15.htm, 12 October 2007

16. Andrea Bistrich, “Discovering the common ground of world religions”, Share International, http://www.unaoc.org/repository/armstrong_interview.pdf, Vol. 6, No. 7 September 2007

17. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Chapter Two, I Believe In Jesus Christ, The Only Son of God, Vatican, http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1D.HTM

18. Constance E. Cumbey, “Karen Armstrong and the Alliance of Civilizations”, News With Views, http://www.newswithviews.com/Cumbey/constance15.htm, 12 October 2007

19. Giandomenico Picco, “Who is Knocking at the Door of Democracy”, Club of Madrid, http://pineline.blogspot.com/2007/12/dictator-at-door.html, March 2005

20. http://globalspirit.org/pages/wc_members.php

21. Barbara Marx Hubbard, “Chapter 3, The Selection Process”, Happy Birth Day Planet Earth – The Instant of Co-Operation, 1986 Ocean Tree Books, pg. 22-29

22. Barbara Marx Hubbard, The Book of Co-Creation: An Evolutionary Interpretation of the New Testament: Part III, The Revelation: Alternative To Armageddon, a three part self-published manuscript, 1980, Distributed/sold by Barbara Marx Hubbard

23.

http://wcrp.org/news/sg-update/april07

24. Presentation to Javier Solana, “A Human Security Doctrine for Europe – The Barcelona Report of the Study Group on Europe’s Security Capabilities”, http://www.centrodirittiumani.unipd.it/a_laurea/esami/ppsuenu/HSDoctrineEurope.pdf, 15 September 2004, pg. 23

25. Dr. Mike Ellis, “Commentary - Time To Act”, New Paradigm Journal Vol. 2, Issue 2,

http://www.newparadigmjournal.com/Oct2007/timetoact.htm, October 2007

26. Angelo Santagostino, “Alliance of Civilisations and Solidarity Between Civilisations: A Lost Occasion for Europe”, Global Jean Monnet Conference ECSA-World Conference, http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/jm/more/confglobal06/contribution_santagostino.pdf, 23/24 November 2006, pg. 13

Pillars of the "Alliance of Civilization" The Earth Charter

I had intended to copy into my blogspot for some time now an excellent piece from Constance Cumbey's pen. Pillars of the "Alliance of Civilization" The Earth Charter is one of the best articles I've read on the topic and one I find useful as a reference. I post it here for those researching the Alliance of Civilizations.

By: Constance Cumbey
January 10, 2007
NewsWithViews.com

A primary source for what was to become known as the Alliance of Civilizations, was the “Earth Charter Initiative.” Some chroniclers trace it back only as far as the 1987 Brundtland Commission. The Earth Charter Declaration contains language startlingly reminiscent of its salvation-based religion baiting precedents, Humanist Manifesto and the Humanist Manifesto II. One prominent Earth Charter proponent, Maurice Strong, was quoted saying that the Earth Charter would become as important as the Ten Commandments. Conflicting histories have been given and it appears that it was in progress, per Maurice Strong, much earlier than the 1987 Brundtland Commission.

• "The whole question of an Earth Charter was in fact on the UN Agenda at Rio. We didn't quite make it. We did make some progress. At the Stockholm Conference, which was the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972, governments agreed to a historic declaration, which moved the world community towards what we now call an Earth Charter. Then, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, as the Secretary General of that conference, I challenged governments to produce an Earth Charter.[1]

This obvious phase of implementation of what former UN Assistant Secretary General Robert Muller and Maurice Strong alike would acknowledge was “The Plan” was being developed on Muller’s Costa Rican turf in 1995.[2] For me 1995 was an interesting year. It was then I discovered the existence of another interesting “eminent personality,” in the form of one Dr. Javier Solana. He also has had enormous input in the “Alliance of Civilizations.”

If the declared agenda of the Alliance of Civilizations of regulating religious schools and their curriculums seem potentially draconian, its incorporated “Earth Charter” is even stranger. It had a Vermont eerie coming out party, complete with drums and masks, preceding on September 9, 2001. This happened at Shelburne Farms, Vermont. “Eminent personalities” who were part of that party included Dr. Steven Rockefeller, Jane Goodall. New Age musician Paul Winter and “peace walker” Satish Kumar.

Clearly, their Moloch was not appeased. Only two tragic days later the Eastern USA skies were aflame. The Twin Towers burned, the Pentagon burned, and an assaulted plane crashed and burned over Pennsylvania. The ritual masks and pagan drumbeat to usher their version of a 21st Century “Ark of the Covenant” clearly had not inoculated the world against war.

Another source of both Alliance of Civilizations and The Earth Charter inputs include Mikhail Gorbachev’s Green Cross. Author Wayne Peterson, a former United States State Department official and Fulbright Scholar executive wittingly or unwittingly reveals much of the possible agenda. He claims to personally knows Mikhail Gorbachev to be open devotee of “Maitreya, the Christ.”

This may be entirely possible. The Earth Charter website says it was “restarted” by Strong and Gorbachev “with the assistance of the government of the Netherlands.” Many New Age guides to Europe in my personal library say Holland is the New Age capital of Europe. Apart from the obvious Findhorn Community (Scotland) claims, this may well be true. As early as 1903 a major Theosophical world congress was held in Amsterdam. During the 1920’s Theosophists were vigorously working to smooth the way for world acceptance of a “Day of Declaration.” Jiddhu Krishnamurti was anointed by Annie Besant, then Theosophical Society leader to be the “new Christ” and lead the world into a “New Order.” Dutch Queen Wilhelmina was an open devotee of Krishnamurti and eagerly awaited that “Day of Declaration,” offering Dutch national radio to broadcast the awaited Maitreyan acceptance speech. World theosophists flocked to the Theosophists Holland Camp Ommen. There they camped and shared vegetarian picnics out while taking part in convocations with “sacred fires.”

At Eerde, Holland, Krishnamurti had a lavish castle formerly belonging to a member of Dutch nobility. There he spent pre-Day of Declaration days with his Annie Besant and other followers. Several years later, in World War II, the Nazi warriors used Camp Ommen as a concentration camp. After Krishnamurti failed to deliver the acceptance speech, or so the official version goes, Annie Besant supposedly dissolved the “Order of the Star” connected with the “Christ’s reappearance.” Reportedly, she returned moneys to donors. I say supposedly, because despite these historical representations, I have amassed a collection of Order of the Star publications going through the mid 1930s and it appears that meetings were going on in Holland as well. Perhaps it was God who was not ready rather than Krishnamurti who expressed regrets from time to time in later life that he had not fully fulfilled his role as “the vehicle for the Christ.”

This is the Earth Charter Initiative’s own version of the time and events:

• The World Commission on Environment and Development (aka "the Brundtland Commission") called for “a universal declaration” and “new charter” to set “new norms” to guide the transition to sustainable development. (Our Common Future, 1987)
• A draft UN Earth Charter was developed for the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, but the time for such a declaration was not right. The Rio Declaration became the statement of the achievable consensus at that time.
• In 1994, Maurice Strong (Chairman of the Rio Summit) and Mikhail Gorbachev, working through organizations they each founded (Earth Council and Green Cross International respectively), restarted the Earth Charter as a civil society initiative, with the help of the Government of the Netherlands. The initial drafting and consultation process drew on hundreds of international documents.
• Messrs. Strong and Gorbachev convened an independent Earth Charter Commission in 1997 to oversee the final development of the text and to come to agreement on a global consensus document.[3]
  

Bottom line: As one primary pillar of the now shaping Alliance of Civilizations, we have an Soviet atheist turned New Ager combining with an equally fervent Canadian billionaire devotee, both true believers in an alleged “Maitreya the Christ,” the latter particularly working openly with Lucis Trust, the offspring of Alice and Foster Bailey’s original “Lucifer Publishing Company.”

That such is taken seriously in more than esoteric circles is easily proved. One illustration is an article in the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law on December 2, 2001. Had a Christian or Jew dare suggest that this was God’s judgment on an idolatrous world, the outcry would still be heard. However, this suggestion that we all join in common earth worship passed at least the scrutiny of editors of what was supposed to be a respected legal journal:

• World tragedies necessitate the reaction of a united global society dedicated to responsible action and committed to peace. Identifying a common motivation and mode of communication to which all individuals can relate is a prerequisite component to avoiding destruction and moving towards progress. Humanity's dependence upon the planet earth serves as the natural primary connection between all people. By joining this undeniable truth with the notions underpinning the Earth Charter,[1] a blue print for building a new foundation to address our current reality can be identified.

Where this is heading and where environmentalists and New Agers alike are harmonically converging is clearly in the direction of earth worship and beyond to universe/cosmos adoration. Bundled in with the concept is one of gratitude to [gasp!] Lucifer himself, whom Benjamin Crème proudly proclaimed on one unwilling radio debate he did with me in the early 1980s, “made a tremendous sacrifice for our planet.” Evidently Lucifer, per Crème, ran a Garden of Eden intervention challenging God to see that we properly “evolved” rather than vegetate in a tropical garden. As a result, per Crème, Lucifer is the “prodigal son.” It is startling in personal conversations I have had with some in those circles that God is expected to welcome Lucifer back with open arms. A related belief is that those forever barred from the new Utopian Eden are those who stood in Lucifer’s way. This is a strange perversion of Judeo/Christian theology, widely published from sources such as Futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard and David Spangler. Lucis Trust has offered to cap it all off by allowing the world to use their “Great Invocation,” presumably a forced replacement to “The Lord’s Prayer” and “23rd Psalm.”

Such idolatry is condemned across the board by traditional monotheistic theology. Catholics as part of their baptismal rites say, “Do you reject Satan? The congregation is expected to answer, “I do.” “And all of his works? I do”

The biblical Book of Revelation contains a stern warning in chapter 14 that all should “fear God and give glory to Him for the hour of his judgment is come. Worship God who created the heaven, the earth, the seas, and the fountains of waters.” The Earth Covenant and its new bible called “the Book of Temenos” frighteningly reverse that command to one that inverts it to the very worship condemned: “If any man worships the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation.” Those worshiping the “beast and his image” and receiving the mark of his name were to “have no rest day nor night.”[4]

An even earlier proponent, working even closer to the time of the Krishnamurti era envisioned a scenario startlingly close to what now appears to be full process. H. G. Wells wrote in his 1928 book, THE OPEN CONSPIRACY; BLUEPRINTS FOR A WORLD REVOLUTION:

• "Whenever possible, the Open Conspiracy will advance by illumination and persuasion. But it has to advance and even from the outset where it is not allowed to illuminate and persuade it must fight . . .in the face of unscrupulous opposition creative ideas must become aggressive, must define their enemies, and attack them. . . . The Open Conspiracy rests upon a disrespect for "nationality . . ."

Again, I say, "fasten your seatbelts, friends. We are in for a bumpy ride. Keep the faith!"
Footnotes:

1, See "Earth Council: Papers" and here.

2, In his UN retirement, Robert Muller moved to Costa Rica to chair the UN University there.

3, Origin and history of the Earth Charter

4, See Revelation (Apocalypse) Chapter 14, verses 6 through 12).