Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2006, Page 44
We have to ascribe, therefore, the utmost moral quality to the statement made by the
General Secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, when he said, in the light of the
September 11, 2001, incident: ―No just cause can be advanced by terrorism.‖ Politically
offensive use of force to achieve national interests, revolutionary fanaticism, or the attempt
to rectify war as a legitimate means to disseminate religious or political ideologies in the
sense of a ―Holy War,‖ can, from a higher normative position of moral philosophy, never be
justified.[26] Attempts to vindicate these strategies inevitably end up in dogmatism, which
can never live up to the scrutiny of an ethics that is based upon an adequate, humanistic
image of man. Terrorist activity violates the essential norms of ethical thinking and acting
and thus must, by all means, be designated as the sheer ideal type of the ―manifestation of
moral injustice‖ in the social and political realms.
Universal Ethics in World Religions and International Law
A significant number of religious leaders, scholars and theologians have arrived at the
conclusion that the ethical doctrines of all great religious systems are in accordance
regarding the major issues of ethics. ―They all forbid, like the Mosaic Decalogue, to kill, to
lie, to steal or to commit adultery, as these stipulations are the prerequisite to any orderly
social life.‖[27] It is a characteristic of the ethics of all high religions that they connect
moral claims with religious doctrines and rituals. Once again it is Kant who considers moral
ingredients to be the most important of these three components to any religion and brings
all religions back to morality as their true foundation.[28]
In the field of humanity—especially in its concrete formations in humanitarian law and the
human rights codes of international law—we find ourselves on common ground, at least
between the three monotheistic religious denominations. With regard to human rights, to
mention but one example, (even it still seems to exist on paper only), there is a surprising
consensus to be found. The Council of the Arab League, on September 15, 1994, passed a
resolution that proclaimed the Arab Charter of Human Rights. This catalogue of norms—
although hitherto not in effect—comprises all of the fundamental and basic rights that are
found in the UN Charter or in the Human Rights Convention of the European Council, such
as the prohibition of discrimination, the right for living, freedom and security, the prohibition
of torture, the right to enjoy freedom of faith, speech and religion, etc. The Arab Charter of
Human Rights thus signals the basic readiness of the Arab world to acknowledge all those
basic values and liberties that emerged especially in the Western world as a result of the
rational movement of enlightenment. Naturally, this formal coherence should not deceive us
about the fact that the Christian-Occidental ethics is based upon a specific image of man
and a specific understanding of human rights that still awaits its realization in the social and
political practice of the Islam world and other regions on this planet.
Prospects and Perspectives
Everything suggests that terrorism and combating terrorism will represent a major
dimension in security affairs of this new century. A specific challenge to the democratic
statutory state arises from the fact that the potentially inhumane will have to be fought
without disclaiming the humane embodied in its own social order.
The guiding image of Western philosophical as well as political thought, the idea of the
human being as an individualized person and the human rights principles resting upon it,
may not be relinquished for a hysteria triggered by diverse ideologies and ideologists of
conspiracy. Nevertheless, the postulate of abiding by humanity must stand on equal terms
with the requirement to wage an efficient and effective war against international terrorism.
In pursuing this course, the international community needs to find some kind of unity in
terms of thinking and acting in the first place. At the center of an effective fight against
terrorism is the following challenge that will have to be met: How can the inter-cultural
We have to ascribe, therefore, the utmost moral quality to the statement made by the
General Secretary of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, when he said, in the light of the
September 11, 2001, incident: ―No just cause can be advanced by terrorism.‖ Politically
offensive use of force to achieve national interests, revolutionary fanaticism, or the attempt
to rectify war as a legitimate means to disseminate religious or political ideologies in the
sense of a ―Holy War,‖ can, from a higher normative position of moral philosophy, never be
justified.[26] Attempts to vindicate these strategies inevitably end up in dogmatism, which
can never live up to the scrutiny of an ethics that is based upon an adequate, humanistic
image of man. Terrorist activity violates the essential norms of ethical thinking and acting
and thus must, by all means, be designated as the sheer ideal type of the ―manifestation of
moral injustice‖ in the social and political realms.
Universal Ethics in World Religions and International Law
A significant number of religious leaders, scholars and theologians have arrived at the
conclusion that the ethical doctrines of all great religious systems are in accordance
regarding the major issues of ethics. ―They all forbid, like the Mosaic Decalogue, to kill, to
lie, to steal or to commit adultery, as these stipulations are the prerequisite to any orderly
social life.‖[27] It is a characteristic of the ethics of all high religions that they connect
moral claims with religious doctrines and rituals. Once again it is Kant who considers moral
ingredients to be the most important of these three components to any religion and brings
all religions back to morality as their true foundation.[28]
In the field of humanity—especially in its concrete formations in humanitarian law and the
human rights codes of international law—we find ourselves on common ground, at least
between the three monotheistic religious denominations. With regard to human rights, to
mention but one example, (even it still seems to exist on paper only), there is a surprising
consensus to be found. The Council of the Arab League, on September 15, 1994, passed a
resolution that proclaimed the Arab Charter of Human Rights. This catalogue of norms—
although hitherto not in effect—comprises all of the fundamental and basic rights that are
found in the UN Charter or in the Human Rights Convention of the European Council, such
as the prohibition of discrimination, the right for living, freedom and security, the prohibition
of torture, the right to enjoy freedom of faith, speech and religion, etc. The Arab Charter of
Human Rights thus signals the basic readiness of the Arab world to acknowledge all those
basic values and liberties that emerged especially in the Western world as a result of the
rational movement of enlightenment. Naturally, this formal coherence should not deceive us
about the fact that the Christian-Occidental ethics is based upon a specific image of man
and a specific understanding of human rights that still awaits its realization in the social and
political practice of the Islam world and other regions on this planet.
Prospects and Perspectives
Everything suggests that terrorism and combating terrorism will represent a major
dimension in security affairs of this new century. A specific challenge to the democratic
statutory state arises from the fact that the potentially inhumane will have to be fought
without disclaiming the humane embodied in its own social order.
The guiding image of Western philosophical as well as political thought, the idea of the
human being as an individualized person and the human rights principles resting upon it,
may not be relinquished for a hysteria triggered by diverse ideologies and ideologists of
conspiracy. Nevertheless, the postulate of abiding by humanity must stand on equal terms
with the requirement to wage an efficient and effective war against international terrorism.
In pursuing this course, the international community needs to find some kind of unity in
terms of thinking and acting in the first place. At the center of an effective fight against
terrorism is the following challenge that will have to be met: How can the inter-cultural
