Alternatives leads fight against fundamentalism By Michel Lambert Published February 3, 2010

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Lately there have been many articles published about Alternatives and other organizations with accusations ranging from being critical of the Canadian position on Afghanistan to being anti-Israeli to being associated with terrorist organizations.

I am a founding member and director of Alternatives and would like to shed some light on issues of importance and concern to the Canadian public.

Since our inception over 20 years ago, we have been constantly working with groups fighting religious fundamentalism everywhere in the world, notably in South Asia and the Middle East. Our views and our work against Islamic and Hindu fundamentalism can be read in hundreds of articles and reports we have been producing since 1992. Whether it is the Taliban or Hamas, we are against their world view and consider them detrimental to any sustainable peace and justice.

This is our principled position and it comes from our major goal of defending women's rights and eradicating poverty. The first victims of religious fundamentalism are women and those of violent conflicts emanating from such obscurantist beliefs are the poor.

We are against war in Afghanistan. In our French-language position paper entitled "The Crisis in Afghanistan: Solidarity Needed," published on Feb. 9, 2008, we stated that the political problem in Afghanistan can and should only be resolved politically. We said the Canadian government should demilitarize aid to that country and the Afghan problem has to have an Afghan solution. This is our principled position.

Our political view in the Middle East comes from our belief in human rights and justice for all, irrespective of their religion or political beliefs. We promote peace and justice in the region and support all activities in sustainable development and poverty reduction.

It is for this reason that we successfully implemented a four-year poverty reduction project in Gaza. The project was funded by CIDA and aimed to provide vocational training to women and generate employment. The blockade of Gaza by Israel is counterproductive to such programs. We strongly believe that the blockade should end and to this effect we have been urging the Canadian government to intervene and will continue to do so.

Israel should be accountable to the Canadian government for the damage caused by its military to projects funded by CIDA. In our press release dated Feb. 28, 2008, we urged the Canadian government to claim compensation from Israel for damages caused to a medical clinic in Gaza by an Israeli bomb. The organization running the clinic benefited from CIDA funds on several occasions.

While our efforts are all about supporting people fighting against the views and practices of fundamentalist groups, including the Taliban, we are supporting secularism and peace initiatives through confidence-building activities. We support plurality of views and believe that defeating fundamentalism can only be achieved through political means.

In the Sept. 26, 2007 edition of our French-language monthly newspaper, we published an article entitled "Talk to the Taliban?" The article written by Tarique Niazi was originally published in English by the American think tank Foreign Policy in Focus. The article welcomed the news that Hamid Karzai wanted a dialogue with the Taliban and to reach some kind of a peace agreement. It suggested the US government should consider this option.

Alternatives has supported organizations in Pakistan and Afghan organizations exiled in Pakistan during the Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Their programs promoted secular ideas and peace. We were supported by CIDA for many such activities. Throughout the Taliban rule, Alternatives worked with many organizations in Pakistan, including the reputed Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), on projects promoting secular and scientific ideas that promoted women's rights and opposed the fundamentalist worldview. In 1995 we organized a public conference in Montreal entitled "Women's Rights in Pakistan" that was addressed by the then- chairperson of HRCP, Asma Jahangir. Ms. Jahangir has been the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief since 2004.

As far as peace-building initiatives are concerned, Alternatives has organized several roundtables with financial support from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in Ottawa. These discussed such issues as Kashmir, the India-Pakistan conflict and the Middle East peace process, to name just a few. One of them was on reconstructing Afghanistan, which was addressed by the eminent journalist Ahmad Rashid, amongst others.

Alternatives' defence of human rights is a matter of principle, unlike the writers of recent articles published in the National Post and the Globe and Mail who are in a rush to slander anyone with accusations of terrorism, anyone who does not fit their worldview.

Michel Lambert is the executive director of Montreal-based NGO Alternatives.

editor@embassymag.ca