Missing Link
People on opposite sides of all sorts of ideological divides might dream of a world without conflict — but dismiss such thoughts as utopian fantasies. So pragmatists might scoff at Sharif Abdullah, who at first glance seems like the sort of fruity philosopher whose optimistic outlook ignores the realities of human nature.
“My work and my life are committed to peace,” Abdullah says. “But I rarely use the word, because most of the time we don’t understand what it means. We think that just because we’re not beating someone up right now, we’re being peaceful.”
Instead of talking about peace, then, Abdullah uses the term inclusivity — which is the notion that we’re linked. “If we recognize that we’re linked, then we start treating each other a peaceful way,” he says.
As head of the Portland, Oregon-based humanitarian organization Commonway, Abdullah travels the world promoting this inclusive human society. Whereas stereotypical right- and left-wingers often demonize their opponents, Abdullah asks people to reconsider their entire worldviews while imploring them to embrace their enemies.
To do that, he advocates the same principle that guides Buddhists, Christians, Jews and Muslims — just a slight variation of the golden rule.
This principle is neither radical nor traditionally effective, given that it has done little to prevent centuries of holy wars. What is unique, though, is how Abdullah clings to its tenets even when he encounters his philosophical opposites. Surprisingly, his approach gets results.
The most challenging crowds, he says, resemble the one he’ll likely encounter in Kansas City: people who believe they’re completely committed to their worthwhile cause.
“The groups with which I have the most trouble are the ones that are so ideologically consumed that they can’t see the validity of any other point of view,” Abdullah tells the Pitch from his Oregon office. “If I start looking at the world from the point of view that ‘I’m OK, but they’re screwed up,’ I get to a certain space, which is not a place that allows us to get at the deep problems and divisions that plague our society,” he says.
Abdullah, unlike many contemporary peace protesters, seldom preaches to the converted. That’s because few people have truly absorbed and applied his teachings. He published Creating a World That Works for All in 1999 and has mixed feelings about whether global society has progressed toward the book’s titular goal.
“In some ways, our world has become much more fragmented and hostile to the notion that we can all live together,” he says. “On the other hand, there are amazingly hopeful signs out there. You just have to go looking for them.”
Abdullah spends much of his time searching for such evidence. In the past few years, he’s made dozens of trips to foreign countries, witnessing, for example, Sri Lanka’s steps toward economic self-sufficiency.
“Wherever the human family needs help is where I go. And wherever the human family is doing wonderful things, I want to see them firsthand,” he says. “All the borders are in our minds, not lines drawn in the dirt.”
