Please Introduce yourself
My name is Boryana Saragerova, I am 22 years and I live and study in my home country, which is Bulgaria. I am an International relations student in my third year in Sofia University and international relations related topics such as international security, international law, politics, etc. are just few of the topics I am interested and very passionate about. Currently I am a board member of a nongovernmental organization, called “Students’ Diplomatic Club”, which is organized and run only by students in my university, who are interested in diplomacy and international relations. Last year I was a part of ISC63 and the conference inspired me and changed my perspective about the world and assured me that great young people are motivated to make the world a better place, no matter where they come from. I applied for ISC64 because I wanted to develop my own table topic, which I find to be crucial to deal with and I was and still am highly motivated to discuss it with other students, from different backgrounds and mindsets in order to inspire everyone to be more tolerant and raise awareness.
What is your Table Topic?
What do you think about your table topic so far and what is the goal of your table?
The Topic of Table 5 is “The Global Rise of Religious Violence” and during discussions table members of Table 5 will be dealing with three main questions: what, when and why (with an emphasis on the latter). As the topic of religious violence is multi-dimensional, discussions will be focused on different events, public acts of violence at the turn of the century, for which religion has provided the motivation, the justification, the organization and the world view. We, as a team of hard-working young people, will try to get inside the mindset of those who perpetrated and supported such acts. One of our goals is to understand why these acts were often associated with religious causes and why they have occurred with such frequency at this juncture in history. Another question Table 5 members will deal with is not why bad things are done by bad people, but rather why bad things are done by people who otherwise appear to be good – in cases of religious terrorism, by pious people dedicated to a moral vision of the world.
As the levels of religious-related terrorism, violence and discrimination against religious groups by governments and rival faiths, attacks on minority faiths, sexism, racism and human rights violation levels are rising on a global scale, we will do our best in analyzing the root causes of the issue, which is concerning more and more people in the world. The global rise of religious violence, as previously mentioned, has many aspects such as politics, level of democracy, economic stability, national security, which will not be disregarded during discussions, however, during discussions table members will not be focusing on those specifics. The main focus of Table 5 will be religious violence itself, the moral causes and religious justifications behind it. An example of this is the question why anyone would believe that God could sanction religious violence and why the rediscovery of religion’s power has appeared in the recent years in such a bloody way – and what, if anything, can be done about it.
The most important mission of this table is to understand that in order to respond to religious violence in a way that is effective and does not produce more violence in response, it is necessary to understand why such acts occur. Moreover, during ISC64, we will try to find an ultimate solution, our own way to battle this phenomenon efficiently so we could try to make the world even a little bit more peaceful with joint efforts.
