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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 April 1999 Issue No. 426 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 April 1999 Issue No. 426
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Special Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Millennial faith
Will the coming century be marked by more world wars like those that wreaked devastation on an unprecedented scale during our time? I do not think so; indeed, I very much doubt that wars of that sort, in which two global superpowers confront each other, will have any place in the new millennium. What we will see, instead, are many regional wars, fought over religion or ethnicity, such as the conflict currently raging in the former Yugoslavia.
André Malraux once said that the next century would be "a religious century, or would not be at all". Well, I believe that three great values mark an individual's life: truth, good and beauty. During the 20th century, we have discovered that science, in searching for truth, eliminated good, while art, in striving for beauty, has forgotten ethics. In this perspective, in fact, the revival of religious conflict may be seen as an attempt to recover a moral code that has been absent from our lives during the better part of this century.
Perhaps this is what Malraux had in mind when he spoke of the preponderance of religion in the coming century. Still, I disagree with him: there are many things in a human being's life that will enter into competition with religious conviction; whether or not this will be to our benefit remains to be seen.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy.
