On Monday August 10 and 11, 2015, LLSP participants attended Dr. Amr Abdalla’s two-day workshop “Say Peace.” Dr. Adballa has been offering his auspicious peace and conflict resolution lectures at the Law and Leadership Summer Program for over 12 years. Dr. Abdalla began his workshop by discussing his history working in the field of peace and conflict resolution studies, bringing what can often be a challenging subject down to a more personal level. He remarked: “this is the beauty of this field…to get to know people…learning about the human being on such a deeper level and having appreciation for people.”
Dr. Abdalla partnered up participants for a role-play activity to test their knowledge and individual methods of effective conflict resolution, taking note of methods that participants found helpful or hurtful to conflict resolution during the activity. Dr. Abdalla stressed the importance of learning peaceful conflict resolution techniques, because “conflict is natural…as long as there are humans, there will be conflicts, all that matters then is how we deal with them.” “No one wakes up in the morning thinking that he or she is the bad guy,” said Dr. Abdalla. If individuals can remember this, while also maintaining respect for the parties involved and their respective cultures, then conflict resolution will be a much easier, more constructive process.
Dr. Abdalla then proceeded to selecting participants to act out a conflict and the steps toward its mediation, following the steps of his model to achieve peace, and to work towards the end goal of conflict prevention. Dr. Abdalla then discussed methods and ideas of conflict resolution through an Islamic perspective, emphasizing the ways in which an Islamic perspective can help mediate conflicts. Dr. Abdalla walked participants through the “10 Negative D’s” and “Five Positive D’s” of conflicts, highlighting statements and actions that tend to either worsen or resolve conflicts. He then discussed the ways in which faith, particularly Islam, plays into the ways in which people should think about conflict resolution, saying: “everything we’ve discussed is how to resolve and think about conflicts for all human beings, but every culture and every religion has its own elements and perspectives that can compliment the elements of conflict resolution that we’ve already discussed.”
Dr. Abdalla pointed to elements in the Qur’an that are a part of every situation requiring conflict resolution, including: “hypothetical solutions, legal ruling, the manner in which the legal ruling will be carried out, and accountability to Allah.” He focused on the principle of maaruf that appears throughout the Qur’an. He said: “if we want to strike at the heart of violence, we have to change the behavior we use when we rationalize harming others. The Qur’an has insisted that in the middle of conflict you must behave in a kind way. Not just kind, but maaruf.”
After discussing challenges participants had faced in their communities, and how they could approach similar situations with the principle of maaruf in the future, Dr. Abdalla had participants take a test to determine their individual styles of conflict resolution so they may better understand their own strengths and weaknesses in conflict resolution. Although some participants were originally surprised by some of their results, most eventually recognized truth in some of the conflict resolution styles they exhibited in the test. One student remarked: “I was surprised…but I think this is spot on…I saw this as something I need to work on…I’ve been told these things before, but to see it on paper is really kind of eye-opening.” Another remarked: “I found that this really is my problem and that I have to work on it…this is very useful.”
Now that students had a better idea of their own conflict and conflict resolution styles, and learned of potential areas for growth, they were ready for a new series of role-play activities in which they could utilize their skills and work on their weaknesses. Dr. Abdalla classified the different methods of decision-making by parties involved in conflicts, recognizing the potential benefits and challenges of each method. “I will not say that one is better than the other,” he said, “ideally, people would think and feel and decide for themselves, but they can’t always do that, so giving some form of arbitration in the process can be useful.” He then broke down different approaches to conflict resolution into three styles: professional approach, empowerment approach, and the common good approach. The best approach for any given conflict depends on the desired outcome of the parties involved. However, he noted, “you’re going to find that there are different societies and communities and that they’ll have different needs based on their society or culture. Some approaches are useful in certain circumstances, while others are more appropriate in other circumstances.”
Dr. Abdalla continued to dismantle the concept of conflict resolution, providing participants with four principles to guide the process of negotiation towards “a wise outcome, reached efficiently and amicably.” These principles include: “separate the people from the problem, focus on interests instead of positions, invent options for mutual gain, and insist on using objective criteria.” Dr. Abdalla then incorporated the idea of conflict mediation, and the methods and principles that should guide conflict mediation, utilizing a clip from George Qardahi’s TV show “ Iftah Qalbak/ Open your heart” to examine some challenges of conflict mediation. Dr. Abdalla had students work through an additional role-play scenario. At the end of the activity he remarked: “I’m encouraged by how you sound about conflict resolution today versus yesterday…” He ended the day with a discussion with participants of how to incorporate principles of Islam into conflict resolution, negotiation, and mediation.”
At the end of his course, one student said: “you gave us the tools and the skills for conflict resolution, but also showed us how to apply them in a way that will stick with us.”
AR 
EN