Madeleine Albright Discusses World Peace
Terror incidents and threats are reported on an almost daily basis - and anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S. seems to be on the rise. Is there any way out? CBS News sat down to talk about the state of peace on earth with veteran U.S. diplomat Madeleine Albright.
"I always say I'm an optimist who worries a lot," said Albright.
The first ever female secretary of state; a former United States ambassador to the United Nations - Madeleine Albright thinks a lot about peace these days, reports CBS News national correspondent Jim Axelrod.
"What I believe is that there is a natural reason for people to get along if they think about the future and don't get completely stuck with the fights of the past," said Albright.
Fights she spent years trying to end. As secretary of state from 1997 to 2001 she had to deal with the Balkans Wars, the Middle East and was one of the first western diplomats to go to North Korea and meet Kim Jong Il. Since leaving office she's written a book outlining her belief that building an understanding of different religions is an important part of trying to end conflict.
"Religion has and does play a part in a number of the issues where there is fighting," said Albright.
Albright has a very personal perspective on different religions. She was born in what was once Czechoslovakia and she was raised as a Roman Catholic who then became an Episcopalian and just then after her confirmation, as she became secretary of state, discovered she had been born Jewish.
"One of the people that I respect the most is Archbishop (Desmond) Tutu and he had an amazing statement about religion in his kind of homey way of saying it … is that religion is like a knife that you can pick up and stick in somebody's back or use to cut bread," said Albright. "And so, it's the cutting bread part that we have to get to."
So why does the sticking the knife in the back part seem to be winning in so many cases?
"What has happened is the extremists are the ones that get the attention, that create the acts that are divisive to everybody else," said Albright. "Whatever changes come in terms of a different approach among the extremists of Islam has to come from within the Muslim religion."
Albright knows the task ahead is long and difficult.
"Well, none of this is easy," said Albright. "None of this has an immediate answer and we all as Americans like to have immediate answers."
Since leaving government, Albright has founded two businesses and spent time identifying broadly shared religious values to promote international understanding and peace.
Albright isn't pleased about the hostility felt by many Americans towards the Muslim community.
"I'm unhappy about it, I really have to say," said Albright. "What's interesting is that you saw it at different other times. I was in the Carter administration during the Iran hostage crisis and there clearly was a rise of anti-Islam at that point and then people realized that it wasn't all Muslims that had this particular feeling.
One of the people Albright has consulted regularly with over interfaith understanding is Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf - the man at the center of a controversy over the plan to build an Islamic center near Ground Zero in New York.
"A lot of it is based on complete misunderstanding," said Albright. "Imam Feisel is one of the most remarkable people that I have met, who has made it his life's work to get understanding."
So what's the incentive for people to double down on respect?
"Don't you think people feel better if they can walk down the street or be in a park and feel that they are safe rather than looking over their shoulder all the time?" asked Albright. "I hate the fear factor thing….I really do. I wasn't born in the United States. I came here when I was 11-years-old from a Europe that had been destroyed and was still suffering from the remnants of World War II. And this for us was a golden country, where people of a variety of religions and races and colors and different believes were able to operate together and that's what makes this country so great and we have to get back to that."
