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Religious leaders at the 'Wilton Park Inclusive Citizenship Dialogues' on Monday underlined the importance of promoting 'inclusive citizenship' through dialogue for better religious harmony and understanding among different religions, as part of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies.
The three-day Forum, which opened today at the Saadiyat Rotana Resort and Villas, Saadiyat Island, brought together prominent Muslim, Christian and other religious scholars from the Middle East, along with a number of policy makers, with the aim of developing a common interfaith understanding and definition of inclusive citizenship in the Middle East as well as exploring how this might be implemented to help tackle exclusion and discrimination and address the root causes of violent extremism.
Two further dialogue sessions will be held next year to enable the delivery of legislative and practical change to promote inclusive citizenship across the region.
The dialogue session held today was hosted by Wilton Park, an Executive Agency of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and by the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, based in Abu Dhabi, and in partnership with the Rashad Centre for Cultural Governance of Adyan Foundation, based in Lebanon.
Opening speakers included Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, the UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Sheikh Dr. Mohammed bin Abdul Karim al-Issa, Secretary-General of the Muslim World League and Souraya Bechealany, Secretary-General of the Middle East Council of Churches.
The President of the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies and Chairman of the Fatwa Council of the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, in his opening speech introduced the Marrakesh Declaration to Forum participants, its components and the principles that serve as a framework on citizenship.
"Through these conventions, we envisage to emerge with a fully rooted and completely grounded conceptualisation of inclusive citizenship, which is derived from religious texts and which keeps abreast of the contemporary cultural context as exemplified in national constitutions and international covenants and charters," he said referring to the 2016 Marrakesh Declaration, on protecting the rights of religious minorities in majority Muslim nations.
"We will also identify and diagnose the obstacles and challenges to the realisation of this inclusive concept of citizenship and the impediments it faces in the countries of the Middle East," Sheikh Bayyah added.
The Declaration serves to reflect the Islamic values and the methodological foundations underlying the obligation of joyful and happy coexistence and good and kind treatment of adherents of other faiths and religious traditions, he added.
He cited an example where in 1995, the British Government banned the screening of the film "Visions of Ecstasy", because it considered it as blasphemous, slanderous and offensive to Prophet Isa (may Allah’s peace be upon him), which the courts of the United Kingdom confirmed and reiterated. In response the director of the film filed a suit before the European Court of Human Rights by regarding the ban imposed by the British government as being contrary to the freedom of expression and the right to publish opinions.
After the court heard the case, it supported the British government's position that the film was blasphemous and transgressed the limits permitted for dealing with a sacred subject in accordance with British law at the time.
In a similar case, he said, the European Court affirmed in mid-October the soundness of the verdicts of the Austrian judiciary in the case of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, furnishing as justification for this decision (numbered 2018/360) that abusive and offensive claims cannot fall within the scope of freedom of expression, as they infringe on the rights of other citizens in having their religious beliefs respected and threaten religious peace in Austrian society.
"We can only appreciate these decisions as they contribute to the promotion of world peace and to the spread of love and tolerance in the world. They certainly represent rational judicial and legal precedents (case law) that the courts of the West will have to take into account in this type of cases," he said.
Likewise what should be noted is the UAE's policy of consolidating the principles of citizenship which is marked by being realistic in taking into account the specificity of the local context and by clarity of purpose, he affirmed. "This is clearly reflected in its enactment of Federal Law No. 02 of 2015, which deals with combating discrimination, hate speech and showing contempt for religions, and works to immunise the society and protect it from hate speech and incitement to violence and disturbing the tranquility, calmness and social peace."
Sheikh Dr. Mohammed Al Issa presented a roadmap to achieve the goal of inclusive citizenship including: reinforcing scholastic curricula, government and private support for activities aimed at promoting the values of citizenship and integration, discouraging hatred and exclusion, prevention of religious, cultural or ethnic isolation in the education or social activities, and the role of civil society organisations in raising awareness about legislative provisions.
He also said that we should prevent any method that would lead to discrimination on the basis of religion or race, be it a legislative, employment or political or media action. Al Issa went on to say that it is incumbent on all national, political and other events to stand in the way of any slogan calling for hatred. He said that religious and ethic minorities must engage their own affairs without outside interference that aim at handling and running their activities instead. He also said that harsh social conditions of some minorities must be addressed, since some of their members harbour reactions saturated with hatred or despair.
Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the UN, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London in his speech lauded UAE for playing a leading role in the region in promoting tolerance as a way of countering some of the root causes of extremism. He stressed the importance of the faith leaders by not just taking a moral leadership role, and preaching compassion, mutual respect and peace within our respective communities but also importantly encouraging reading of scriptures that promote the values of tolerance.
Other speakers included Dr Abdullah Almatouq, Advisor to the Emir’s Court of Kuwait; Dr Farid El Khazen, Ambassador, Embassy of Lebanon in Vatican, Holy See, Rome; Bishop Yousif Thomas Mirkis Archbishop of Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah, Chaldean Church, Kirkuk; Faisal bin Muaammar, Secretary-General, KAICIID Dialogue Centre, Vienna; Dr Souraya Bechealany, Secretary-General, Middle East Council of Churches, Beirut and Shaykh Usama al-Sayyid al-Azhari, Religious Advisor to the President of Egypt, Cairo.
The opening was attended by Dr Mohammed Matar Salem bin Abid Al Kaabi, Chairman of the General Authority of Islamic Affairs and Endowments, UAE and Secretary-General of the Forum for Peace in Muslim Societies, members of the diplomatic corps, academics, scholars and religious leaders.
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