Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Dr Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi presenting the award to Dr. Sabrina Lei, Director of Tawasul Centre for Publishing, Research and Dialogue, Rome. Pic: Abdul Basit
Doha: Dr. Sabrina Lei , a noted Italian Muslim philosopher, writer and translator who won Doha International Award for Interfaith Dialogue 2022, along with two other personalities, said Qatar is in the forefront in building bridges to harmony through understanding between religions and cultures. This is what Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) has been doing for one and a half decades.
“It’s great to be back in Doha again after a span of four years and I am especially heartened to receive this prestigious award from the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,” Dr. Sabrina, who is currently Director of Tawasul Centre for Publishing, Research and Dialogue, a prominent think tank based in Rome, Italy, told The Peninsula yesterday.
Dr. Sabrina said: “It’s great to be part of this wonderful initiative and that’s why I think that I am truly honoured to receive this award. It’s a true honour and a humbling experience.”
As an interfaith expert, Dr. Sabrina lauded the activities of DICID and said it is making great efforts to spread the culture of interfaith dialogue, promote the values of tolerance and confront extremism and spread peace based on Qatar’s global role and its efforts in this context.
It is a world renowned institution that represents the moderate and the refined thinking of Qatari people and its leadership. And its International conference, this year’s the 14th, brings scholars, thinkers and grassroots interfaith leaders together. As hate speech is sadly growing, the conference, that discussed the ways to challenge and tackle hate speech was very timely.
She particularly praised Prof. Ibrahim Saleh Al Naimi, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the DICID, for his inspiring role in this area.
Explaining her organisation’s activities, Dr. Sabrina said: Tawasul Europe focuses on building bridges between the Islamic world and the West by organising interfaith dialogue and sharing the peaceful message of Islam.
“Tawasul, an Arabic word which means ‘seeking closeness’, is trying to reach all people irrespective of religion or race. It is also active in the field of publication with high-quality books and monographs on Islam, Arab-Muslim culture and Islam’s relationship with the West and Christianity.”
Dr. Sabrina, a revert to Islam and who is deeply involved in interfaith dialogue and peace-building across different religions and cultures, says that Tawasul’s inspiration comes from the universal message of Islam.
With her PhD in ancient Greek philosophy, Dr. Sabrina is a trained scholar of Latin and ancient Greek. She has delivered lectures at some of the important world universities and other prominent centres elsewhere in the world.
Dr. Sabrina is also a very accomplished writer and a scholar. She has translated over 50 Islamic classics and other works into Italian. She has also written half a dozen books on Islam in Italian. All the books are available in the National Library of Italy.
Her translations of Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s English Quran commentary and the complete volumes of Sahih Al Buhari into Italian are highly appreciated. The translation of Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s 1930 classical English version of the Holy Quran, which spans over a 1,000 pages, was completed after almost five years of work.
Her biography of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Italian is one of the most widely read modern biographies of the Prophet in Italian. She said that her upcoming works include the Italian translation of Sahih Muslim, a collection of Hadith in 7 volumes, which is in the final stage of completion.
Dr. Sabrina said she is also translating the famous work Discovery of India written by India’s freedom fighter and former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, which she hopes to publish in 2023.
Also, Dr. Sabrina’s translation of renowned Urdu poet and philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal’s Reconstruction of Religious Thoughts in Italian was also widely appreciated by academic scholars in Italy. She has also translated works of other religions and a famous work Atmopadesa Satakam by philosopher, spiritual leader and social reformer in India, Sree Narayana Guru, into Italian.
A very refined, noted and scholarly face of Islam in Italy, Dr. Sabrina, who is working with her Indian-born husband and scholar Abdel Latif Chalikandi, has contributed greatly to challenge Islamophobia in the West.
Speaking to The Peninsula from Rome, Abdel Latif, Cultural Advisor of Tawasul and a noted public intellectual and scholar said: “Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), under the able leadership of its Chairman Prof. Ibrahim Naimi, has contributed vastly to bring people of different religions and cultures together.”
He added: “Dr. Sabrina Lei has contributed enormously to interfaith understanding and challenging Islamophobia and building peace. It is very encouraging that she was selected for this year’s Doha International Interfaith Award. It will inspire especially women thinkers and interfaith leaders across the globe who tirelessly work to bring people of different religions and cultures together.”
