For around two decades, the State of Qatar has been promoting dialogue, harmony and peaceful coexistence among the followers of different religions across the globe. Doha Conference for Interfaith Dialogue, in its 14th edition, brought together hundreds of researchers, scholars, academics and journalists from around 70 countries this week under the overarching theme of countering hate speech. The interfaith dialogue forum is one of the many initiatives of Qatar for global peace and harmony.
The first interfaith conference took place in April 2003 when Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani opened the event titled ‘Building Bridges’ and stressed the need for peace, equality, tolerance, moderation, renunciation of violence and respect for human rights.
At the 6th conference in 2008, the dialogue process launched in 2003 was expanded with the establishment of the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), which has become a pioneering institution concerned with interreligious and intercultural dialogue, in addition to capacity-building in the field of dialogue and culture of peace.
In 2013, the centre launched the Doha International Award for Interfaith Dialogue, which recognises the individuals and institutions for their role in the promotion of interfaith dialogue and peace in multi-religious and multicultural societies. The award is supervised by a specialised committee of trustees who select the award’s topic, depending on the topic of the annual conference. The award also serves a way to share best practices to foster harmony and peace in multi-religious societies.
This year, the centre has awarded three individuals and as many institutions for their contributions to consolidating the principles and values of dialogue between religions and civilizations, and spreading a culture of tolerance, rejecting hate speech, advocating moderation, and other efforts in combating racism in these areas. A total of 40 individuals and 10 institutions had applied for the ward this year.
The participants at the 14th dialogue unanimously said that all religions advocate peace and love for all. The speakers also highlighted the importance of education to counter hate speech, which they said oftentimes also resulted from one’s ignorance of one’s own or others’ religion. Similarly they also highlighted how injustice and oppression in any society lead to hate speech and called for achieving justice and fairness in all societies.
Since 2003, Doha Conference for Interfaith Dialogue has come a long way to promote peaceful coexistence and tolerance all over the world.
