For Dr. Kezevino Aram, Joy Comes from Serving the Most Vulnerable

The township of Kovaipudur has a reputation.

Located in the foothills of the Sahyadri Mountain range and part of the city of Coimbatore, in Tamil Nadu, India, the township enjoys gentle mountain breezes and monsoon rains that create a generally serene setting of lush vegetation. Locals know Kovaipudur is cooler than the rest of the city.

But Kovaipudur is also known as the home of Shanti Ashram, an international centre for development, learning and collaboration founded by Dr. M. Aram and Mrs. Minoti Aram, who are Dr. Kezevino Aram´s parents,  in 1986 on the Gandhian principle of Sarvodaya (progress for all).

According to Shanti Ashram’s records, its community work impacts more than 250,000 people in Coimbatore and its environs. Dr. Kezevino Aram has been leading the Ashram as its President since 2014. Through her hands-on, collaborative approach, Aram has responded to numerous challenges and crises in her community— most recently the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rabbi & Imam Attend Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony at Auschwitz-Birkenau

At a time of increased antisemitism, anti-Muslim hate, and xenophobia in Europe, it is a powerful moment when a rabbi and an imam stand side-by-side in solidarity, with Holocaust survivors, one another, and on behalf of Europe’s Jews and Muslims.

On Thursday, 27 January Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland and Imam Adham Abd El Aal, representative of the Grand Mufti of Poland in Warsaw, did just that at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (IHRD) ceremonies at Auschwitz-Birkenau, a Nazi death camp where more than 1.1m people, mostly Jews, were killed.

The pair are part of the Muslim Jewish Leadership Council-Europe (MJLC), an organization founded to serve the need to free members of religious minorities from prejudice, false claims, discrimination, and violence.

Seventeen years ago, on 1 November 2005, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly designated 27 January as IHRD. The yearly commemoration marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945 and is meant to remember and honor Nazism’s many victims. It is also intended to educate people about the Holocaust, prevent further genocide, and denounce all forms of “religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief.”

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s IHRD ceremony at Auschwitz-included only a handful of guests, mostly survivors and local leaders from the religious and political spheres. Among those who gathered at the memorial in Birkenau were Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland, Imam Adham Abd El Aal, representative of the Grand Mufti of Poland in Warsaw, the Roman-Catholic Bishop Roman Pindel, the Orthodox Bishop Atanzy and Bishop Adrian Korczago from the Polish Evangelical-Augsburg Church. 

On the importance of the MJLC’s presence at the event, Schudrich said, “What happened in Auschwitz was a Jewish tragedy. It was a human tragedy. But all of humanity needs to learn the lesson: the world cannot be silent when mass murder and genocide has taken place. Therefore, we must speak out together. It’s our responsibility,” he said.

Using pictorial art for interreligious dialogue

The Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas is not necessarily what you think it is. Unless, of course, you thought it was a decidedly nondenominational, octagonal chapel adorned with fourteen black, but colour-hued, paintings by U.S. artist Mark Rothko.

Image cover for Christopher Longhurst’s book “Pictorial Art for Interreligious Dialogue.” Photo courtesy of KAICIID.

Welcoming some 100,000 visitors of many faiths — and no faith — from across the world each year, the aim of the chapel is, “to create opportunities for spiritual growth and dialogue that illuminate our shared humanity and lead to a world in which all are treated with dignity and respect.” Quite frequently, after stepping outside the chapel, visitors will often ask each other, “what did you see in there?”

It is those kinds of conversations that Roman Catholic theologian and 2020 KAICIID Fellow Dr. Christopher Longhurst hopes to prompt with his new book, Pictorial Art for Interreligious Dialogue.

Funded by the KAICIID Fellows Programme, the publication explores the unique usage of pictorial art to undertake interreligious dialogue, presenting a practical guide to help educators learn and teach an effective and enjoyable interreligious dialogue in both academic and informal settings.

Interreligious Dialogue and Indigenous Communities

In July 2021, the Cowessess First Nation in Canada found 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former Roman Catholic residential school in the western province of Saskatchewan.

When he heard the news, Imam Irshad Osman of Toronto knew it was a moment of reckoning and reflection for all Canadians.

Regardless of religion, Osman knew the discovery confronted Canadians with the stark realities of colonialism and the mistreatment of indigenous peoples then and now.

Recognising that Muslims had “an obligation to build relationships with the owners of this land,” Osman decided to launch a first-of-its-kind interreligious dialogue initiative between Muslims and indigenous peoples in Canada. Through that initiative, both Muslim and indigenous partners have learned not only more about one another, but also the important, and complicated, role interreligious dialogue plays in indigenous communities in Canada and around the world.

This story follows three KAICIID Fellows and their work with, and alongside, indigenous communities in Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia.

In Southern Thailand, a Muslim and a Monk Find Friendship, Seek Peace

On Tuesday, 28 September, Southern Thailand’s Chanae District was rocked with violence, as a roadside bomb causing a one-metre-deep crater injured four police officers and killed two, according to the Bangkok Post. The bombing was the most recent manifestation of a little-known conflict that continues to rage in the region.  

Although the conflict has intensified in the last two decades, there is a long history of dispute between Buddhists and Muslims in Southern Thailand. Stretching back to the early 20th-century, when ethnic Malay were forcibly incorporated into Siam, the sectarian conflict has persisted as both sides fought over values, language, customs, and resources.

Recognising the need to build trust after more than a century of intermittent violence, Ven. Napan Santibhaddo Thawornbanjob and Kriya Langputeh, decided to work together to counteract predispositions toward suspicion and violence between their communities. 

Since meeting in 2017, they have worked together to convene community visits and provide dialogue training for Buddhists and Muslims in Southern Thailand. 

They believe the connection they’ve formed, and their efforts at replicating that relationship, not only provide a path toward positive peace, but can inspire others to walk a similar road in facing challenges in their own communities. 

The activists safeguarding sacred sites across the globe

During an interview in September 2021, Anas Alabbadi, Deputy Director for KAICIID’s Programmes Department, was distracted by a news notification that flashed across his screen: German police had just prevented an attack on a synagogue in Hagen, a city just east of Düsseldorf, Germany.

Having witnessed the devastation of the synagogue attack in the eastern German city of Halle in 2019, Alabbadi was struck again by how events like these underscored the emphasis KAICIID places on supporting and encouraging projects that promote the protection of religious sites.

“We believe, in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that people everywhere must be allowed to practice their faith in peace,” he said, “that religious sites and all places of worship and contemplation should be safe havens, not sites of terror or bloodshed.”

Across the globe, attacks on houses of worship and sacred sites are on the rise.

For example, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reported in July 2020 that there were 97 attacks on churches in the U.S. since May 2020 alone.

Elsewhere last April, the walls of a mosque in the French city of Rennes were defaced with Islamophobic graffiti. In August 2021, a Hindu temple was ransacked in the remote town of Bhong in the eastern Pakistani province of Punjab.

The list, as they say, could go on and on.

Noting that religious sites are of such significance that it makes them particularly endangered, Alabbadi said, “we want to make sure to protect religious sites so that they can continue to be facilitators of positive peace.”

Photo by Varun Pyasi via Unsplash.

Safeguarding Sacred Sites From Indonesia To Algeria

Given the global scope of the issue, KAICIID is actively providing support to projects to protect places of worship from Africa to Asia, Europe to the Middle East.

When the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) started the process of developing an action plan for reacting to the increase in attacks on religious sites after the bloodshed at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019, KAICIID provided immediate support. KAICIID’s background research included supplying quotes from religious texts for the preamble, information on UNESCO’s work on the preservation of religious sites, and recommendations on the prevention of attacks under UNESCO’s purview.

The result was the “Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites.” According to its preamble, the plan “is a global call to rally around our most basic tenets of humanity and solidarity and to reaffirm the sanctity of all religious sites and the safety of all worshippers who visit houses of worship in a spirit of compassion and respect.”

For Alabbadi, the Plan of Action’s greatest strength lies in its systematic approach to the problem and focus on prevention and response.

“The emphasis is on education, countering hate speech – including on social media – and being prepared to provide care and support when an attack happens,” Alabbadi said.

“Translating such recommendations requires better collaboration between policymakers and religious actors,” he said, “religious actors have a lot to contribute in developing and implementing policies related to the protection of scared sites.”

To that end, over the last two years KAICIID supported projects in the Arab region bringing together peace education and the protection of sacred sites. These projects included the development of a mobile app in Algeria and youth trainings in Tunisia.

In Indonesia, KAICIID organised the 2019 “Jakarta Conference” with the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), bringing together religious leaders and policymakers from across Southeast Asia to discuss challenges and opportunities for protecting holy sites. 

The result was the “Jakarta Statement: Together for Diversity — Dialogue in Action,” which included a collective pledge to recognise, preserve, and protect “sites of worship and spiritual heritage and allowing worshippers to use them in peace and harmony.”

Photo by Rohan Reddy via Unsplash.

Reaffirming The Sanctity Of Sacred Sites In Africa

In Africa, KAICIID partnered with the African Union to support 12 projects organised by members of its Interfaith Dialogue Forum (AU-IFDF) specifically focused on the protection of sacred sites.

Agustin Nunez, KAICIID’s Senior Programme Manager for the Africa Region, said the AU’s main theme for 2021 is the promotion of cultural heritage, including the protection of sacred sites.

The partnership, he said, is meant to bring both religious and community actors to the policymaking table “to raise awareness and advocate for the development of regional mechanisms in Africa” to do so.

Among the projects is one in Djibouti where KAICIID-supported religious leaders, elders, youth, CSOs, and NGOs are working together to build a platform to collaborate in preserving and restoring local religious assets. Chief among their priorities is the preservation of holy sites in the eastern African nation.

Not only do such projects contribute concretely to the protection of religious sites, but “promote a peaceful, secure Africa whose development is people-driven” said Nunez, “especially by its women and youth.”

Elsewhere, in the city of Jos, Nigeria, Rev. Zaka Ahuche Peter said his KAICIID Fellows training equipped him to do the same in his country.

That Fellows training includes, “educational modules on the symbolic importance of sacred sites and build Fellows’ capacity to communicate this and diffuse situations through education and creating space for dialogue,” said Alabbadi.

Peter said his relationship with another KAICIID Fellow of a different faith, Fatima Madaki, reveals the “human factor” beyond distrust, helping foster resilience and a mutual respect for the “Other.” He said these kinds of relationships are vital as “attacks on religious sites in Nigeria seem not to abate.

“The fact still remains that ignorance, fanaticism and lack of the fear of God are responsible for destruction of holy sites,” he said, “but in collaboration with religious leaders and training from KAICIID, we are able to send the correct teachings out.”

Farther to the south, in the Nigerian state of Kaduna, Mugu Zakka Bako received a KAICIID 2021-2022 micro grant to organise an interreligious dialogue between local government, civil society organisations, and community leaders to strengthen coherent narratives to respond to violent extremism.

An active and trained peacebuilder whose passion for non-violence as a solution to conflict was moulded out of personal violence against his family members, Bako said “we have been bewitched by a lot of conflicts over natural resources and for ethno-religious, political, and economic reasons.

The conflicts have included numerous attacks on religious sites. “This has happened recently with the burning of churches and mosques in Plateau and some parts of Kaduna state,” he said, “the incessant attacks create insecurity and insecurity is one of Nigeria’s biggest challenges.”

As part of his KAICIID-funded interreligious dialogue sessions, Bako takes participants to different visits to religious sites.

The reactions, said Bako, have been overwhelming. “The outcome has been to foster resilience in the communities where I have worked,” he said, “it has helped religious leaders develop coping capacity and become aware of the need for them to protect their religious sites.

“Today, they are working towards interreligious groupings where Christians protect worship sites of the Muslims, while the Muslims do the same for Christians,” he said.

These kinds of programmes, Alabbadi said, are particularly impactful. With an eye toward expanding programmes like them in the Arab region and Europe in years to come, Alabbadi said, “when imams, priests, and other religious leaders visit each other in hard times and in good times, it signals to the community that it’s okay for them to do the same.”

““This level of relationship is what we call positive peace, to visit and to know what’s behind those walls,””

— Anas Alabbadi

“It is easy to believe negative stories about what is happening behind these walls when you stand outside them,” said Alabbadi, “but once you step inside and see another’s sacred space with your own eyes, it’s a profound, life-changing, life-affirming experience.”

*This post originally appeared on KAICIID.org.

Seeking Connections, Exploring Tensions: Human Rights and Religious Values

When it comes to people’s rights to seeking refuge for social, economic or health reasons, to serving and protecting the vulnerable, and numerous other issues related to global justice, human rights organisations and religious actors often share a common cause. However, there are issues of personal moral conviction, public health, and other matters that can become points of divergence.

Recognising the connections and tensions that exist between religious communities and human rights actors, the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) put together this primer on how careful coordination and multistakeholder partnerships can contribute to productive dialogue and the promotion of human rights. The below is based on the event “Seeking Connections, Exploring Tensions: Human Rights and Religious Values,” a KAICIID Fellows Alumni Session which took place on May 27, 2021.

Religious leaders not only have a proactive role to play, but can lead the way in upholding, defending, and strengthening human rights across the globe.

Religious freedom: a fundamental human right

For many religious actors, human rights begin with the protection of religious freedom. As some of the oldest and most highly-valued rights, freedoms of religion and belief are addressed in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

This also includes the freedom from being coerced "to adopt a religion or belief," rights to assemble, and the freedom "to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions."

And yet, even religious freedom laws — widely recognised as a pre-eminent dimension of international human rights, according to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) — are aimed to protect human beings and not “religions” per se, said Susan Kerr, Senior Advisor on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR). Moreover, these laws protect both internal and external aspects of religious belief and behaviour, she said, but it is only internal aspects of religion — thoughts, beliefs, etc. — that are unconditionally protected. There are limits and conditions placed on external practices.

For example, while the OSCE underscores that everyone is guaranteed the right to adopt a religion or belief of their choice, either individually or in community with others, in public or private, and to manifest that religion in worship, observance, practice, and teaching, there have been robust discussions about the limits afforded to religious actors and institutions when those practices are deemed to be at variance with other fundamental human rights, contravene public health and safety, or do not constitute a core religious belief. According to legal scholar Farrah Raza of Oxford University, the debate continues around the “normative clarity” around the conditions placed on religious freedom. 

Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos, Senior Scientific Advisor at the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) emphasised how religious freedom, and the beliefs and practices defended therein, should be viewed as one part of a wider suite of rights that must be held in balance with each other.

Even so, Kerr believes religious freedom laws can be a good place for religious actors to begin to think about how they can contribute to the realisation of human rights more broadly.

“When a member of one religion speaks out on behalf of the religious rights of others, that’s particularly powerful,” she said.

How can we address issues that are sources of tension between religious freedom and human rights?

The public recognition of diverse family forms and sexual orientations, questions of conversion, and backlash against certain religious practices have triggered negative responses from some religious communities and created tension between them and human rights advocates. Other times, religious actors can feel singled out for human rights violations when there are other factors at play or when they feel a violent, vocal, or fanatical minority within their community is confused with the majority.

Dimitrakopoulos said that the potential tensions between human rights and religious values is not between “religion” and “human rights” per se, but about  how both are interpreted and applied. There is no basis to frame these tensions as an unassailable antagonism between the two.

“Our holy books have peace and have war, our societal histories have peace and have war” said Dimitrakopoulos, “it’s up to us to choose which one we emphasise, which one we live.”

Skepticism around human rights by some religious leaders and suspicion of religious actors by human rights advocates comes down to a lack of awareness, education, and interaction, said Kerr.

Dimitrakopoulos and Kerr agreed that the best way to seek this balance — and avoid strained relations — should be to regularly, substantively, and actively include religious actors in discussions around human rights. For example, when the European Union was considering its constitution, religious actors were involved in the dialogue, said Dimitrakopoulos. From the very beginning, partners on both sides recognised that “social law and divine law had to be in dialogue” to make the process successful and sustainable.

“Because religious leaders shape public opinion around laws governing society,” said Dimitrakopoulos, “it is important to engage with them to find some sort of shared space with human rights actors — to build up trust to support and empower the vulnerable in our societies.”

“Just including religious leaders doesn’t go far enough,” said Kerr, “it’s also important to think about, and actively include, other minorities in the same conversations: women, children, youth, etc.”

How can religious actors contribute to the realisation of human rights in the public sphere?

“Religious actors can, and do, contribute to the promotion of human rights in many and various ways,” said Kerr.

However, when it comes to how “religion” contributes to the realisation of human rights in the public sphere, things get a little more complex. Although it may appear as if “religions” enable or stand in the way of human rights, religions, as such, cannot obstruct or contribute to the defence of human rights, she said. “Religions do not have agency in and of themselves,” said Kerr, “it is religious actors who have agency — the power to make a change.”

One way to do this is to intentionally identify issues of common concern: the situation of migrants' and refugees' integration, climate change, marginalised minorities’ living conditions, racism, equity for persons with disabilities, and religious freedom, said Kerr. “By identifying shared challenges and priorities, actors on all sides can find safe spaces to come together,” she said.

Starting with dialogue, Dimitrakopoulos said, religious and secular institutions, organizations, and actors can find ways to work together to achieve change. “It’s the outcome that will bring us together,” said Dimitrakopoulos.In this regard, KAICIID has a wealth of experience, he added.

Their work on issues as diverse as hate speech, integration, environmental justice, and public health has shown not only how religious actors can be a part of upholding and advancing human rights, but often take a leading role, he said. “Organizations such as KAICIID show us how the work can be done — both in theory and in practice on the ground”.

A Legacy of Transformation: Alissa Wahid and the Gusdurian Network Indonesia

Inheriting a father’s legacy is never easy — especially when that father was the first democratically elected Indonesian president in a generation.

When President Abdurrahman Wahid — popularly known as “Gus Dur” — died in 2009, millions of people visited his grave in the remote East Javanese town of Jombang. Even now, twelve years later, the East Java Tourism Agency reports that half-a-million people visit each month.

While president of Indonesia for only two tumultuous years, Gus Dur’s legacy endures beyond his time in office. Upon his passing, people from across Indonesia’s religious and political spectrums felt a deep, personal sense of loss for a much-loved humanitarian whose compassionate activism transcended religious boundaries.

For 2017 KAICIID Fellow Alissa Wahid, 49, being Gus Dur’s daughter, not to mention the granddaughter of one of the founders of Nahdlatul Ulama — which with somewhere between 40-60 million members is the largest Muslim organization in the world — it is quite the legacy to live up to.

“You can imagine what kind of expectations I was born into,” she said with a portrait of her father hanging behind her, “it was this huge burden.”

Even so, she channelled her family’s legacy into pioneering an interreligious movement of her own: the Gusdurian Network Indonesia (GNI). Founded in 2010, GNI works with grassroots-level activists across Indonesia to promote interreligious reconciliation, active citizenship, democracy, and human rights.

It is hard to measure the full extent of the organization, as they have no formal membership structure, but it has chapters in over 114 locations across Indonesia — and international chapters in places like Malaysia, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Germany, the Philippines, and Egypt. On Twitter, GNI enjoys 235,000 followers alongside Wahid’s 449,300.

As GNI’s National Director, Wahid has been at the forefront of fighting for religious minorities’ rights in Indonesia, promoting a vision of interreligious exchange between Muslims and non-Muslims, and seeking to build on, and extend, her forebears’ legacy.

“Who Will Protect Us?”

For Wahid, the journey to being a public servant was not self-evident. While her sister — popularly known as Yenny — went into politics and took up the job of directing her late father’s research centre (The Wahid Institute), Alissa initially shunned the public eye.

But when her father passed away in 2009, representatives of various religious minorities came to Wahid’s house to pay their respects. They also shared their struggles and asked her to intervene.

“They said things to me like, ‘now that your father has passed away, who should we come to when we suffer? Who will protect us?’” she said.

“In those moments, I thought back to what my father always told us — ‘you have to realise your capacity,’ he always said we could live whatever lifestyle we wanted, but we could not abandon our calling.”

Thus compelled, Wahid founded GNI to extend her father’s work and create collaborative spaces for interreligious dialogue.

GNI’s extensive network has allowed Wahid not only to promote pluralism in Indonesia on a large scale, but also to mobilise people locally to protect marginalised communities when they come under threat.

In 2010, Wahid was sipping on a latte in Starbucks when she received a notification about an attack on a West Javan village. Largely inhabited by Ahmadis — a denomination considered “non-Muslim” by religious hardliners — assailants descended upon the village as part of a spate of vicious attacks across Indonesia. The Ahmadis feared for their lives.

The message Wahid received from 500 kilometres away not only communicated the danger but expressed the hope that Gusdurians would come to their aide. Wahid dropped the latte and sprang into action, finding Gusdurians in the area and connecting them to village residents.

The network not only responded, they formed a protective, human barrier around the village — literally standing up for the ideals of religious pluralism and freedom Wahid’s father championed.

It was a tipping point for the organization. And for Wahid. “I realised then that this work isn’t just nice talk,” said Wahid, “this is about defending freedoms, protecting people, especially vulnerable groups.”

The Persistent Pursuit Of Elusive Justice

Since those early days, the organization’s prominence, and Wahid’s convictions, led her to wade back into politics. The rise of religious extremism in Indonesia worries many members of government and in recent years, they’ve increasingly called on Wahid to help address the popular shift to the right.

During her KAICIID fellowship, Wahid came to see again how influential religious leaders can be.

“Many things can be mobilised by using religion,” she said, “religion can be a good thing or also misused as a tool for conflict.”

And so, during her fellowship, Wahid began working on government projects to advocate for more interreligious dialogue and “not only promote peace,” she said, “but advance religious moderation.”

Along with other KAICIID Fellows, Wahid saw how interreligious dialogue “is really needed to get some misperceptions, misunderstandings, and prejudices out of the way so we can go ahead and think of a better world.”

Nonetheless, Wahid and GNI continue to face opposition from traditionalists and hardliners in Indonesian society and government. The battles that her father fought are persistent, said Wahid, and she knows they will not go away without perseverance.

“You don’t have to like the work, just focus on the result you’re trying to get,” said Wahid, “politics is like dancing: One step forward, two back. Justice is elusive, but always around the corner.

Although she admits that there is still a long road ahead, she is pleased to see how her father’s ideas and legacy are not forgotten, but perhaps thriving more than ever before.

“At the highest levels of government, we have been talking about interfaith cooperation, about respect, about bringing a more just perspective into religious lives,” said Wahid, “the real achievement will be to take that talk and establish social, physical, and psychological space where people can come together based on principles of justice and humanity.”

When all is said and done, Wahid hopes GNI’s legacy will be one of long-term “social transformation.”

Recognition In Indonesia And Beyond

Despite setbacks, people in Indonesia and abroad have recognised what GNI has already accomplished. In 2018, GNI received Taiwan’s Asia Democracy and Human Rights Award and in 2020, they were named the best social media movement by one of Indonesia’s largest news agencies.

Manjid Achmad, professor at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta who researches interreligious dialogue, said GNI and Wahid show how to promote religious pluralism and effectively protect minority rights, “not by fighting against or solving these common problems by itself, but inspiring others to solve them,” he said.

Pointing to how Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Buddhists, and others are all part of the network, Achmad said, “the more actors that are doing this, the better for Indonesia.”

Indonesian scholar Aan Anshori and GNI member added his own personal perspective: “I’ve learned many things through her work: integrity, modesty, and courage, she is a spiritual leader for us, showing us the path that requires sacrifice for defending the oppressed,” he said, “Alissa is not only Gus Dur’s biological daughter, but an ideological one.”

In that, Anshori said, she carries the legacy of her predecessors well.

*This profile is my latest with the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture’s “Engaged Spirituality Project.” To read other profiles in this project, see below:

• A Butcher By Name, This Muslim Surgeon Saves Lives Across Battle Lines (Mohammed Elgazzar)

• Azza Karam listens to the world’s religious women and thinks you should too (Azza Karam)

• Drawing from a broad stream of spirituality, Ela Gandhi continues to serve humanity (Ela Gandhi)

Health Concerns in Religious Communities: Challenges and Approaches

During the course of the pandemic, religious leaders have often found themselves on the frontlines of the global health crisis. In addition to adapting rituals to new norms of social distancing and digital worship, religious leaders became humanitarian aid providers, medical responders, and local information experts.

Now, as the world focuses on vaccine rollout and returning to some sense of normalcy in the months and years to come, religious communities and leaders, as with society at large, have to confront challenges posed by mistrust of science or government, vaccine disinformation, and concerns. In some quarters over whether the vaccine aligns with religious values and law.

At an April 2021 workshop Sarah Hess, Sally Smith, and Melinda Frost of the Information Network for Epidemics (EPI-WIN), Health Emergencies Programme at the World Health Organization (WHO) shared their insights on the importance of working with religious communities during the crisis. They also shared some tools and best practices for religious communities to confront this all-embracing global health emergency.

Respecting their holy places as our own

As fighting continues in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia, both an historic church that claims to house the “Ark of the Covenant” and one of sub-Saharan Africa’s oldest mosques recently came under attack, with hundreds killed in the violence.

This is one example of how religious sites are becoming increasingly vulnerable. Muslims have been murdered in mosques, Jews assaulted in synagogues, Sikhs, Christians, and others killed at worship, and religious cemeteries and sites vandalised across the globe.

To help prevent such violence and promote peaceful consensus, the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) co-sponsored the “United in Diversity: Preservation of Cultural and Religious Sites” webinar on 12 May 2021.

Speakers addressed the responsibility of religious communities to address the protection of not only their traditions’ religious sites, cultural heritage, and historical experience, but also those of others.

Each underscored what United Nations Secretary General António Guterres wrote in his preface to the United Nations’ Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites: “Religious sites and all places of worship and contemplation should be safe havens, not sites of terror or bloodshed.”

From focal points of conflict to “places of exchange”

The Plan of Action was part of the UN's response to the 2019 attacks against mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which caused the deaths of 51 people, said Dr. Paul Morris, UNESCO Chair in Interreligious Understanding and Relations at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

The attack illustrated how sacred sites can become symbolic vehicles for expressing hatred, Morris said.

“Religious sites play a role in collective identity, mobilising communities, and in individual and communal cohesion and well-being,” he said. At the same time, however, “they can also become focal points of conflict and terror,” he added.

Morris hopes that the UN Plan of Action will not only protect sacred sites, but enhance their roles as “meeting points” and “places of exchange.”

Religious sites are a living heritage, or “treasures” that can “foster dialogue and respect for diversity,” he added.

Protecting sacred heritage in Thailand and India

Lertchanta Ally Seeluangsawat, Scouts of the World Award (SWA) Coordinator for Thailand Kaengkrachan Riverside Scout Camp, shared with participants her experiences working with Scouts pursuing their SWA at Sukhothai, a historic town in the north of Thailand.

Sukhothai, the capital of the first Kingdom of Siam in the 13th- and 14th-centuries. (PHOTO: Peter Borter)

Scouts come to Sukhothai not only to learn about its history, but also to ensure its preservation: “They not only get information about a place, but also serve and help protect and sustain it,” she said.

Sukhothai – the capital of the first Kingdom of Siam in the 13th- and 14th-centuries – is one of the first UNESCO World Heritage Sites to benefit from the Scouts’ new World Heritage Recognition Achievement programme. The programme derives from a 2018 agreement between UNESCO and the WOSM through which Scouts learn to appreciate and help preserve World Heritage Sites globally.

Seeluangsawat explained that throughout the programme, she emphasises to the Scouts that Sukhothai is part of their heritage, towards which they owe a duty of care:  “I always tell them, ‘it is your duty to do something. If you do not do it, who will? If not now, when?’”

Scout Chetan Mogral's programme involves the preservation of a less tangible expression of heritage and tradition in India.

Mogral described how he works to preserve a sacred dance called barathyanatyam as well as a cultural folk fair known as Yakshagana. Together, they represent an important link between India’s past and present, he said.

“The protection of any kind of art — or site — is only possible when it is being passed on to the next generation,” said Mogral, “when people know the history and understand themselves as part of it.”

“Respect their holy places as our own”

Rabbi Ioni Shalom of the Latin American Jewish Congress told webinar participants that one of the greatest challenges involves learning to appreciate and protect the heritage of other cultures and religions as well as one's own.

Ohel Jakob Synagogue in Munich, Germany. (PHOTO: Ken Chitwood)

 "If a place is sacred to someone else, how can I learn to have empathy with what someone else feels for that site? How can I appreciate why the ‘Other’ finds a place holy?” participants were told.

Shalom shared a story of his own journey of understanding in Israel and Palestine where he found in his interaction with Christians and Muslims along the way why they found places to be sacred through the prism of their own traditions: “Through the process, I not only learned how others felt, but we became friends,” he said.

“When you have this closeness to the other it is easier to understand, but also grow together,” he added. “So what happened there on that trip is that we not only understand the thinking of the other but also feel what the other felt.”

KAICIID Fellow Fatima Madaki closed the webinar by sharing how she attempts to achieve the same experience with Christian and Muslim youth in Nigeria.

Through “Building Consensus on the Protection of Holy Sites,” an interfaith peacebuilding project promoting the protection of holy sites from destruction and desecration in northern Nigeria, Madaki aimed to show participants how “places of worship need to be recognised as sanctuaries of peace for many.”

Madaki said she focused on helping people on both sides “know the value of what we are losing, that we are destroying more than a building.”

Through women and youth-led mentorship programmes, participants learned “that there is value in holding exchanges, working with one another, rather than against,” said Madaki.

“It is only if we experience and understand the ‘Other,’” said Madaki, “we can expand our perspective and respect their holy places as our own.”

How to monitor, identify, and counter hate speech

“The words of a human being have tremendous power, to build and destroy, to give life and to take life. In Abrahamic religions, an essential part of the creation of the world was the word. It was words that created this world and it is words that will destroy this world,” said Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi of Moscow and member of the European Muslim and Jewish Leadership Council (MJLC).

Worldwide, xenophobia, racism, and other forms of intolerance — including antisemitism, misogyny, and islamophobia — are prevalent in public discourse, the media, and political rhetoric.

The global growth of hate speech raises the spectre of how, over the past century, it was a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide, from Germany to Rwanda, Cambodia to Bosnia.

“Hate speech is virtually everywhere,” said Goldschmidt, “but we must not tolerate it anywhere.”

With this in mind, the International Dialogue Center (KAICIID) has been employing a range of initiatives to help religious communities and leaders counter hate speech, from producing a guide on how to monitor and analyse hate speech to hosting consultations with experts in the field.

“Religious actors and interreligious leaders,” said Faisal bin Muaammar, Secretary General of KAICIID, “have a role to play in countering hate speech.”

Recently, I learned from KAICIID experts in partnership with the European Council of Religious Leaders/ Religions for Peace- Europe (ECRL/RfP Europe) with the support of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) to develop a guide to IDENTIFYING, MONITORING, and COUNTERING HATE SPEECH.

We all have a role to play in responding to hate speech and it begins with understanding what it is, how it manifests online and in day-to-day life, and why it is resonating and replicating. 

Priest wants you to "Give the World a Shot"

When Rev. Dr. Richard Sudworth received his COVID-19 vaccine — or “jab”— he said it was more than a medical procedure, it was a solemn affair.

“It is really quite moving,” said Sudworth, Secretary for Inter Religious Affairs to the Archbishop of Canterbury and KAICIID Board Member, “we thank scientists, we thank medical professionals, but we also thank God. It’s a gift.” 

It is this gratitude, said Sudworth, that moved a coalition of partners in the United Kingdom, including Church of England, Office of the Chief Rabbi and the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, to work with UNICEF to launch a vaccine equity programme that would help schemes such as COVAX – an international cooperative formed to make sure low- and middle-income countries have fair access to COVID-19 vaccines.

PHOTO courtesy Khalid Bari via KAICIID.

Called “Give the World a Shot,” the programme operates on the premise that if people want to express their gratitude after receiving the vaccine, they can give money to support those communities still struggling to access it. 

“Modest in what it’s trying to do, it’s very ambitious too,” said Sudworth. With donations going to provide protective kits to health workers or to help transport doses of vaccines, they set a target of helping UNICEF deliver 2 billion vaccines. 

Although an increasing number of countries’ inoculation programmes are underway, global vaccine rollout remains an uneven affair.

According to the Duke Global Health Innovation Center Launch and Scale Speedometer’s latest data, high-income countries already own more than half of all doses purchased worldwide. At this rate, estimates suggest that vaccine supplies will be too low to inoculate the entirety of the world’s population until at least 2023.  

Experts say providing widespread access to COVID-19 vaccines is necessary to ensure global immunity against the deadly disease. It is also, said Sudworth, something the world’s faith communities must address together.

"There's no issue more important": Chief Rabbi Rosen on Climate Change and Environmental Justice

When it comes to the twin issues of climate change and environmental justice, Chief Rabbi David Rosen is uncompromising.

“There’s no issue more important,” he said in a recent interview with KAICIID. “Of all the very significant things that need to be done in our world, what is their value if we are going to destroy it all? Our responsibility is a critical imperative for the survival of life on earth itself.”

A former Chief Rabbi of Ireland and senior rabbi of the largest Orthodox Jewish congregation in South Africa, Rosen is a prominent interreligious leader. As such, he is the American Jewish Committee’s International Director of Interreligious Affairs and a member of the KAICIID Board of Directors.

Chief Rabbi David Rosen speaking at the Religions for Peace 10th World Assembly in Lindau, Germany (PHOTO: Courtesy RfP)

Of all aspects of his work in interreligious dialogue and education, his greatest passion remains the care of the environment and the need to reform our lifestyles accordingly.

“As a religious practitioner, I believe that there is no issue today that is as compelling or imperative for religious people to be engaged with,” he said.

In addition to his work with KAICIID, Rosen has worked with Religions for Peace (RfP) and the Parliament of the World Religions on a variety of interreligious efforts aimed at combatting the calamitous effects of climate change. He frequently writes, speaks, and is actively engaged with multiple initiatives addressing the challenges posed by climate change.

Two of those initiatives are the Jerusalem-based Interfaith Centre for Sustainable Development (ICSD) and the Interfaith Rainforest Initiative — an international, multi-faith alliance that “works to bring moral urgency and faith-based leadership to global efforts to end tropical deforestation.”

Rosen's convictions arise out of a deep personal appreciation of the environment as a gift from God.

Dealing with Diversity in Europe’s Classrooms

Across Europe, teachers are coming to terms with increasingly diverse classrooms.

While diversity has long been a feature on the continent, a growing medley of religious, cultural, and linguistic influences — brought on by international and intra-Europe migration — has created both opportunities and challenges across Europe’s educational landscape.

According to a 2017 European Union report, increased numbers of refugee, asylum seeker, and migrant children — as of January 2019, 4.9% (21.8 million) of the European Union’s (EU) 446.8 million residents, were non-EU-27 citizens — have placed pressure on schools and teachers to “re-consider their everyday practices and strategies to meet” a range of diverse learning needs.

As teachers aspire for full participation from all pupils, recent studies suggest that public issues of intolerance and social exclusion are showing up in schools as well.

Taking these challenges into consideration, a group of experts at a December 2017 workshop on Interreligious Education in Europe in Vienna, Austria, co-hosted by KAICIID, decided to establish the Network for Dialogue.

Djuríc Milovanović: "Active Policies For Newcomers In Host Society Are Required"

Made up of members of top religious groups, civil society organizations, and higher education institutions, the Network for Dialogue is a Europe-wide, KAICIID-supported platform engaging a range of policy issues related to refugee integration and interreligious dialogue.

KAICIID's lead representative with the Network for Dialogue, Dr. Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović, said migration statistics and worrying reports about social inclusion, “require active policies for newcomers in a host society.”

Formal education, she said, is a crucial component of this process. “Gaps exist at many levels, but we are aware of particular shortcomings and current challenges in formal education settings,” said Djurić Milovanović Already, there are grassroots dialogue efforts that are aiming to fill those gaps, said Djuríc Milovanović. “However, not all of them are linked to the formal education structures or able to bring change at the policy level,” she said.

The Network for Dialogue is working with these groups and individuals, supporting their initiatives and helping them collaborate with policymakers.

“In order to bring about substantial change, these voices from the ground need to provide recommendations and advise policymakers in creating schemes and implementing strategies at institutional levels,” said Djurić Milovanović.

There are a variety of challenges that policymakers and practitioners need to face, she said.

“Despite increasing diversity in European classrooms, teaching and other educational professions tend to be fairly homogenous and teachers often lack training in intercultural and interreligious awareness and skills,” she said.

Because of this, Djurić Milovanović said, “migrant students lack sufficient support to cater to their needs and often display lower academic resilience and are at higher-risk for anxiety and struggling with psychological wellbeing.”

In a draft policy brief, the Network for Dialogue recommended several next steps to address such obstacles. These included proposing that educational leaders should engage parents of migrant children in school activities as equal partners and not only as beneficiaries, fast-track qualification and accreditation schemes for teachers with migrant and refugee backgrounds, and the creation of curriculum and training programmes on cultural diversity, religious literacy, social inclusion, intercultural education, and interreligious dialogue.

Waseem Haddad, KAICIID Programme Manager for Iraq and Syria, is encouraged by the Network for Dialogue’s work in Europe and recommendations for the future.

Education, he said, constitutes a primary space for the formation of identity.

“Critical thinking skills, awareness of diversity, and the practice of informed decision making, and civic participation can be acquired and practiced at this level,” he said, “If these skills and values are not transmitted in education, adults and children will face major challenges in accepting difference and celebrating ethnic, religious and cultural commonalties.”

Haddad also emphasised the importance of religious education in developing a generation’s recognition and acceptance of “the other” regardless of differences in religion, language, or culture.

To that end, both Djuríc Milovanović and Haddad might be encouraged by a new initiative in Austria.

Austrian Pilot Project Supports Christian-Islamic Team Teaching In Schools

Funded by the Austrian Scientific Fund (FWF) for a period of three years, the “Christian-Islamic Religious Education in Team Teaching” pilot project was developed to support Christian and Muslim teachers teaching their religious education classes together, at the same time, in the same classroom.

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Weirer, theology professor at the University of Graz and leader of the project team, said that while there are no “typical lesson plans” — as each lesson is planned by the teachers themselves — both similarities and differences between Christianity and Islam are addressed.

“In this context, it is important for us that the pupils experience in class that religion can be discussed in an appreciative way and that differences do not have to be faded out,” he said.

The aim of this mutual encounter, Weirer said, is “to question prejudices through the encounter with people from different religious backgrounds and, if necessary, to reduce existing fears and discrimination.”

In addition to supporting the project’s teachers, Weirer and his team analyse additional aspects of interreligious education, including legal opportunities and frameworks to conduct interreligious cooperation initiatives between different schools, competencies and attitudes of teaching personnel, and learning conditions that must exist in order to encourage encounters between students of different religious backgrounds.

“Education does not necessarily promote social inclusion, but can also contribute to segregation”, Weirer said.

To encourage the former and prevent the latter, “it is a matter of developing targeted educational programs that promote pupils in their respective strengths and contribute to equal opportunities,” he said. “School can thus become a place where peaceful and constructive coexistence in a plural society can be experienced.”

For her part, Djurić Milovanović believes such experiences not only enrich the classroom, but society at large. She believes efforts like that of the Network for Dialogue or the pilot project in Austria can create a “chain of positive change.” “All these small micro changes in the classroom of one teacher may seem irrelevant or very small or invisible,” said Djuríc Milovanović, “but we need to empower teachers to feel like they're a crucial element in bringing about positive change in society.”

“Teachers need to have the perspective that encounters with diversity in the classroom can open up a space for dialogue” she said, “and they play a vital role in teaching dialogue to not only their classroom, but to the continent as a whole.”

Faith Leaders on the Frontlines of COVID-19 Response

When Margaret Hoffman passed away last spring, her remains were brought from California to her hometown in Wisconsin and interred in a plot she chose years ago. There was a brief, Christian ceremony and those in attendance sang the hymn, “The Old Rugged Cross” per her request. In many ways, it all happened exactly as planned.

One thing Hoffman could not have foreseen, however, was that her funeral would take place during a global pandemic, which prevented most of her family from attending, save for a few distant cousins.

Along with claiming the lives of millions, COVID-19 has upended death rituals like Hoffman’s across faith traditions and spurred religious actors to respond with creativity and compassion when it comes to bereavement services and crisis response.

Here is the story of two faith leaders — one a rabbi in the United States and the other a priest in India — who have stepped up to provide frontline care, and inspire others to follow their lead, in the midst of an unprecedented pandemic.

A Shared Legacy of Loss: Muslims and Jews Commemorate #HolocaustRemembranceDay

Rabbi Lody van de Kamp speaking at a meeting of the Muslim Jewish Leadership Council (MJLC) of Europe. (PHOTO: Courtesy KAICIID)

At a Facebook Live event commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Rabbi Lody van de Kamp switched on his microphone and solemnly addressed his global audience:

“I am speaking today on behalf of two young children I never knew; brothers, whose name I bear. They were murdered in Auschwitz along with other family who never returned to Dutch soil after being taken away to the concentration camps.”

There are moments in history which bind people of all religions and cultures together - the celebration of human achievement and goodness, and perhaps, most poignantly, the consequences of human evil.  

In the Holocaust’s legacy of tragedy and loss, European Jews have found a dedicated ally – Muslim communities which are all too aware of how hate speech can unleash genocide and crimes against humanity.

Nermin Fazlagic, President of the Islamic Community of Bosniaks in Italy (CIBI), fled brutal ethnic and religious conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina with his family in the 1990s. In 1995, he watched in horror as news outlets reported the massacre of 8000 Bosniak Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica.

Partnering with the Islamic Religious Community in Italy (COREIS), Fazlagic and CIBI hosted a special virtual event last Sunday, inviting prominent Jewish and Muslim leaders to stand together in honour of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Building a Better World for Everyone: H.E. Cardinal John Oneiyekan on Interfaith Input at the G20

In 2005, Cardinal Onaiyekan’s commitment to peace and de-escalation was put to the test. He had just received word that a Danish newspaper had printed a series of satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, sending shockwaves through Nigeria and resulting in hundreds of casualties in a violent uprising between the country’s Christian and Muslim communities.

Following visits from the Israeli ambassador and a representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, Cardinal Onaiyekan reached out to the Sultan of Sokoto, the leader of Nigeria’s Muslim community. Together two of Nigeria’s most influential religious leaders issued a joint statement declaring that the incident was not a Muslim-Christian issue and urging both sides to settle disputes peacefully.

In the years since, His Eminence Cardinal John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, Metropolitan Archbishop of Abuja, Nigeria, has earned his reputation as the person to call in Nigeria when there is conflict, especially those of an interreligious nature.

Following his education and early work with the Church, Cardinal Onaiyekan was appointed the Auxiliary Bishop of Ilorin at the age of 38. Now retired from official church duties, Cardinal Onaiyekan continues to advocate religious peacebuilding and justice in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world.

In 2012, he was named Pax Christi International’s 2012 Peace Laureate, an annual prize awarded to exemplary individuals who stand up for peace, justice, and nonviolence across the globe.

“I am involved at the international level for the same reasons I’ve been at the frontlines of Christian-Muslim dialogue in my country — to work for justice and peace,” he said.  

Due to his sterling record of interreligious engagement in Nigeria, and his persistent promotion of peace in other capacities throughout his career, he has served as honorary president of Religions for Peace (RfP), as President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and as President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria.

He has also been invited to be a part of the upcoming G20 Interfaith Forum which will be held October 13-17 – a role that Cardinal Onaiyekan sees as an opportunity to bring the importance of faith in conflict resolution and sustainable development to the forefront.

Creating Practical Partnerships to Protect the Planet

At the 10th World Assembly of Religions for Peace (RfP) in Lindau, Germany, Rabbi Elías Szczytnicki urgently made his way to the front of the crowd after a draft of the assembly declaration was read aloud.

Addressing a host of issues, ranging from violent conflicts to education, extreme poverty to protecting sacred sites, the declaration was deficient in one detail, argued Szczytnicki. While it included a section on “Sustainable and Integral Human Development and Protecting the Earth,” the declaration did not go far enough, in his opinion.

“The environment has to be the number one priority. It’s not enough to make it the last paragraph, it has to be the first,” said Szczytnicki, Regional Secretary General for Religions for Peace in Latin America and the Caribbean.

“After all,” Szczytnicki said, “if the climate crisis persists at its present rate, we will have no earth to protect, no place upon which we will build our synagogues, churches, or mosques. No shared land to make peace over, no sanctuary at all.”

Szczytnicki delivered the same message to those deliberating over the most pressing issues of our time as part of the regional consultations leading up to the G20 Interfaith Forum, to be streamed from Saudi Arabia on 13-17 October.

To Szczytnicki’s delight, one of the summits’ principal themes is “protecting the planet.”

Delegates will discuss and make policy recommendations concerning a range of issues, including ecology, with an emphasis on deforestation and the protection of rainforests, access to clean water, commitment to reducing the use of plastics, and the commitment of faith networks to disaster-risk reduction. These reflect several of the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to the environment.

Above all, Szczytnicki and others involved in the consultations process leading up to the summit hope to see one concrete outcome: practical partnerships that address climate change and its consequences.

Dr. Lara Wakim, Dean of The School of Agriculture, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, Lebanon, emphasised the need for partnerships to achieve any practical results in protecting the planet.

Alongside providing scientific knowledge to the Interfaith Forum process, Wakim also sees her role as one of inspiring and empowering faith-based organizations (FBOs) and their leaders to advocate on behalf of the environment. “Spiritual leaders at all levels are critical to the success of global solidarity for an ethical, moral and spiritual commitment to protect the environment and God’s creation,” she said.

In particular, Wakim advised FBOs to consider taking concrete steps by changing attitudes in their own communities, supporting the right to a clean environment, or “greening” their investments and assets to support the implementation of the SDGs.

“Almost all religions agree that creation is an act of God and that nature is an act of divinity and should be treated as such,” she said, “hence, FBO’s core values are largely in line with the 2030 Agenda.”

To make their contributions concrete, however, Wakim said partnerships beyond faith groups are necessary. Besides mobilising religious leaders, Wakim also works to establish working relationships between scientific research institutions, non-profits, public institutions, and the private sector.  

“I strongly believe that the SDGs can only be achieved if the widest range of partnerships and collaborations are encouraged and facilitated across all sectors and all levels of society,” she said.

A prime example of the possibility — and challenges — of such partnerships, is the work of Roland Moore. Moore is Senior Director of Sustainability at Burson, Cohn, and Wolfe, an international communications firm. Before, he worked on environmental policy issues in the United Kingdom (UK) Civil Service for fifteen years.

In the lead up to the G20 Interfaith Forum, Moore was asked to bring his breadth of experience and expertise into preparatory conversations in the ad hoc working group on the environment.

On the one hand, to work with what he called a “groundbreaking community of people seeking to establish concrete ideas on religion and the environment” was “very appealing,” said Moore.

As an Anglican, Moore long hoped for religious leaders to lead the way when it comes to sustainability. Pointing to climate change heroes like Greta Thunberg, he asked “we are seeing leaders emerge from all walks of life — business, civil society — why shouldn’t we see leaders in the religious community?”

“I think the interfaith voice in the debate about climate change is critical,” said Moore, “that was my inspiration to get involved.”

On the other hand, Moore found the process to be more arduous than expected. Trying to rally disparate voices from across the religious spectrum proved “a bridge too far” he said. Sometimes, it was difficult to find consensus.

An even more pressing, and ever-present, problem, was getting government representatives to truly listen to religious voices, said Moore.

“I thought religious actors were pretty much plugged into the process,” he said. The reality, he found, was that while not necessarily “window dressing,” FBOs were “being treated a bit like an afterthought,” he said.

Representing billions of people across the world, Moore feels FBOs’ voices should be better integrated in policy discussions. “In these policy recommendations we are going to write some words, and those words are going to matter,” he said. “It would be good to pay attention to faith in a more systematic way if we want them to be effective.”

Partnerships between FBOs, governments, and the private sector only work when all parties are treated like partners, he explained. Or, as he put it, when each constituency is “baked into the cake.”

Szczytnicki, who recently finished being part of the G20 Interfaith Forum’s Regional Consultation for Latin America, agreed that it can be a challenge for religious voices to be heard “in a world that is becoming more secular every day.”

But being on the margins, he argued, can also remind FBOs of their core purpose — leading the way as advocates for those most adversely impacted by the effects of climate change.

In a UN working paper from 2017, S. Nazrul Islam and John Winkel found that there is a “vicious cycle” between climate change and existing inequalities. They wrote, “initial inequality causes the disadvantaged groups to suffer disproportionately from the adverse effects of climate change, resulting in greater subsequent inequality.”

In places like Peru, Brazil, Colombia, and other countries connected through the Amazon rainforest, Szczytnicki is particularly concerned with indigenous peoples and the rural poor. For him, acting as an advocate for such communities in the realm of climate change is a reflection of a common religious refrain — to defend, protect, and advocate on behalf of the most vulnerable.

Particularly when it comes to deforestation, Szczytnicki said the “purpose and voice of religious leaders is to work in alliance with indigenous peoples to monitor, follow-up, help implement, review objectives, etc.”

For Szczytnicki, this also means not separating climate change from other pertinent issues effecting the global community. He said, “it is very important for religious leaders to tell our governments that economic policy, social policy, environmental policy, the three of them have to go hand-in-hand and cannot be separated.

“Development as a three-dimensional concept,” he said.

Coordinated partnerships — between disadvantaged groups and religious actors, religious actors and government institutions, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations — are essential, said Szczytnicki.

“Everyone understands the planet and human destiny according to their perspective,” he said, “but the world is something that transcends the life of each one of us —it’s a common destiny that accompanies all human life.”

Echoing his words at the RfP World Assembly, Szczytnicki said while he is strongly committed to meeting the SDGs, the environment has to be the number one priority.

“There is no other place right now where we have to live together,” he said, “so we have to figure out how to solve this together or none of us will have a habitat to live, worship, or pray in.”

*THIS STORY ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON KAICIID.ORG

An Axiom of Participation: The Role of Religion in Peacebuilding and Conflict Prevention

When it comes to conflict, religion holds a paradoxical place in the public imagination.

Religious actors acknowledge that they and their religious communities often fall short and that their faiths have been twisted to fuel hate and violence.

At the same time, representatives from across the religious and political spectrum believe that “when it comes to today’s crises, religion isn’t just part of the problem—it’s part of the solution.”

The G20 Interfaith Forum, scheduled to be streamed from Saudi Arabia from 13-17 October, highlights how interreligious cooperation can help solve global challenges, bringing together religious thought leaders and political representatives to seek solutions to some of the world’s most intractable problems.

According to conveners, the goal is to ensure “that the rich, countless ideas and actions of the worlds’ religious communities about global agendas are heard and understood.”

One of the prime emphases of this year’s forum will be on the role of religion in peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Representatives from various regions will wrestle with how faith communities can inform, and help enact, policy related to countering hate speech, protecting sacred sites, addressing violent extremism, promoting inclusive citizenship, and preventing human trafficking and modern slavery.

A Worldwide Community of Peacebuilders: How Scouts across the globe are learning to talk to one another

While many might assume that Argentina is overwhelmingly Catholic, its demographics feature more pluralism than expected. With a historic Jewish population, a large “unaffiliated” community, the largest Muslim minority in Latin America, and a rising number of evangelicals, Argentina is a religiously diverse country.

That’s why university student and Scout Adult Leader Sol Conte Roberts of Buenos Aires, believes dialogue is so important.

Conte Roberts finds in dialogue “the possibility to really listen to 'the Other,' instead of judging based on our assumptions and misperceptions” across religious, cultural, gender, age, and class differences. “We need dialogue in all areas of society, to provide a safe space to know yourself and to know others,” she said.

Conte Roberts is one of the thousands of young people who have taken part in activities of the flagship Dialogue for Peace (DfP) Programme trainings, jointly developed by the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) and the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM).

Created for and with the help of young people, the programme aims to institutionalise dialogue as part of WOSM and create opportunities for Scouts and young people across the world to design their own local intercultural and interreligious dialogue sessions and approach.

By participating in activities, workshops, trainings, and demonstrating their dialogue skills in the real world, Scouts can earn one of three color-coded badges: a green badge for the “Personal Dialogue achievement” a red badge for “Dialogue Trainer Accreditation,” or a blue badge for “Facilitator Dialogue Accreditation.” Each badge highlights a different aspect of a Scout’s knowledge of, and commitment to, the promotion of dialogue.

As of June 2020, 9,000 people around the globe had been involved with trainings, sessions, workshops, dialogue circles and online webinars across all six Scout Regions, namely Africa, Arab, Asia-Pacific, Eurasia, Europe, and Interamerica. These events have produced a robust international pool of 40 accredited trainers and facilitators (holders of red and blue badges). Another 30 are in the process of accreditation worldwide.

Sol Conte Roberts leading a dialogue session with fellow Scouts (Courtesy Sol Conte Roberts)

Soon, with the help of these trainers and facilitators, scores of Scouts will be able to earn the Personal Dialogue green badges, with a systematic roll-out of “Scouts in Dialogue” on the national level planned to sustain the programme into the future. To get involved with DfP training, a Scout must contact their National Scout Organization (NSO) to begin.

What follows are stories from three different accredited dialogue facilitators and trainers — from Argentina, Tunisia, and Romania — that speak to the global impact of the programme. Each story highlights how the programme equips changemakers with the tools needed to build a culture of dialogue, contribute to reconciliation efforts, and dispel stereotypes in countries across the world

Building a culture of peace in Buenos Aires 

Conte Roberts joined the Scouts de Argentina, a member of the WOSM, at the age of nine. She appreciated the social opportunities, but enjoyed the education offered even more. In particular, she delighted in the opportunity for Argentines like herself to learn more about the world.

That is why she jumped at the chance to partake in a DfP training. In Houston and then at the World Scout Youth Forum in Azerbaijan in 2017 and in a follow-up training event in Panama in 2019, Conte Roberts interacted with Scouts from places as diverse as Sudan and Sweden, learning how to talk across cultural and religious differences in honest, respectful ways. Along the way, she earned a green “Personal Dialogue Badge” by not only taking part, but actively demonstrating her interest in, and knowledge of, dialogue in these activities.

Now, she serves as an ambassador for dialogue in Argentina and is working toward earning a “Dialogue Trainer Accreditation,” exhibiting the essential characteristics of dialogue: active listening, compassion, and openness to learn and to be changed; but also the skills to help others in their process of incorporating dialogue in their lives.

Not religious herself, Conte Roberts said dialogue creates a “safe space” for religious minorities to share openly about their experiences in Argentine society. This, she said, helps foster peace and justice in society as a whole.

“Here in Argentina, in the past, religion was a dangerous topic for us,” she recalls. “Now there are opportunities to talk more openly, and dialogue will help us do that.”

She hopes to launch a dialogue training course in her home country because “building a culture of peace is what Scouts do,” she said, “and the DfP Programme is a great way to make that happen.”

Tunis: “A sense of belonging to a wide community of peacebuilders”

Amal Ridene, 22, is a talented musician and high-powered graduate of the Tunis Business School, recently recruited as an analyst at a private equity firm in Tunis, Tunisia.

Amal Ridene leading a colorful dialogue session (Courtesy KAICIID/Amal Ridene)

Apart from her expertise in finance and her skills as a pianist, Ridene is also an active local member of Les Scouts Tunisiens. Globally, she serves as a Youth Advisor to the World Scout Committee and is the proud recipient of the red “Dialogue Trainer Accreditation” badge after completing coaching sessions and training at the Regional Arab DfP training in Cairo, Egypt, in 2019. 

The DfP accreditation attracted Ridene because “it carries a sense of belonging to a wide community of peacebuilders,” she said, “a responsibility that involves sharing what I learnt and acquired with others and a key language to use with global citizens — be they Scouts or non-Scouts.”

The process to earn the Trainer’s badge took her to Azerbaijan, Egypt, and India. “It involves participation in trainings, facilitating sessions in local groups and regional events, and a lot of interesting discussions with diverse groups of people, a self-discovery journey, and a learning process in shaping one’s training skills,” she said.

Through the dialogue training, Ridene learned that “openness is a key requirement for practicing dialogue, it is also important that one is aware about the other’s sensitivities and cultural and religious beliefs.” Whether in personal or professional settings, Ridene said, dialogue principles and values enable her “to give more value to everyday exchanges.”

Whether with colleagues, fellow musicians, or Scouts, Ridene said, “dialogue is a crucial tool in my daily tasks.”

Learning by doing in Bucharest

When the COVID-19 pandemic forced people to “shelter in place” across the world, Anca Burlacu of Romania knew dialogue could help individuals manage their mental health through challenging times. So, when the crisis hit, Burlacu launched an eight-week series of Dialogue Cafés for Romanian Scout leaders.

“They gave people across the world the opportunity to speak with someone about these difficult times,” she said, “people felt for the first time that they were being heard, being listened to. They felt comfortable to share their personal stories and struggles.”

Scouts learning dialogue, by doing dialogue (Courtesy Anca Burlacu)

Burlacu was able to lead the way in such a crisis after earning a blue, “Dialogue Facilitator Accreditation” badge through workshops, coaching sessions, and a demonstration of facilitation skills on multiple occasions in front of the WOSM-KAICIID DfP core team.

As a team leader, Burlacu has been part of multiple feedback sessions, one-to-ones, and dialogue training events, all the while learning the skills it takes to help others. “You have to know how to ask good questions, take notes, and apply the 10 Principles of Dialogue,” she said.

“Facilitation is a skill that you acquire and improve over time, you learn by doing,” she explained.

Burlacu is proud of the community she has seen form around sessions she facilitated. “Community is one of the most important things to help build real relationships,” she said, “if you want to manage conflict and create community, dialogue can help you and others live in a more peaceful environment.”

Ridene and Conte Roberts, with their set of unique experiences with dialogue, agreed with Burlacu. Each shared how dialogue creates a secure environment where individuals or groups can exchange views, knowledge, understandings, impressions, and perceptions of a certain topic or source of potential conflict.

Conte Roberts believes the DfP Programme is vital for a world in which diversity and difference tends to separate rather than unite. She said, “we all have something to say, and dialogue is a means of helping us say and share it with one another and create a more free and fair world in the process.”