Muscat: The religious freedom allowed in Oman has been praised by the US State Department in a report, released earlier this month.

The annual International Religious Freedom report points out several steps taken by Oman to promote tolerance and interfaith understanding. It also highlights the role of Sultan Qaboos Bin Saeed in this regard and adds that the Omani government has taken several steps to promote tolerance, most notably through its relationship with Cambridge University.

“The Sultan established an endowed professorship: ‘His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Professorship of Abrahamic Faiths’ and a one-month interfaith training and residency programme for Omani imams at Cambridge,” it notes.

The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs (MARA) and Cambridge also collaborated in preparing to co-sponsor a website and establish a summer school programme focused on promoting interfaith dialogue.

Oman has also hosted a delegation from the American Jewish Council.
The report draws attention to a government publication called Al Tasamoh (Tolerance), published through MARA, which is a periodical devoted to broadening dialogue within Islam.

It notes that the Omani government also sponsors a forum for examining differing interpretations of Islam, Christianity, and philosophical approaches that are not tied to specific religions.

“During the reporting period, MARA hosted several Christian and Muslim scholars and lecturers from various schools of thought to discuss interfaith relations and tolerance in Islamic traditions,” the report said.

It drew attention to the fact that a local interfaith group, focusing on improving Muslim-Christian understanding, regularly sponsors exchange programmes for leaders of both faiths, as well as hosting scholars-in-residence, and working closely with MARA on many of their projects.

The report noted that there have been no reports of forced religious conversion in Oman.

Meanwhile, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Mohammad Al Salmi, the Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, told a government-owned Arabic daily in Oman that the US Department report on Religious Freedom reflects Sultan Qaboos’s government’s policies on religious tolerance and inter-faith dialogue at a global level.

He added that the ministry (MARA,) has organised annual conferences for the last 10 years for Muslim scholars to deliberate on the matter.