Abu Dhabi: Religious leaders from the Muslim Council of Elders and the Anglican Church on Thursday stressed the importance of promoting the principle of citizenship as people enjoy the same entitlements and responsibilities towards their countries and communities.
They suggested working on building a world that is based on understanding including the Muslim-Christian dialogue, with an aim of effectively bridging the gap that hinders the understanding of others.
In a final statement released on Thursday, they said dialogue will contribute to the efforts of combating both extremism and the undermining of minority rights.
“As such, we encourage our wider communities to develop similar dialogue based initiatives as among the mostly powerful tools in consolidating societal peace in all communities,” the statement said.
The religious leaders suggested organising mutual youth-based meetings between Muslim and Christian university students, which embrace intellectual discourses on tolerance and coexistence.
They moreover called for producing documentary films in various languages that track, document and underline the historical and contemporary experiences of co-existence. These will be suitable materials to be broadcast or air on TV channels and other forms of social media that have been proven effective more than gatherings and meetings.
They urged for developing a five-year academic research programme on the pillars and values of tolerance and coexistence. Researchers from both sides, Muslims and Christians, will be invited to contribute to the research and produce publications in various languages.
The programme will contribute to the Muslim-Christian Dialogue through articulating it with post- graduate studies in the concerned universities.
The religious leaders called for digitising all the Muslim-Christian dialogue initiatives, including audio-visual materials, studies, and conferences’ proceedings, and upload them on the internet, to be accessible to the participants in this conference, and other concerned people.
The final statement urged for highlighting and benefiting from the multiple initiatives in promoting the values of tolerance, co-existence, participation, primarily the experience of the Ministry of Tolerance in the UAE, and the experience of the House of Family in Egypt. These initiatives characterized by working on the ground through a variety of communities including work encompassing women and young generation. We affirm the work of these initiatives in establishing a model of genuine citizenship including Muslims and Christians in Egypt.
The necessity of work promoting a culture of dialogue at different levels. We affirm the importance of respecting each other’s faith at all levels.
“We commit ourselves to work together for the common good in fighting illiteracy, poverty and disease,” the statement said.
Finally, the participants from both the Muslim Council of Elders and the Anglican Church called on all religious leaders, politicians, decision-makers and influential community leaders to encourage the values of justice, peace and cooperation in all nations and peoples regardless of difference in religion, gender and race.
