Erbil hosts Interfaith conference to boost coexistence
ERBIL, Iraq (North Press) – Under the title, “Religion and Social Peace: Challenges and Prospects”, the Catholic University in Erbil, in cooperation with Koya University, organized yesterday an international conference with the aim of achieving social peace and promoting coexistence.
Academic researchers, professionals, Islamic and Christian clergy, and representatives of all religious and ethnic minorities in Iraq participated in the conference.
The attendees stressed the need of spreading the culture of coexistence and social peace among the population regarding the thoughts and actions through rebuilding the educational process, consolidating the foundations of acceptance of the other in the educational curricula, and teaching children a new type of coexistence based on the acceptance of the other, no matter what colour, race or religion they have.
The participants also discussed the role of the educational and religious institutions as well as the role of the media in promoting social peace, renouncing the sectarianism and religious fanaticism, and finding ways to overcome the challenges facing religious minorities, who have been subjected to injustice, persecution and genocide.
Samer Soresh Youhanna al-Raheb, General President of the Chaldean Antonine Hermetic Order, told North Press, “Academic bodies must take their awareness role to define the importance of education in creating a healthy society capable of self-care, because education is the basis for good citizenship that serves the country.”
Al-Raheb, who is also a professor at the College of Education at Salah al-Din University, touched on Iraq’s continuing suffering due to wars and the difficult conditions it has gone through.
“Iraq needs to stand on its feet (..), and this can be achieved through peaceful coexistence between the communities and proper and correct education on humanitarian principles,” he stressed.
In turn, Abbas al-Qurayshi, Director of the Iraqi Center for Documenting Extremist Crimes, reiterated the importance of this conference, “which highlights a very important term, which is the call for peaceful coexistence sought by the humanitarian community in general.”
Al-Qurayshi suggests that societies with diverse spectrums need such conferences that shed light on important issues, develop solutions for them, and come up with useful and valid results and recommendations.
Omar Hassan Sa’eed, professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Koya University, said: “The important goal of the conference is to bring new matters, highlight the mistakes that societies committed in the past, correct them, and develop a program and plan for the new generation to follow.”
The conference will enhance efforts to end the conflict between minorities, races and religions, and call on them to accept each other, according to Sa’eed.
Iraq is one of the countries in the Middle East, which is of multiple nationalities, religions, and sects. It has suffered from the deterioration of the political situation, as a result of conflicts and wars, and the destruction and genocide left by ISIS against some minorities, especially the Yazidis.