Matters India reporter
Vienna — As part of the fifth anniversary of King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Cetre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) is organizing a second high-level meeting of High-level Religious Leaders Joint Platform, 26-27 February 2018 in Hilton Stadtpark, Vienna. Some 600 delegates from international organizations and representatives from government missions including delegtes from India Swami Aginivesh and Acharya Lokesh Muni, Bhai Mohinder Singh, Sadhvi Bhagawati and others are participating.
KAICIID is an intergovernmental organization whose mandate is to promote the use of dialogue globally to prevent and resolve conflict to enhance understanding and cooperation.
“Intercultural and interreligious dialogue helps build communities’ resistance against prejudice, strengthens social cohesion, supports conflict prevention and transformation and can serve to preserve peace,” says KAICIID Secretary General Faisal A. bin Muaammar.
Mr Faisal adds, “The violence committed in the name of religion threatens the cultural, social and religious fabric of relations in and between communities, as well as the very survival of religious institutions and communities affected by the conflicts.”
He recalls, “In past decades, the world has witnessed several conflicts in which religion has been misused to justify violence. This has led to the emergence of a number of crises (such as internal conflict, violence, displacement and a massive increase in refugees) that have challenged and undermined the stability of the whole world. These conflicts have grown to target followers of different religions in many parts of the world.”
In the light of the above reality, there is an urgency to formulate effective responses to the need to foster interreligious and intercultural dialogue to face such a challenge.
As an international organization, KAICIID supports the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. The Centre also combats all forms of discrimination based on culture, religion or belief. It also implements programmes to overcome stereotypes in a long-term process that leads to a culture of dialogue that enables greater understanding of people of other cultures and followers of other religions.
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) established in 2005, as the political initiative of Mr. Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General and co-sponsored by the Governments of Spain and Turkey is also participating in the deliberations.