(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The four-day 'Global Youth Interfaith & Intercultural Forum, Qatar 2023,' kicked off Saturday in Doha under the slogan 'Youth and Peacebuilding: Interfaith Dialogue from Theory to Practice,' which is organised by the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) and A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY).
More than 60 young men and women from 42 countries, in addition to 20 participants from Qatar, are participating in the forum, which seeks to activate the role of youth in religious dialogue and peacebuilding.
During the opening session of the forum, which was attended by HE Minister of Sports and Youth Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali, HE Chairperson of the DICID Board of Directors Dr Ibrahim Saleh Al Nuaimi said that this forum offers an opportunity to listen to the opinions and ideas of young people during their dialogues and discussions about the challenges they face in their endeavor to contribute to the achievement of means of stability, peace, and civilised interaction, within the framework of calm and disciplined dialogue and the moral and spiritual values urged by pure sources of religions.
He also stressed that the forum comes from DICID's belief in the importance of involving young people in issues of interfaith dialogue and communication between cultures and civilizations, adding that youth should have an active role in all contemporary issues affecting the world today such as cultural and humanitarian issues; including the issue of climate change and its wide global impacts, sustainability, volunteer work, and others.
Al Nuaimi pointed out that the forum is dedicated to young people to present their opinions and examples of their activities and projects in their countries, listen to the issues that concern them, and debate with them in dialogue sessions, in addition to several workshops led by a group of distinguished academics and researchers.
HE Dr Ibrahim Saleh Al Nuaimi underlined the importance of dialogue to protect, confirm and stabilise coexistence among peoples and reject intolerance, violence, and hatred tendencies toward others. He cautioned that dialogue should not be limited to the circles of specialists and religious and political community leaders; rather, the most important thing is that the culture of dialogue prevails among the basic components of society, the most important of which is the youth.
The young group is the most willing to connect with others, the least opposed to building bridges of communication between religions, and the most enthusiastic about combating injustice, overcoming underdevelopment, achieving a renaissance for their homelands, peaceful coexistence, and coexistence for the components of their societies, he added.
He noted that today's youth have a degree of awareness that qualifies them to take the initiative to dialogue with each other and with those who preceded them in knowledge and experience.
HE Chairperson of DICID said that young people are the opportunity and hope to restore and spread the correct religious and human values, make them a pivot for building a tolerant and coexistent world and confront extremism, terrorism, and hatred, stressing the importance of listening to their opinions and ideas and believing in their abilities to create change and lead transformations in their societies.
He explained that the youth are a significant driving force for promoting peace and building bridges of communication between civilizations and cultures, especially with the transformations that the world has witnessed since the beginning of the third millennium as a result of the massive knowledge explosion, the development of means of communication, and the reflection of all this on the movement of economic, intellectual, social, political and moral societies; and on lifestyles, thinking and values.
His Excellency touched on the experience of Qatar in exploiting youth energies to lead the developmental transformations taking place in the country. He said that Qatar believes in the capabilities of youth and their decisive role in shaping tomorrow and carrying the banner of the future in all fields, adding that the organisation of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 with the efforts of Qatari youth was the greatest evidence of that.
Regarding the DICID experience, he explained that the center has been keen, since its inception, to involve the younger generation in all its activities, so that the culture of dialogue is prevalent among the new generation.
He pointed out that DICID held an international conference on youth as part of its annual series of conferences focusing on the role of youth in promoting the values of dialogue. He added that DICID organises workshops for school students in the country and several foreign trips to learn about other cultures and civilizations, adding the center hosted students and researchers from universities around the world and held several youth-oriented activities.
In conclusion, His Excellency wished that this forum would achieve the goals aspired by the youth, and would constitute a turning point in motivating them to work and innovate to achieve understanding, stability, and peace in their local communities and at the global level.
The forum's agenda includes several axes, including 'Peace through understanding and communication between religions'; 'From diversity to pluralism... Islam's approach to knowing the other'; 'Understanding the place of religion in the lives of young people in light of contemporary changes'; 'Youth work, cooperation, and global citizenship'; 'Discovering and exchanging ideas, experiences, and initiatives to enhance understanding between religions and cultures' and others.
The opening session witnessed interventions by participants from international youth organisations, emphasising the great importance of this global youth forum, which comes at a time when young people suffer from several challenges, in addition to the crises facing contemporary societies that require using young energies to play their role in facing these crises and contribute to achieving peace and stability and sharing their experiences and expertise in this regard, with the ability to accommodate religious and cultural diversity and pluralism at the global level.
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