UNIPATH STAFF
Under the slogan “Proper Education for New Generations is the Path to Comprehensive Peace and Development,” the third conference for interfaith dialogue was held in Baghdad, Iraq, in October 2022.
Among the participants in the conference were representatives from the Pontifical Council for Interfaith Dialogue and the Iraqi religious endowments, in addition to spiritual leaders from various Iraqi religions.
The conference agenda focused on education and how to prepare teachers to perform their role in maintaining peace, ensuring that curricula promote the culture of coexistence among members of different religions and ethnicities.
Among topics discussed extensively in the sessions of the conference were the necessity to foster policies that support Iraqi Christians and Yazidis who fled the country when Daesh invaded their regions in 2014 and encourage them to return to their communities in Nineveh Plains, Sinjar District and elsewhere in Iraq.
“The Iraqi state is committed to fulfill its obligations with respect to protecting human rights and democracy, as stipulated in the Iraqi constitution, including the rights of cultural and religious freedoms for minorities and other fundamental freedoms,” said Ambassador Safiya Al-Suhail from the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The representative of the Shiite Endowment for Religious and Cultural Affairs, Ihsan Jaafar Ahmed, said: “The Sunni and Shiite endowments are working together to build on many commonalities and restore the national harmony in Iraq that extremist ideology sought to destroy. Iraq contains various religious, ethnic and racial groups, and we are working to make this diversity a source of strength for Iraq.”
Founded in 2013, the Iraqi Council for Interfaith Dialogue formulates practical mechanisms to promote religious understanding and ensures effective participation in international conferences to address the existential threat that religious minorities face. The council held conferences in 2013 and 2017 attended by representatives from all of Iraq’s religious endowments and the Pontifical Council of the Vatican State.
Sources: Al Mada, The Iraqi Sunni Endowment Office