Jeddah, SAUDI ARABIA: The Secretary General of the Vienna-based International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), Faisal Bin Muaammar, and the Secretary General of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Iyad Ameen Madani, today formalised the cooperation between the two organisations through a Memorandum of Understanding on 3 June 2015.
Through this Memorandum of Understanding, KAICIID and the OIC commit to working together on integrating dialogue in interreligious and religious education to promote respect for diversity, to explore possibilities of combating incitement to religious hatred, intolerance, and negative stereotyping, including Islamophobia; to support human rights education, and promote tolerance and intercultural skills.
The two organizations will exchange expertise and enhance each other’s capacity to design and implement dialogue, especially at the policy level.
KAICIID Secretary General Faisal Bin Muaammar welcomed the cooperation agreement with the leading intergovernmental body in the Islamic world, and emphasised the commitment of both organisations to interreligious dialogue. “This agreement strengthens both our organisations, and our shared commitment to dialogue among religions as the route to peace.”
OIC Secretary General Madani emphasized that “Interreligious and intercultural dialogue is an integral part of the OIC’s strategy to foster respect, cooperation and peace. This partnership between the OIC and KAICIID will support international efforts to resolve conflict and foster reconciliation.”
The OIC and KAICIID work together on building peace through dialogue in conflict zones, in particular, lending expertise and facilitation in intra-Muslim dialogue. For instance, KAICIID and the OIC are cooperating on initiatives in Myanmar, the Central African Republic and Nigeria to strengthen the ability of Islamic religious leaders to speak out against the marginalisation of minorities, and to use interreligious dialogue to prevent conflict. Our cooperation with OIC in these conflict areas aims to strengthen the capacity of intra-Muslim dialogue and recognize the constructive contribution that religious and Interreligious actors can make in supporting peace and reconciliation.
KAICIID also works with ISESCO (the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), a specialised organ of the OIC, to support policy makers and experts in several countries to strengthen their interreligious education curricula. Most recently, in April 2015, ISESCO hosted a meeting of the KAICIID policy network on interreligious education at their headquarters in Rabat, Morocco.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed during the 5th Session of the Istanbul Process on the implementation of United Nations Human Rights Council Resolution 16/18, the landmark 2011 resolution through which UN member states commit to address religious intolerance by promoting the rights of freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of expression, as well as non-discrimination.
