Use Social Media to Promote Dialogue: Leaders

01 Nov Use Social Media to Promote Dialogue: Leaders

The Ninth Doha Conference on Interfaith Dialogue opened in Doha with a call to the religious leaders to use the social media to promote dialogue and better understanding between different religious communities and develop a global code of conduct to prevent their misuse.

The three-day conference has brought together prominent leaders and scholars from three world religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism, who will be discussing a wide range of issues, under the title “Social Media and Interfaith Dialogue- a New Relationship.”

The event is organised by the Doha International Centre for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) in collaboration with the Qatar University.

In his opening address, the Minister of Justice, H E Hassan bin Abdullah Al Ghanem, urged to develop the positive aspects of social media and stressed the need for a code of conduct for social networking sites to prevent any insults to religious beliefs and personalities.

“By organising the previous eight conferences we have confirmed that we look at the interfaith dialogue as a means for communication and exploring the other in order to reach sublime objectives that improve the status of the human being and respect his dignity, not at the futile dialogue which only leads to more dissension and differences,” said the Minister.

“Dialogue among the followers of the divine religions is practical and real, aiming at coexistence of peoples in dignity, equality, peace and security” he added.

Al Ghanem said that social media has both negative and positive aspects. Societies are required to develop the positive aspects and regulate them, and to minimise the impact of the negative aspects.

He reminded that if such means weren’t capable of cherishing dialogue and acknowledging the existence of others they could be transformed into means of hatred and racism as was the case in some countries.

Highlighting the significance of media in general, Mustafa Cerk, Grand Mufti of Bosnia, said that media had a major role in producing or removing the fear which leads to intolerance and violence.

“Generally, the media in the West has had an indifferent or ignorant approach towards religion as such whereas the media in the Muslim World has a promotional and defensive coverage of it,” said Cerk.

“Obviously the faith of Islam has been the main focus of the Muslim media. Due to recent events such as September 11, the Afghan and Iraq wars, Islam has become the main focus in the western media as well.

“This fact has increased the defensive trend in the media of the Muslim world whereas the media in the West has displayed the double ignorance about the nature of the faith of Islam and the nature of the complexity of Muslim societies,” he added.

In a video speech, Portugal President Jorge de Sampaio said that social trust was more important than social media in bridging relations between societies.

“Over the last months, we have witnessed social change in many areas of the world but nowhere has it had such an impact in our perceptions of the world and the “other” as in the case of the so- called “Arab Spring”… Some have called such mobilisations Twitter or Facebook revolutions, but in doing so they have in many ways forgotten that before social media there is social trust. I mean, trust between people that technology just helps to consolidate,” said Sampaio.

“It’s true that we can always choose to hate the “other”, but it’s increasingly difficult to do so, when the other “enters” our living room through our television screens — and I would add particularly if the broadcasts reach us through the values of free speech… Trust is the fundamental dimension that enhances the possibility of fruitful communication, towards the building of better societies,” he added.

DICID Chairman Dr Ibrahim Saleh Al Naimi said the theme of the conference was inspired by the large role social media played in the recent revolutions in the Middle-East. He added that the Arab Spring was the biggest proof of the importance of social media.

He suggested the conference can come up with a global charter of honour with regard to the healthy and positive uses of social media so that it can enhance communication between religions.

Former Egyptian Mufti Dr Nasr Farid Wasil, Archbishop Patrick Altham Kelly from the UK, Rabbi Henry Sobel from Brazil also addressed the opening session.