Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi Delivers Lecture on: “Coexistence in Qatari Society” at the College of Islamic Studies

23 Mar Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi Delivers Lecture on: “Coexistence in Qatari Society” at the College of Islamic Studies

Dr. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi, Chairman of the Board of Directors for the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) delivered a lecture on “Coexistence in Qatari Society” at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) on Wednesday, 9th March 2022. Many postgraduate students at the university attended the lecture, alongside the university’s faculty, and some great names and university personalities.

It is worth mentioning that the lecture comes under the signed memorandum of understanding between the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) and the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU). The lecture also represents the great efforts of the center towards realizing and achieving its objectives, spreading awareness on interfaith dialogue among religious traditions, instilling the culture of peace, and acceptance of the other, and mostly, to share these issues internally and academically on the real ground with postgraduate students, Qatar society and with the elites of Qatar community.

Dr. Josef Meri, a faculty member at the College of Islamic Studies chaired the session. He opened the event with a warm welcome to the distinguished speaker and audience. He has also mentioned the importance of the event, as it is the first of its kind since the beginning of the COVID, and due to the significance of the topic itself considering the fact that the speaker, Dr. Ibrahim is active and plays a key role in the interfaith dialogue field.

Prof. Dr. Aisha al-Mannai, the Director of Muhammad bin Hamad Al-Thani Center for Muslim Contribution to Civilization at CIS then introduced the speaker, thanked him for his time and welcomed him. She also mentioned the cooperative history between the two institutions: DICID and CIS. Before the speaker began his speech Mr. Dominic Genetti, President and General Manager ExxonMobil Qatar Limited joined the session via video to state and appreciate the enormous contributions of Dr. Ibrahim Al-Naimi to interfaith dialogue.

Dr. Ibrahim began the lecture with a special word of thanks to the College of Islamic Studies, the organizing committee, and Prof. Aisha al-Mannai. He also appreciated her great achievements in general, and for DICID, CIS, and the college of Sharia and Islamic Studies in Qatar University in particular.

He then shed light on five main subtopics; A brief account of DICID, Role of Qatari law in instilling harmony and religious coexistence and Examples of Multicultural and Religious Coexistence on the real ground. DICID is inspired by the government to deepen and foster multicultural and religious coexistence.

In the question and answer session many points, comments, appreciation, and questions were raised up, including the following significant issues: theoretical dimensions of DICID supporting co-existence, the role of DICID in creating awareness of tolerance and acceptance among religions or within particular religious sects. Dr. Ibrahim’s feedback includes that the DICID has worthy efforts and literature about the theoretical framework of interfaith dialogue, accepting the other, and so on so forth. Yet, this lecture has been dedicated to addressing the practical achievements that embodies the known theories in interfaith. He also added that DICID is open to all with mutual respect – accepting differences.