Prof. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi received Sweden’s Special Envoy for OIC and Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue at the DICID’s headquarters

29 Mar Prof. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi received Sweden’s Special Envoy for OIC and Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue at the DICID’s headquarters

His excellency Prof. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) Qatar, has received Ms. Ulrika Sundberg, a Special Envoy of the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs for OIC and Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue at the DICID’s headquarters in Katara Cultural Village.

The meeting began with a warm welcoming by Prof. Ibrahim Saleh Al-Naimi to the distinguished guest Ms. Sundberg, followed by a word of appreciation and gratitude for paying a special visit to the DICID. Meanwhile, Prof. Al-Naimi expressed DICID’s readiness to support all the objective initiatives that aim at promoting coexistence and trust-building among followers of traditional religions, emphasizing the fact that the cooperation with similar bodies is among DICID’s main objectives and targets in realizing its vision and mission.

On the other hand, Ms. Sundberg also thanked Prof. Al-Naimi for the opportunity, the distinctive welcoming, and for being one of the invitees to participate in the upcoming DICID’s 14th annual conference entitled “Religion and hate speech: scriptures teachings and reality”, to be held on 24th – 25th of May 2022.

Clarifying the conference objectives and expected findings, Prof. Al-Naimi stated: “We are continuously working on building successful relations and effective bridges of communication with different countries, organizations, and religious leaders. Likewise, we spend our efforts on spreading messages of peace, coexistence, tolerance, and interfaith dialogue globally, through our conference platforms from Doha – Qatar. Our aim with the conference is to extend means of cooperation and partnership through shedding light on various topics and subjects associated with the conference main title and its various themes. Certainly, this will immensely contribute to instilling the culture of interfaith and intercultural dialogue as well as promoting the values of coexistence.”
Prof. Al-Naimi also added that despite the significance of the interfaith dialogue and the fact that Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue spares no effort to disseminate awareness of coexistence through its numerous activities, the COVID 19 has additionally proved the necessity of working together towards spreading human values of pluralism and mutual respect as well as the significance of collective work to defeat unexpected phenomena that challenge humanity as a whole.

Furthermore, in response to what Ms. Ulrika Sundberg has expressed about her delight for the invitation to participate in the upcoming conference, and her desire to know more about the nature of the conference and its organization, Prof. Al-Naimi mentioned that the conference organizing committee has relentlessly worked out the right mechanism regarding correspondence with conference participants in terms of inviting them, receiving their abstracts and full papers, while sending them its feedbacks, examining their papers and communicating with all relevant bodies to ensure exceptional quality of the conference and its expected aims and objectives. He expressed his hope that this conference will succeed just like the previous conferences have achieved their respective goals and purposes. It is expected that the DICID for this conference will host no less than five hundred participants from all over the world.

Prof. Al-Naimi also stated: “I hope to see more and more of similar government or private interfaith or intercultural centers that will work towards countering and reducing extremism, terrorism, and hate speech. Therefore, the world should not underestimate such centers’ efforts, and activities in confronting extremist and terrorist ideas spreading like a disease in different corners of the globe. Therefore, we should keep doing our best on this noble course, not raising white flags, and certainly not giving up with our mission”.

Finally, Prof. Al-Naimi shed light on the most vital activities that Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue is working on, such as organizing conferences and conducting various seminars and symposiums among its other activities. Most of these events are results of DICID’s own initiatives based on its strategic vision and mission, while others are conducted in collaborations with DICID’s friends and partners as a result of MOU’s or other cooperative memos.

The DICID therefore, welcomes all proposals and ideas that will help the Center to achieve its aims and objectives, concluding that the State of Qatar and Sweden in this regard are among those countries fully dedicated to coexistence and peace.