Overview

As part of UN World Interfaith Harmony Week 2021, a new partnership was formed to help inform, educate and question on matters of interfaith.

 

Baraza - an international, peace-making non-governmental organisation joined forced with URI (United Religions Initiative) Europe – the continent’s largest grassroots interfaith body to host a diverse range of six sessions throughout the month of February.

 

The webinars were diverse in content, presenters, attendees and geographical reach. In addition, the organisers were keen that these webinars were active and so participants were asked to comment on 1) One thing that they found good & useful about each webinar and 2) One thing that they would do as a result of the webinar.

 

Content

The subject titles for the webinars were:

·       Heritage for Reconciliation in Syria

·       Faith, Ecological Crisis & Coronavirus

·       From Tolerance to Holy Envy

·       Islam in Italy

·       Christian-Islamic relations

·       Listening to the Other

 

The first and last webinars included music and spoke about the importance of culture and arts in relation to building understanding. The second session discussed the world we are to enter post pandemic, the third webinar identified 6 stages of interfaith dialogue. Italy became the focus of the fourth webinar which looked at how the country has evolved in recent years and the fifth talk charted the history of relations between the two largest global faiths.

 

Attendees

In total just under 200 people dialed into the webinars over the course of the month. The presenters and guests reflected the diversity of the world. Countries included Albania, Argentina, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkey, UK and USA.

 

Highlights

All the webinars are available to view at:

·       www.baraza.ngo

 

·       https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmJS3gieCRuGASYFdMP6Ig

 

Testimonials

·       Heritage for Reconciliation in Syria

 

Sharen Ravat : Sharen, from the UK. I enjoyed learning about the diversity and richness of the Syrian community. I have many Syrian students so when it is safe, I would like to share this with the young people. I organised 2 charity events for the children of Syria through Hand in Hand for Syria. A toy collection and a book collection for children in refugee camps. People in the UK were very generous but this initiative is on another level. Would be good to promote wider through our networks.  Good to share. A very beautiful culture. I am a strong advocate for personal heritage preservation. Thank you.

 

Elisabeth Ziegler-Duregger : This is very inspiring and pushes me to work on a map about music from different religions in the future. Wish you all the best. Elisabeth urilienz.wordpress.com - a Collection from different maps about the good things in the world.

 

Abdulwahab Alali - NEFES - Gaziantep Turkey : It was a pleasure to meet people that are ?nterested in Syr?a and the Syrian culture. I was really specifically interested in Qisetna project and I would be feree interested to see  how we can work together 

 

Dima : 1) it’s providing platform to introduce projects that are doing important work that’s crucial to be shared to expand the impact of the work. 2) I will look up Mirath and Nawa and share the word about all 3 projects and see if there are opportunities to collaborate with all three projects. thank you for organising this seminar, very lovely evening hour

 

·       Faith, Ecological Crisis & Coronavirus

Nour Salameh : It was heart-warming, for instance, to know that there are serious attempts to clean the Ganges river which is one of the most polluted in the world.

Duncan Wielzen : The Film in conjunction with the lecture made very clear how personal spirituality is deeply connected to ecology. What I can do is keep talking about the story of URI which also has as one of its goals, respecting the Earth and all living beings. Thsi comes from a deep spiritual conviction.

Elisabeth Ziegler-Duregger : For me it was inspiring to see the many efforts for a good future in the world. I will add it to the Heaven on Earth Wiki. It strenghtens my wish to work more focused in this direction. Blessings to all from Austria.

Deepak Naik : Thank you for a wonderful presentation and its been informative and enlightening.

·       From Tolerance to Holy Envy

 

Aurela Frroku UiL- LdV:        Hello everyone!! I am Aurela ,I am from Albania and I am so happy to be here with you. I'm studying for History. And it is a pleasure to meet you !!

 

Indian Pluralism Foundation:              Glad tidings of peace and prosperity from India. Respectful Regards Indian Pluralism Foundation, India.

drees:     I`m about 40years engaged in Christian-muslim dialogue and in living together with people in inner cities. I want to suggest a common call of jews-christians and muslims for a planetary service - to overcome unjust and Climate Crisis. 

 

Maria Habito:        Thank you so much for this very clear and comprehensive presentation, Prof. Kindschi. Gratitude to the organizers and participants!

·       Islam in Italy

Ahmed Tabakovic : hello everyone, I am Ahmed Tabakovi?, Head Imam of the Islamic Community of Bosniaks in Italy. you can find us on Facebook @cibiizbi

Thamer Mahfoudhi : Hallo everybody I am Thamer Mahfoudhi from Tunisia. PhD researcher at Ez-Zitouna University. I am interested on Muslim minorities affairs in Europe and a member of the Abraham Forum in MENA-Countries. 

 

From Mirjona UiL-LdV : Hello everyone, I am Mirjona, junior coordinator in Association “Udhetim i Lire “ the only CC of URI in Albania. If you want to learn more about our work visit www.udhetimiilire.org

 

·       Christian-Islamic relations

 

Michael A. Schmiedel: Okay. 1.) Well I try to follow and think About it all, but am not that quick in English 2.) Well, I have nearly every day several Webinars. The Content Tonight was not that new for me, at least what I unterstood. But It's nice to meet People from all over the world on the screen. :-)

 

·       Listening to the Other

 

Malik:     Fascinating talk! Many many thanks Dr Nurulla-Khodzhaeva!

 

??????? ????????:          Thank you for your very insightful presentation! Could you shed some light on probable connections between the spirit of hamsoya, the phenomenon of Mahalle with its heart being chayhane? Do they still function in the countries of your particular interest?

 

Prajakti Kalra:        Thank you for your talk dear Nargis. It is always lovely to hear you talk about sufism and interconnectivity.

 

Future

All attendees were encouraged to download the excellent and free resource for ‘World Religions colouring book for kids’ which is available at www.baraza.ngo

 

It is hoped that over the coming months, more webinars will be held on different subjects including how the significance of festivals such as Holi and Vaisakhi can provide lessons for the post pandemic world.