Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), Dr. Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi with winners of Doha International Award for Interfaith Dialogue 2022. PIC: Abdul Basit
Doha: The Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) announced the winners of the Doha International Award for Interfaith Dialogue 2022 in its fourth edition.
The winners included three individuals and three institutions who worked hard to consolidate the principles and values of dialogue between religions, and made pioneering contributions to spreading a culture of tolerance, rejecting hate speech, advocating moderation, and other efforts in combating racism.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi honoured the winners during the opening session of the 14th Doha Conference on Interfaith Dialogue 2022, which kicked off yesterday.
The award’s winning individuals are Dr. Mohammed Khalifa Hassan from Egypt, Dr. Sabrina Lei from Italy, and Bishop Malkhaz Songulashvili from Georgia, while the winning institutions are the British Woolf Institute, the Spanish Islamic Culture Foundation (FUNCI) and the German Side-by-side institution.
Member of DICID’s Board of Directors Mohammed Al Ghamdi said that the idea of launching the award is to promote interfaith dialogue and coexistence, especially within societies, and to identify the best successful experiences in this field. He noted that 40 individuals and 10 institutions applied for the award in four main themes. They were evaluated in terms of international and academic achievements and in the field of interfaith dialogue and discourse.
Dr. Mohammed Khalifa Hassan, one of the award winners, commended the major role played by Qatar in spreading the culture of dialogue and tolerance, pointing out the remarkable efforts of DICID in terms of defining religions, deepening relations between their followers, urging tolerance, rejecting hatred and spreading love and fraternity among peoples.
Dr. Hassan stressed the need to resist the negatives through educational curricula, and adopt the values of tolerance, coexistence and dialogue among religions, cultures and civilisations.
He emphasised the significant role played by the State of Qatar in regard to dialogue between religions and civilisations, especially since the general policies of the country focus on dialogue, negotiation, cooperation and reconciliation between peoples and states in order to achieve peace for all.
