Doha, Qatar: Deputy Speaker of Shura Council H E Dr. Hamda bint Hassan Al Sulaiti asserted that Qatar is one of the most influential countries in the world in the field of dialogue and communication among followers of religions and civilisations, which enabled it to achieve internal societal harmony among residents of the state who are hailing from a variety of nationalities, as well as holding conferences of interfaith dialogue and alliance of civilizations that gained popular support.
This came in Her Excellency’s remarks yesterday before the conference of council of OIC Member States that was virtually held to discuss and study ways to prevent recurrent assaults on the Holy Quran.
Al Sulaiti said Qatar has issued numerous regulations and laws that overtly combat discrimination, hatred and acts that lead to fomenting racial feuds and hosted several conferences and events in interfaith dialogue and alliance of civilizations, in addition to establishing centres and their relevant committees and launched initiatives for global awards.
She outlined that the last two decades remarkably witnessed a growing pace of internal conflicts, as well as religious and ethnic violence in many countries, pointing out that over 50 countries witnessed bloody confrontations that targeted religious and ethnic minorities.
Al Sulaiti called on the international community to strive essentially and diligently to find avenues to criminalise the practices that lead to these criminal acts through enacting international legislation and efficient implementation mechanisms.
She regretted over faltered endeavours to issue an international legislation that criminalises blasphemy and compromising religious symbols due to the discrepancy in attitudes of nations on the trade-off between upholding the value of freedom of expression and individual freedoms and the right to freedom of belief and protection of religious sanctities and symbols.
Al Sulaiti recalled that many Islamic countries, governments, and organisations have laid out initiatives and proposals to achieve equilibrium between criminalising blasphemy, offending religious sanctities and protecting human fundamental freedom.
She pointed to the endeavours the Shura Council pursues to present an urgent article to be included in the agenda of the 146th Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Assembly held in the Kingdom of Bahrain last March on criminalising blasphemy. Al Sulaiti called on nations to never give up in keep issuing international laws and legislations that criminalise Islamophobia and infringement of Islamic and religious sanctities and symbols, adding that parliamentarians are vested with the responsibility of protecting Muslims and non-Muslims, as well as preserving religious sanctities and symbols everywhere.
She urged all parliamentarians to reject blasphemy and offending religious sanctities, in addition to setting regulations and solutions to preclude social media from fomenting feuds or seditions.
