This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.
Wednesday 03 Jun 2015 - 18:06 Makkah mean time-16-8-1436
 Jeddah, (IINA) - Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Iyad Madani on Wednesday called on the world to be more coherent to tackle the stereotypes and find a way to dispose the intolerance and discrimination based on religion or belief.
Madani made the remarks during the opening session of the fifth meeting of the Istanbul Process "From dependence to implementation", held at the OIC headquarters here. The opening session was also addressed by Secretary General of King Abdullah International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue Faisal bin Muammar, President of the UN Human Rights Council Joachim Rucker and the Director of the Doha forum for Dialogue Ibrahim Saleh.
Madani stressed that the blasphemous cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) provoked anger among millions of Muslims. He called for confronting these practices, and to debate on "where does freedom of expression start ... and end?"
For his part, Rucker considered terrorism committed in the name of religion as one of the most serious challenges facing the world today.
He called for implementing the Vision and Action Plan of combating intolerance and discrimination, pursuant to the Resolution of Istanbul Process. He pointed out that it is the duty of societies to combat religious intolerance, and that freedom of speech and freedom of religion reinforce each other.
In his speech, Faisal bin Muammar highlighted that dialogue among followers of religions and cultures is the best way to fight intolerance perpetrated in the name of religion, combat discrimination and violence, as well as to overcome the existing false perceptions.
Addressing the meeting, Ibrahim Saleh called to respect for religious symbols and faiths, and to find common ground for coexistence, tolerance and respect for traditions, customs and beliefs.
The two-day event focused on how to strengthen universal consensus on Resolution 16/18 on combating incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence based on religion or belief, as well as to ensure the full and effective implementation of its Action Plan at the national and international levels.
The meeting also endeavored to benefit from the views of legal practitioners on how to use the existing legal regimes being practiced in different countries to combat incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence based on religion and belief.
In the concluding day on Thursday, the meeting is expected to issue a host of concrete and practical recommendations in order to facilitate the process of implementing the Action Plan and negotiations at the United Nations in the fight against incitement to hatred, discrimination and violence based on religion and belief, according to an OIC statement.
SM/AB/IINA
|
No comments:
Post a Comment