Sectarianism, Dialogue, and Tolerance: Working Together to Reduce Tension and Violence in Egypt

حرره Anonymous (لم يتم التحقق) في أحد, 2012-03-04 11:10
Language: 
English
Sent On: 
أحد, 2011-06-12
Year: 
2011
Newsletter Number: 
8

Sectarianism, Dialogue, and Tolerance:

Working Together to Reduce Tension and Violence in Egypt

 

J

June 12, 2011

 

CAIRO, Egypt (AWR) — Over sixty Egyptian Muslim and Christian religious leaders and representatives of all sectors in society will meet from June 13-16 in Alexandria and Cairo to discuss how to detect and lessen sectarian tensions. The talks will be led by Nigerian Imam Mohammed Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye.

 

The imam and pastor are in Egypt to share their experiences in diffusing crises. The Egyptians pastors, imams, peace activists, and representatives of NGO's will work together to develop a program to avoid escalations of sectarian violence in Egypt. The Nigerian imam and pastor earlier visited Egypt in 2009, lecturing and presenting the first Arabic copy of an award winning film about their work entitled "The Imam and the Pastor," produced by the London-based company FLTfilms. For more information, see this report.

 

You are hereby cordially invited to attend a reception with the imam, pastor, and participants of the conference at the Goethe Institute on Sharia Bustan 5 (near Tahrir square) on Thursday June 16, from 5:30-6:30pm. The reception will be followed by a press conference at the same location from 7:00-8:00pm.

 

Egypt has an excellent history of cooperation between Muslims and Christians. During the first weeks of the Egyptian revolution, both groups showed a marvelous cooperation with one another. Unfortunately, much of this has been reduced because of violence in Atfih, Manshiyet Nasr, Imbaba, and elsewhere. By far, the great majority of Egyptians are peace-loving. It is with these Egyptians that we wish to develop tools helping to reduce violence in society.

 

The Center for Arab-West Understanding is an Egyptian NGO that is dedicated to fostering understanding between peoples of different convictions, as well as providing accurate reporting on sensitive issues. The center will, through the electronic magazine Arab West Report, not hesitate to critique media that provide a distorted image of Muslim-Christian relations in Egypt. The Center for Arab-West Understanding is dependent on voluntary donations for this work.

 

Sincerely,

 

Hany Labib,

Executive secretary Center for Arab-West Understanding

 

 

For more information or to RSVP, contact Diana Ghali:

Tel: (02) 23598087 or 012-4308929,  [email protected]/awr1

 

 
 

 

 

Objectives

 

· To impact the skills of target beneficiaries on conflict analysis and conflict mapping.

· To learn the value of early warning and early response systems when dealing with conflict.

· To set up early warning and early response structures.

 

 

 

 

Expected outcome

 

1.       Participant acquires basic skills in conflict analysis and mitigation.

2.       An effective early response system will be established at a grass-roots level

 

 

Target beneficiaries

 

· Religious leaders

· NGOs, CSO, and community-based peace activists

· Women's groups and youth leaders

· Local security agencies/ personnel

· Local community leaders

 

 

 

 

Expected impact

 

A reduction in community hostility and violence by effective community networking on early warning and early response systems.
 
 

Cairo Workshop Schedule:

 

Goethe Institute (5 Sharia Bustan, Downtown Cairo)

 

Day 1 - (Wednesday, June 15, 2011)

1.       Opening prayers (10:00 am)

2.        Introduction/ice breaking exercise

3.       Ground rules/expectation

4.       Understanding conflict

5.       Typology of conflict

6.       Conflict mapping and analysis

7.       Introduction to early warning system

8.       Early warning indicators

9.       Closing remarks/prayers (4:00 pm)

 

Day 2 - (Thursday, June 16, 2011)

1.       Opening prayers (10:00 am)

2.       Review of day one

3.       Early warning system continues…

4.       Processing early warning indicators

5.       Classification of stakeholders (connectors and disconnections

6.       Set up early respond  hubs and typology of response-mechanism

7.       Strategic Action Plan

8.       Closing remarks/prayers (4:00 pm)

 

 

Please note: The Alexandria workshop is now completely booked. If you would like to attend the Cairo workshop, please send an RSVP email to Diana Ghali.

 

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For up to the minute news on Muslim-Coptic relations in Egypt, follow AWR on Twitter.

Or for less frequent updates, join our Facebook page.

 

Stay up-to-date with our latest content by following the Arab West Report on these social networks:

The Arab West Report is a weekly digest of Egyptian newspaper translations and analysis, focusing primarily on Arab-West and Muslim-Christian relations.

 

To reach a specialist or for general media inquiries, send us an email.

 

To follow our daily summary translations of Arabic media in Egypt, visit our website:

www.newspiritz.eu/awr1

 

Also visit our other websites in the Arab-West group:

www.arabwestfoundation.com , www.cawu.org , www.cidtegypt.com , www. enawu.com