In today’s world, religion is often misused to justify violence, discrimination and other breaches of universal rights. Religious communities suffer marginalization, displacement, and all too often, horrifying, lethal danger. This systematic erosion of values that uphold intercommunal harmony and empathy threatens societal stability.

Religious leaders and dialogue experts are working together to counteract this misuse of religion. Many of the leading experts in this field convened at the 12th Doha Interfaith Dialogue Conference in Doha, Qatar, on 16 and 17 February 2015 where they developed strategies to address these issues. The conference titled “Spiritual and Intellectual Safety in the Light of Religious Doctrines”, annually brings together Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders and scholars to discuss humanitarian issues and promote interreligious dialogue.

The conference was attended by KAICIID Board Member Dr. Mohammad Sammak and Senior Advisor Patrice Brodeur who spoke about the power of interreligious dialogue and its role in mitigating interreligious conflict and securing peace in our societies. Dr. Sammak was the first recipient of the Doha International Award for Interfaith Dialogue in 2013 for his contribution to interfaith relations and returned to the conference to speak about the role of dialogue in finding peace and truth in one’s own faith and in the faith of others.

“This general picture of diversity and religious pluralism shows how difficult it is to form a single moral force for the security of spiritual humanity,” Dr. Sammak said. “Adding to this difficulty is that many religious cultures are based on the presumption that they have a monopoly on the truth. This idea is ingrained in the culture of every religion and every faith, and therefore dialogue is essential to finding common virtues.”

Dr. Brodeur was the keynote speaker in the plenary session titled Religion and its Role in Spiritual and Intellectual Security where he discussed the roles of religion and politics in improving freedoms and educational opportunities for community development and sustainable peace.

“Many religious communities and institutions have been sustainable over long periods of time because they have proven to be both resilient in the face of human and natural challenges as well as open to transformation and adaptation to new situations,” Dr. Brodeur said. “Part of this resilience comes from the transmission of spiritual and intellectual insights that help their respective followers be more virtuous human beings on an individual level. But behind the media coverage of the bad news about religion, we must also acknowledge the good news about the major historical paradigm shift that has taken place over the last half century through the increased institutional use of interreligious dialogue to improve mutual understanding, discover similarities for mutual collaboration, respect real differences, and even, at times, work to resolve historical grievances so as to put an end to the cycle of interreligious violence. More religious believers than ever before, especially the higher one goes in institutional hierarchies, rely upon dialogue to find security rather than fighting over differences.”

The experts developed a framework to address these challenges in thematic panel discussions on topics such as religion and its role in security, protecting intellectual freedom, social media, youth and combatting extremism, and planned for future collaboration.