‘A move to world interreligious peace’

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Interfaith and intra faith disharmony has been a major global challenge which has led to inter- state and intra- star wars. Over the years, the traditional media has been accused of escalating or fuelling this lack of understanding and mutual suspicion among people of various faiths.

However, the advent of new media is believed to have worsen the situation as the social media tools such as facebook, twitter, Whatsapp, Youtube, Instagram  among others are used to, on the one hand, radicalise and recruit insurgents and;  on  the other hand, spread violent extremism and hate speech.

Indeed, experts have posited that while information technology has made the world a global village and has provided individuals with tools to spread information with speed, it has also pose the challenge of managing information and countering violent extremism and hate speech. Clearly, Social media has been the double-edged sword whose emergence has been both an opportunity and a challenge to families, communities, nation-states and the world. Hence, communication, defence and security experts have warned that the social media platform has been a veritable platform for non-states actors all over the world, where they construct disunity, misunderstanding and intolerance.

It was in recognition of this glaring challenge and the need to galvanize a global response to the menace through canvassing for responsible use of the social media    that Kosovo government organised 4th International Interfaith Conference. The international gathering brought together ministers, faith leaders, ambassadors, media practitioners, peace advocates, and lobbyists among others to debate on how social media can be use and should be used to counter violent extremism and hate speech among various people in the world. It offered participants opportunity to discussed key issues that have shaped the social media space in the past decades and how it has influenced the world positively and negatively.

And for three days Kosovo’s interfaith initiative echoed around the globe and provided platform for various experts in different fields such as   the media practitioners, digital diplomats, and peace advocates, social media whiz kids to look at the challenges posed by new media and proffered solutions to some of the challenges.

Entitled ‘Interfaith Dialogue In Time of Social Media: Enabling Agents of Change Countering Violent Extremism and Hate Speech’ the three day event focused on debating topics through a multi-disciplinary approach and developing tools to improve social activism against religious extremism and  set new highs for global reach via social media, youth participation, gender equality and diversity.

With a diverse delegates that included global faith leaders, ministers and senior government officials, entrepreneurs, international representatives, and members of civil society, journalists, the event provided an opportunity for people of diverse background in times of religion, race and age to contributed to the wider interfaith dialogue by including youth as agent of social activism for promoting tolerance through online platform.

With more than 200 Participants from USA,   Bangladesh, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Afghanistan and Panama among others to share knowledge and ideas, the conference was hosted by the Kosovo’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Institute for Interfaith Dialogue (IIID) with support from the United Nations, Royal Norwegian Embassy, Embassy of United States of America, British Council, British Embassy, the European Union Office, and the German Embassy.

It was a constructive platform that addressed some critical issues connected to the emerging role of social media in debating religion, as well as empowering youth,  by providing them with tools for advancing the interfaith dialogue in social media.

Kosovo 2015 had diverse panels, discussions and workshops  that covered issues such as Transitional justice, political blogging, digital diplomacy and optimizing progressive messages in  social media which was led by noble prize winners, government ministers, leading entrepreneurs, global faith leaders and notable civil society members. Above all, the gathering facilitated transfer of expertise necessary for modern youth to become active voices in shaping a religious debate that transcends violent extremism and hate speech.

The Deputy Foreign Minister, Kosovo and Initiator of Interfaith Kosovo, Petrit Selimi captured the essence of the event thus: “This year’s Conference in Prishtina is meant to seek best tools that support civil activism, increase the digital footprint of interfaith efforts and debate way on how to ‘tame’ social media and transform the prevailing discourse from hate-speech to dialogue and exchange between civilization.”

In his welcome note, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Hashim Thaci highlighted some of the activities Kosovo government  have taken in the recent years to promote  interfaith dialogue as essential component of fight against violent extremism as well as some specific projects on counter-messaging.
He said: “We are even keener to promote the agenda of tolerance and respect of religious and ethnic diversity. It’s a challenging task in a post-war society and it’s made even more challenging in today’s world, when extremists are keen to involve people across global geographic borders and Facebook pages into their system of absolutist beliefs.

In her opening remarks, the President of Kosovo, Her  Excellency  Atifete Jahjaga said  the conference marked the fourth time that representatives of different faiths and people who have dedicated  their lives to  the power of spiritual union would  gathered  in Kosovo, in order  to demonstrate the value of interfaith  and ecumenical dialogue  and to testify  to the importance  of  interfaith  tolerance.
President Jahjaga who stated that Kosovo has a very long tradition of tolerance and of interfaith cooperation, even in the most difficult times of its history,  noted  that the understanding  and tolerance  built over centuries  in Kosovo show how difficult it is to destroy  values that people  have shaped  and nurtured  with great effort.

She said: “That is why today, when we gather to find a common way towards faith and peace, we always return to our roots that stem from coexistence amongst people of different cultures. By building an inclusive society based on values of interfaith and inter-human tolerance and understanding, and conserving the great value of understanding and trust, we can help with continuation of promoting interfaith dialogue. ”

President Jahjaga said in this time of global security challenges it  has become  even more difficult when religious tolerance  was threatened  there was a need  for a common and comprehensive  response  to safeguard a values important to the  people .
Jahjaga’s speech was followed by an inspiring, well-received keynote speech by Rabbi Michael Melchior, Chief Rabbi of Norway. The keynote speech which focused on “Interfaith Community Action as Fundamental Tools in Countering Violent Extremism, Melchior” emphasised proactive action from various interfaith groups in the effort toward countering violent extremism in the world.

Kosovo’s faith leaders also addressed the audience. They included Mr. Ejup Ramadani from the Islamic Community of Kosovo; Dr. Don  Lush Gjergji from the Catholic Church of Kosovo; Father Sava Janjic, Orthodox Church; Pastor Driton Krasniqi, Protestant Evangelical Church of Kosovo; Sheh Lulzim Shehu, Sufi Union of Kosovo Tarikats; Mr. Votim Demiri, Jewish Community of Kosovo; Baba Mumin Lama, Bektashi Community of Kosovo.

The central issue that ran through their comments was need for interfaith harmony. They insisted that it is possible to have a peaceful world and that religion should not be used to destroy the common humanity that bound various people of the world together.

This was followed on the second day of the conference with a robust and engaging presentation and discussion, high caliber conversations by  Facebook executive Ms. Monika Bickert. Bickert who is Facebook’s Head Global Policy Management at Facebook Inc, USA, discussed: “Faith and Social Media: From Recruitment for violence in the name of faith to promoting interfaith dialogue through social media. ” were she offered valuable insights into Facebook’s policies and practices on reporting violent content, hate speech, and graphic content.

Speaking of her pleasure in meeting a diverse group of people from across Kosovo and the region she emphasized the power of using social media to build a better society, saying: “We need more speech and open discussion to raise awareness and promote tolerance.”

Continuing talks progressed in a panel of academics, diplomats, journalists and activists on: “Using Social Media to Mediate a Better Society.”   Moderated by Brian Pellot, the panel had, Dr. Debra Mason , Director of Centre on Religion & the Preffsions at Missouri, School of Journlism, USA ; Sarah Snyder, Religion for peace’s Director of Development ,USA ; Andreas Sandre, Diplomat and author of  ‘Digital Diplomacy-conversations on innovation in foreign policy, Italy;  Behar Xharra, Governance and Innovation specialist, UNDP and founder of Kosovo Diaspora Public Diplomacy, Bangladesh/Kosovo ; and  Ben Freeman,  Founder & Managing Director of From Yesterday For Tomorrow, Scotland, UK).  They discussed ways to disseminate counter narratives in unprecedented volumes and promoting positive role models.

Dr Mason who observed that ‘using social media for effective interfaith dialogue is a vital, but tricky, issue, outlined five ways ‘social media’  can be used  to counter extremism and ‘ further collaborative communication among the world’s faiths’.

Based on these realities outlined above,   Mason proposed, what she referred to as ‘some modest’, ‘yet effective, ways interfaith advocates can employ social media to counter violent extremism and address some of these issues. These include: amplification of counter-violence messages; improving the religious literacy of the media and public;   Interfaith advocates can and should give their theological expertise and be open to developing partnerships among government, social media companies and NGOs;  Mobilization for Relationship building; and Embracing  and employing  the interactivity of social media.
She advised that every faith leader should have specialists on their communications teams who inherently understand this central benefit of social media vs. traditional forms.
In a conversation on “Politics and Religion:

Tackling  Violent Extremism  through Political tools and mechanism ”,    Deputy Prime Minister , Political system, Foreign  and Interior Policy,  Montenegro,  Mr. Duško Marković shared with the participants  positive examples of inter-ethnic tolerance from his own country – in order to demonstrate how good relationships benefit not only security, but society. He revealed that Montenegro has a long history of not just interfaith harmony, but recognition and respect for diversity in the country.

A panel moderated by Valerie Hopkins, a Balkans Investigative Journalist Network, Editor of  Big Deal, BIRN, Kosovo followed, bridging academics, activists and faith leaders in discussions around countering violent extremism, via faith-based groups in both digital and local communities.

The discussion centred around, “Cutting edge online tools and door-to-door activism: Empowering the voice of civil society and countering violent extremism, from town-hall debates to Online Journalism and Big Data Analysis.”
The panelists include:

Ian Linden, Senior Advisor at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, UK; PFrancisco Blanco, Dean, Humanties and Religious Studies, Universidad Catolica Santa Maria La Antigua, Panama; Rabbi Joshua Stanton Assistant Rabi, Congregation B’nai Jeshurun,USA);  Mr. Georges Labreche, Entrepreneur and founder , Open Data  Kosovo, USA/Kosovo); and Professor Besa Ismaili, Professor, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Prishtina, Kosovo. The robust discussion focused on inspired thinking around grass roots community leadership and starting real conversations in families and faith spaces.

While Ian Laden put forward 10 prepositions about religious extremism with particular attention on Islam, Beta Ismaili hinged her contribution on the role of women in engendering religious harmony, love,   peace building and education.  Laden noted that even though his prepositions centred on Islam, they are applicable to other forms of religion.

The prepositions include : “analyses  of religious extremism using clear-thinking; Religious extremism almost never has a single cause; in the mix of different causal components, psychology is often underrated; What  seems to occur is that the mind of the extremist is one that has shut down into a binary opposition between them and us, the chosen and the damned; It is important to distinguish between Salafi/Wahabi practice; the Salafi/Wahabi mindset at heart is not exclusive to Islam…it is shared by the Jewish Haredi and with the Christian Amish; The takfiri and jihadi mindset involves an aggressive (fight not flight) approach to “them”;  authoritarian teaching and rote learning, bad pedagogy in religious education contributes to the creation of extremist mindsets;

Extremist recruiting involves social media, websites, and has benefited from the technological revolution in communications but also involves small face-to-face networks of the like-minded; and  the best counter-extremism is peer-to-peer education between young people.
In a parallel workshops  led by Sir Geoffrey Nice (UK); Harold Hyman (France); Petrit Selimi (Kosovo); Andreas Sandre (Italy); and Veton Nurkollari (Kosovo)  discussions  focused on the fine details of justice and digital diplomacy in post war reconciliation, political blogging, optimizing progressive messages, and organizing socially responsible film festivals.

While Sir Geoffrey Nice, former War crimes Prosecutor, moderated the panel on “Transitional Justice as the necessary step for post-conflict reconciliation”, Harold Hyman Specialiste Geopolitique  at BFMTV  led the discussion on “Political Blogging –the powerful online voice of ‘We, the People’ ”.
Petrit Semili, Deputy Foreign Minister, Kosovo chaired, “Digital Diplomacy in service of political dialogue and reconciliation”; Andre Sandre moderated “Optimizing progressive message in social media” and Veto Nurkollari, Artistic Director, DokuFest, Kosovo moderated    “Faith in film-sharing the experience of creating socially responsible films and programs and cultural events.”

A lively panel moderated by Kosovo’s investigative journalist Arbana Xharra brought TV commentators and journalists from traditional media together to discuss how news agencies receive, review and report religious issues. With a title, “ Faith in Media, Globally”,  Harold Hyman, Specialiste Geopolitique at BFMTV, France,  Antoine Colonna, France-based journalist  and Norbert Mappes-Niediek Germany- based journalist  explained media world realities in response to critical questioning from a highly engaged audience.

The conference was rounded off by Kosovo’s Deputy Foreign Minister Selimi’s moderation of a panel called, “moving forward, fast forward.”  The panel had Executive Director , Heedayah –The International Centre of Excellence for Countering Violent Extremism , Abu Dhabi, UAE,  Maqsoud Kruse;  Founder of Soul of Europe, Devon, UK, Reverend Father  Donald Reeves  and Director , The Reiff Centre for Human Rights and Conflict Resolution at Christopher Newport University, Virginia , USA,  Dr. Tina Kempin Reuter .

The session focused on ‘identifying best practices and concrete actions to be taken to advance interfaith dialogue and counter extremist agenda in the region and beyond.’  They provided motivational thoughts and practical suggestions for the future including turning Kosovo into a global hub for interfaith conferences.

The conference also shown how new media space can be used positively as  skilled use of social media by participants  magnified conversations to new records of global reach for the  Conference  and trend 7th in the USA on twitter,  the hashtag #faithsinkosovo, boosted the conversation to 3.5m timelines.

At the end of the conference, participants were unanimous on the power of the social media and how it can be harnessed for public good. It was emphasised   that  all stakeholders  should proactively occupy the social media space through constructive engagement, so as to positively overwhelm other users with tendencies that are destructive to the well-being of families, nation-state and the world at large. The conference advised all participants to be ‘enabling agents of change in their countries.’