Córdoba, May 16, 2022. Religions must advocate for peace and to achieve this, religious freedom must be respected and peace agreements must be accepted. With this message from the president of the FICRT Foundation, Jumaa AlKaabi, the First Cordoba Forum “From Islam-Christian Dialogue to the Abrahamic Family” was opened, organized by the Foundation at Casa Árabe, under the coordination of Professor Mohammed Dahiri and with the collaboration of the Unesco Chair of Conflict Resolution of the University of Cordoba and the University Institute of Religious Sciences of the Complutense University.
For AlKaabi, the objectives of the forum are those of the Foundation: tolerance, future coexistence and fraternity. “We want to spread peace and concord at the international level and achieve progress among peoples, religions and cultures,” he assured. He also advocated cooperation to open up channels of communication and cultural diplomacy to end “the scourge of sectarianism and violence”.
Respect for civic foundations, the defense of the culture of peace, the acceptance of the other, love among peoples and coexistence in cultural and religious environments were some of the lines of work that the president of the FICRT Foundation defended in the path of tolerance and interreligious dialogue. Dr. Nedal Alteneiji, of the Zayed House of Islamic Culture of the United Arab Emirates, who explained during her lecture the project of the Abrahamic Family House, a call to human fraternity, underway in Abu Dhabi, expressed herself along the same lines.
“Through tolerance and coexistence, this project confirms the UAE’s role in welcoming all religions”. “It is a one-of-a-kind symbol of coexistence and peace between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity”, she emphasised. For Dr. Alteneiji, the territory of the Emirates has for centuries been a haven for all religions, which have been able to practice freely, with tolerance, generosity and hospitality for more than 7,000 years.
“Abu Dhabi is the new Cordoba, with an effective coexistence of Abrahamic religions that allowed the sciences and knowledge inherited from the Greek, Roman, and Chinese civilizations to be transmitted to Europe”. “At the time, Cordoba’s scholars were Arabs, Christian students spoke Latin, and Jews served as intermediaries between the two because they spoke both languages”,she recalled.
Before the words of the FICRT President and Dr. Nedal Alteneiji, the scientific coordinator of the 1st Cordoba Forum, Mohammed DahiriProfessor at the Complutense University, was in charge of presenting this meeting, which brings together eleven experts from Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia, from different universities and the different Abrahamic confessions. Dahiri advocated working on unity that admits diversity and establishing bridges of dialogue for coexistence in common. Cintia Bustos, Cordoba City Councilor for Youth, also attended the opening ceremonywho, after welcoming the city On behalf of the youth,he expressed gratitude for the celebration of these meetings that discuss other religions and seek to enrich and live in peace. “Thank you for caring about nations’ present and future”, he concluded.
The director of the University Institute of Religious Sciences of the Complutense University, Juan Antonio Álvarez-Pedrosa, alluded to the study of religions in the university environment and the need for dialogue that implies “mutual respect, the ability to listen to others and the openness to understand them”.
Professor Álvarez-Pedrosa emphasised that those studying interreligious dialogue want to show that “things can be different and that intolerance cannot have the last word”. According to the professor, dialogue entails the exchange of ideas between religions as well as learning “from each other”. Words that coincided with those of the Deputy Director of the Unesco Chair in Conflict Resolution at the University of Cordoba, Fernando López MoraHe emphasised the importance of participation and understanding, particularly in this geopolitical world, and praised the Forum’s convening with the participation of great specialists “which places Cordoba in a very unique position in this type of dynamization”..
The first panel of this Cordoba Forum included the interventions of Dr. Alteneiji and Francesc Xavier Marín Torné, PhD in Philosophy from the Ramón Llull University, who explained the spirituality of fidelity to the legacy of Abraham. Dr. María Ángeles Gallego, senior scientist at the Institute of Languages and Cultures of the Mediterranean and Near East of the CSIC, was the moderator.
