| |
| Event Model #6: “Dialogue between Religions: Risk of Solution?” |
|
 Summary: Rowaida, a young Lebanese student and radio journalist, organized a day-long seminar at the UNESCO Palace in Beirut for a group of over 50 people, including expert presenters and audience members representing most of Lebanon’s 28 sects. This large-scale event was made possible by collaborating with existing NGOs and institutions, and generated widescale coverage in print, radio, and TV. In addition, observers from other countries in the region attended and are now eager to hold similar events in their own communities. Below are excerpts from her report:
Challenge Addressed: Lebanese society has over two dozen officially recognized religious sects, and many aspects of political life and life-cycle events (e.g., marriage) are organized by sect. At the same time, Lebanon has seen brutal civil war and faces on-going divisions and unrest. The question is whether the next generation can sit down and work together to do a better job than our parents.
Participants: 50 people attended. They came from different Lebanese areas and cities (Tyre, Tripoli, Saida, Brumanna, Mount Lebanon, Maten, southern villages, and Beirut). They belonged to different cultural and social backgrounds. We hosted youth between the age of 15 and 25 from a variety of Lebanese schools and universities. We had also some activists in civic society, including Sheikh Khaled Karima (President of "Harakat al Sakina Al Islamiya" in Tripoli), Nour Hemici (Syrian human rights consultant working in Lebanon),and Hiba Hneini an activist form the "Human Rights Center" in Beirut Arab University (BAU). We also had representatives from other NGOs and countries working in Lebanon: the UNDP, the Palestinian Human Rights Foundation, and the President of the National Lebanese Committee for UNESCO in Lebanon (Salwa Seniora Ba'asiri, sister of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Fouad Seniora). Former Syrian parliamentarian and Damascus Spring prisoner Mohamed Mamoun Alhomsy also participated. We had some representatives and diplomats from European and Arab embassies working in Lebanon, including Bulgaria, Iraq, and Germany. We also had journalists who covered the conference for various Lebanese newspapers.
 Marketing: I created a Facebook group before one month of the event. 142 persons joined in two weeks. I sent the posters (right) for the event in Arabic and English to all Lebanese media stations, foreign embassies located in Lebanon, and NGOs in my contact list. I started to cooperate with a Lebanese NGO called Lebanese Youth for Different Society (LYDS) which covered a big part of the promotion of the event through their connections with media and social activists. They also paid for the design of posters. Through LYDS we promoted for the event also in universities and some schools in Beirut. Six youth volunteers from LYDS help on the day of the conference in logistics, the registration process, and food.
Event Description: The event took place from 9 AM to 4 PM on Monday, July 27, in Beirut’s UNESCO Palace. Three sessions each lasted for two hours with two half- hour breaks, one for coffee and one for lunch. We began with the national anthem. Then LYDS chairman Hadi Joubali introduced the event, I moderated three sessions. Topics discussed by speakers included: "What does religious diversity mean?", “One Lebanese family in many sects", "The role of media in dialogue between religions", "Between civil laws and religious legislations", "Civil marriage: Solution or problem?", "What does it mean to be secular person?", "The controversial Relation between religions and human rights" , "The role of civil society in spreading the culture of diversity ", and "Human rights in Lebanon 2008".
Each of the eight speakers’ talks was followed by an open discussion. The participants’ opinions ranged across religious and political viewpoints, including secular voices. Still the discussions was respectful of others’ opinions. We took a coffee break and a lunch break. At the end, I thanked everyone and summarized the recommendations of the day’s sessions. We promised to soon host a regional conference on the same theme but with different topics to fit the larger region’s needs and aspirations. After the conference I prepared an Arabic report on the conference with summaries and recommendations, which were sent to our contact list including participants and embassies in Lebanon and NGOs.
Press Coverage: We had major press coverage before and after the event. I was hosted in the morning program live on "El Ikhbariya TV" for 15 minutes to talk about the event. I was also on TeleLiban TV’s live morning program and Future TV live. Radio interviews included "Mahatat" on Radio Orient, where I spoke about the event and also about the training seminar in Morocco that inspired it. I mentioned how I benefited from my participation in the Morocco seminar. The event itself was broadcast live for an hour on Radio Orient. Three local newspapers (Assafir, Al Mustaqbal, & El Shark) covered the event. Other coverage included March14, Centre Catholique, Leila Magazine, and Banias. The following day I appeared on NBN TV.
Benchmarks: (1) 18 participants; (2) 3 local newspapers covering; (3) One radio station; and (4) One TV station. We surpassed these numeric benchmarks. More importantly, many of the participants said that they changed their minds about issues discussed. Many asked me to follow up with them for any upcoming regional conference about dialogue between cultures and religions and for youth leadership skills training. We are already talking about holding our next event.
Lessons Learned: I learned how to recruit participants and how to avoid some logistical mistakes, especially when some participants did show at the last minute. In the future I would search for more funding to make this event a two or three day conference instead of one day.
Is This a Model Event?
Every country in the region has problems of religious and sectarian clashes. I think this is a great forum for addressing these challenges in a respectful way, although I do not know if every society would be so open to discussing these issues in such a high-profile way. Also, I was able to recruit a major NGO to partner with me on the project. Without their funding support and contacts, we would not have had the high-level speakers and major media attention. It’s hard to make specific recommendations for how someone could do this in their own community. But it definitely can and should be done – and sometimes you can dream big and make your dream happen.
Reviewers' Comments:
The event organizer managed to pull together a very diverse group of participants across religious lines, age groups, and power segments in Lebanese society. The topics chosen for discussion in panels were substantive and asked difficult questions. In particular, a variety of viewpoints were apparently presented in the form of civil dialogue. A huge contribution to interfaith understanding is often simply getting people to discuss difficult or controversial topics in a civil manner.
This event really belongs in a (strikingly successful) category of its own. It has enjoyed significant and positive media coverage. The participation of “representatives and diplomats from European and Arab embassies working in Lebanon, including Bulgaria, Iraq, and Germany” is especially impressive and encouraging as an indication of possible future involvement.
The event was complex and its workshops were specific to Lebanon – so a replication would need to take into account the specifics of whatever region is hosting it
|
|