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Youth work against Violent Radicalization: competencies development

Youth work against Violent Radicalization: competencies development

Mamoun Khreisat the Founder of Desert Bloom, participated in “Youth work against Violent Radicalization: competencies development” training course, from 4 to 9 March 2019 in Macerata, Italy.
The training is part of a long-term youth strategy aims at empowering youth workers to prevent youth radicalization through:

  • Building youth workers competencies to enable them enhance youth resilience to violent radicalization.
  • Providing opportunities for NGOs to share experience and exchange good practices at the local/national, regional and international levels.
  • Providing opportunities for networking and partnership building.
  • Learning from the experiences of local Italian grassroots NGOs in field of preventing violent radicalization.

Macerata, a tranquil little city of cobblestone streets and handsome blond-brick plazas nestled in the craggy central Italian hills. In February 2018, the city experienced unexpected racially motivated shooting leaves at least six African migrants wounded. A 28-year-old Italian man drove through Macerata, opening fire from his vehicle, reportedly shouting “Viva l’Italia!” and making a fascist salute. This tragic event has wakened up the city and many local NGOs adopt many programs to enhance community resilience to violent radicalization. We had a chance to speak with Kofi Wilson, a 20- year-old immigrant from Ghana who was shot in the chest by Italian racist. We listen to his story and how the local community in Macerata supported him.

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Preventing Youth from Radicalization

Preventing Youth from Radicalization

Training Course, 7th -13th April 2019, Sadeen Hotel, Amman – Jordan

Desert Bloom finished the implementation of a five-day intensive training course on Preventing Youth from Radicalization co-organized by URI MENA and Grenzenlos - Interkultureller Austausch (ICYE Austria). The project was greatly funded by European Union under Erasmus Plus program. The training attended by 25 youth workers/ organizations’ leaders from Europe (Austria, Finland, Portugal, Spain and UK) and MENA regions (Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia).

The training fulfilled its aims and objectives, it:

  1. Enhanced participants’ knowledge about different religions and cultures.
  2. Promoted interfaith and intercultural understanding and cooperation.
  3. Empowered participants with competences needed to prevent youth from radicalization through media literacy, combating hate speech, intercultural sensitivity, interfaith dialogue, critical thinking, nonviolent communication and youth economic inclusion.
  4. Raising awareness on vulnerable groups to radicalization within our societies and to allow participants to discover the different situations of other participating countries
  5. Promoting tolerance and diversity towards other religions within local and int’l voluntary and youth projects.
  6. Produced a framework that provides youth workers with guidance to prevent youth from radicalization.
  7. Sharing good practices from Arab countries and Europe.

The program was designed to equip the participants with the needed competencies to prevent youth from radicalization in their communities, it covered the following topics/ activities:

  1. - Understanding main concepts and terminologies related to violent radicalization. Several misconceptions and stereotypes were highlighted.
  2. - The process of violent radicalization (5 steps to violent radicalization, Moghaddam’s Staircase Model to Terrorism).
  3. - Causes of extremism and radicalization leading to violence (pull & push factors).
  4. Causes of Youth Radicalization-Sharing Local Context.
  5. - Interactive lecture on “The role of Christian tradition in preventing violent extremism (PVE)”, led by Rev. Samer Azar (the Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, and the Representative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan).
  6. - Interactive lecture on “The role of Islamic tradition in preventing violent extremism (PVE)”, led by Imam Dr. Mohammed Rawashdeh, Khalda Musque.
  7. - Role of education in PVE - Intercultural citizenship education
  8. - Building plural, diverse, and multicultural collective identities.
  9. - Trip to Madaba. The group visited:
  • * Mount Nebo is an elevated ridge in Jordan, approximately 710 meters above sea level. According to the Hebrew Bible, is the site where Prophet Moses (peace be upon him) viewed the Promised Land. The view from the summit provides a panorama of the Holy Land. Mount Nebo, just west of Madaba city, formed part of the Madaba Diocese during Byzantine times.
  • * Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist, a historic Catholic Church in Madaba, belonging to the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, as a Shrine of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist.
  • * The Mosque of Jesus Christ, founded in 2008 to send out a message of togetherness and tolerance. The Mosque’s name shows how Muslims respect and venerate Jesus Christ as one of God's greatest messengers to humankind.

10.  Competencies building sessions, include:

  • * PVE - Media Literacy- Media & Trauma, by Ahmad Abojaradeh, Executive Director, Life in My Days.
  • * PYE - Critical Thinking
  • * PYE- Emotional Intelligence
  • * PYE- Youth Economic Empowerment

11.  Developing a framework to preventing violent extremism
12.  Introduction of Erasmus + and Projects Development.

At the end of the training, the participants came up with the following recommendations to decision makers:

  • Creating a Youth Passport: a passport for youth (for a specific age limits), to facilitate youth mobility (visas), discounts for logistics, access to different youth events.
  • More meetings and conventions between South-North, either bilateral for example between Finland – Algeria, Tunisia – Austria, Jordan- Spain…etc, or multilateral; several countries together.
  • More dialogue between different religions, for example arranging events with representatives from different religious groups to promote mutual understanding.
  •  Empowering women participation in leading religious groups.
  •  Including intercultural citizenship in official education curriculumFor more photos visit the below link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11MHu2IlQbnYOHJ2VPaaExsdaHtfEtziT?usp=sharing

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Desert Bloom participated in Intercultural Citizenship Education for Youth Workers in Euro-Med Area

Desert Bloom participated in Intercultural Citizenship Education for Youth Workers in Euro-Med Area training course from 1-7 May 2019 under Erasmus+ KA1 Mobility of Youth Workers program.

The training aimed at increasing the youth workers, leaders and trainers’ competence to promote intercultural citizenship in Europe and Mediterranean region. Intercultural citizenship is highly needed due to the increased globalization, the need to integrate refugees and migrants, and to prevent youth from radicalization that  leads to violence.

The project specific objectives included:

  1. Reaching a shared understanding of the meaning of terms such as citizenship, intercultural competences among youth workers.
  2. Identifying and developing learning methods that promote diversity which encourage intercultural citizenship practices.
  3. Breaking down stereotypes about people with different cultural background.
  4. Enabling youth workers to develop new educational programs according to the needs of their target groups in local context.
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Volunteers as peace agents

Volunteers as peace agents- training course, Vienna from 24-30 May 2019
The founder of Desert Bloom and the URI MENA Regional Coordinator participated in “Volunteers as Agents for Peace” training course in Vienna- Austria from 24-30 May 2019. The training attended by 50 participants from Europe, MENA and Asia.
The training was aimed at fostering the role of peacebuilding organizations, youth workers and voluntary organizations’ in promoting and building to peace as well as combating against hate speeches. Also, the training tackled different approaches in preparing, mentoring and evaluating voluntary projects in order to support volunteers to act as peace agents.
The participants shared many innovative ideas about the role of volunteers in promoting peace. Many peacebuilding tools were introduced. Also, strategies to act as peace messengers and to reduce stereotypes were tackled. We had many fruitful debates about peace work among young people from all over the world, particularly from Europe and Mediterranean countries.
The program included conducting 3 small projects for local community in Vienna. This had enabled participants to have good chances to interact with local community and practice their role as agents for peace. One of the projects was to do street action where 14 participants did some street performances in public spaces. The group succeeded in attracting audience and delivering peaceful messages about Peace, Diversity, Minority Rights and Disability Inclusion.
This training course was co-financed with the friendly support of the Erasmus+ program of the European Union.

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The International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS)

Desert Bloom Founder participated in the International Conference on Cohesive Societies (ICCS)in June 2019. The conference brought together around 700 Leaders and experts across academia, government, religious organizations and civic society from almost 40 countries to tackle challenges facing social cohesion, and strengthen inter-religious and inter-cultural understanding globally. The Conference comes at time we need dialogue and collaboration, as greater interconnectedness makes societies more vulnerable to misinformation and extremist views. Her Excellency Halimah Yacob, President of the Republic of Singapore, delivered the Opening and His Majesty (HM) King Abdullah II of Jordan delivered the Keynote Address. HM King Abdullah as a global leader in interfaith harmony, highlight how Islam denounce terrorism. Also, he spoke about his global peace initiatives including the Amman Message, the Common Word Initiative, and the UN World Interfaith Harmony Week.
In general, ICCS addressed the challenges to social cohesion, including growing intolerance and the influence of extremist views through open dialogue and mutual learning. Moreover, ICCS emphasized the importance of the rehabilitation and reintegration of radicalized people into society. It built bridges and explored practical solutions to drive global collective action across societies drawing on the diverse expertise of an excellent line-up of speakers.
One of major takeaways is the idea of turning hate to love presented by Mr. Christian Picciolini, former White supremacist turned peace advocate, co-founder of Life After Hate and founder of the Free Radicals Project. He said, "Nobody was born to hate! They learnt that hate. And if we can learn to hate, then we can learn to love." Another takeaway is the notion that dialogue is the prerequisite of building social cohesion, as highlighted by several speakers. We all know the importance of dialogue; however, we tend to keep it among those who are interested, this limits the impact of dialogue. The world is more and more interconnected but it does not mean that individuals and societies really live together. Hence, it has become more crucial than ever to promote and disseminate values, attitudes and behaviors conducive to dialogue through discussion forums, courses, capacity building and publications to enable people to venture across boundaries of religions, cultures and social classes. People need safe places where they can meet to share narratives and perspectives, discover their common values and be at ease with their differences.
Moreover, I was inspired by the talk of Karen Armstrong, best-selling British author on comparative religion and founder of the Charter for Compassion. She talked about religion and identity at the Plenary on Faith. She said, "All our religious traditions are like fingers pointing to the moon; very so often we focus on the fingers and forget about the moon."
The conference provided a unique opportunity for networking, I managed to introduce URI to tens of global interfaith leaders. They were amazed to learn about URI and its extraordinary work across the globe.
The conference comprised three plenary sessions, six breakout sessions and a half - day community experience:
1. Plenary sessions:
- Plenary 1 What We Believe (Faith)
- Plenary 2 Who We Are (Identity)
- How We Come Together (Cohesion)
2. Breakout sessions:
- Faith – Inter-religious Dialogue and Community Building
- Faith – Faith and Technology
- Identity – Social Media and Community Discourse
- Identity – Overcoming Hate
- Cohesion – Building Bridges: Global Peacebuilding Efforts
- Cohesion – Community Initiatives towards Social Cohesion
3. Half day Community Experience
We Explored the heritage trail of different places of worship on Telok Ayer Street (a 350m-long street stretches between Boon Tat Street and Cecil Street). He went on a walking tour of five places of worship along the street, and met leaders of the church, temples, mosque and shrine that have been there for more than a century. The street is truly Singapore’s representative street of religious harmony. I was amazed to learn the story of Thian Hock Keng whose name means “palace of heavenly happiness”, built in the early 1820s as a small temple located at the seaside of Telok Ayer Basin. It was said that not a single nail was used in the construction of this temple. The temple was built for the worship of Mazu ("Ma Cho Po"), a Chinese sea goddess, then another Buddhist shrine was added at the back dedicated to Guanyin, the Mahayana Buddhist bodhisattva of mercy.
The community experience also provided a unique opportunity to discover the diverse religious communities and local culture in Singapore. In addition to religious places, we visited the following places:
- The Bicentennial Experience. a multimedia sensory experience brings us back in time to witness key moments in Singapore’s transformation from as far back as 1299.
- Museum Gallery Tour. Explore connections between the diverse heritage cultures of Singapore, their interconnections, and connections with the world.
- Harmony in Diversity Gallery. The Gallery aims to promote an appreciation of Singapore's rich religious diversity. It demonstrates the religious harmony in Singapore fostering a spirit of give and take, mutual respect and understanding, necessary to nurture and strengthen the religious peace and harmony Singapore.
Singapore is a rare example of a multi-racial, multi-lingual and multi-religious society where people live harmoniously together.
Speakers included:
- Dr Paul Hedges Associate Professor, Interreligious Studies, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
- Ms Karen Armstrong OBE; FRSL Historian of World Religion
- Dr Shashi Jayakumar (Host) Head, Centre of Excellence for National Security and Executive Coordinator, Future Issues and Technology, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
- Bishop Miguel Ángel Ayuso Guixot President, Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue
- Dr Veena Howard Associate Professor, Asian Religious Traditions and Coordinator of Peace and Conflict Studies Program, California State University, Fresno
- Dr Nazirudin Mohd Nasir Deputy Mufti, Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS)
- Venerable Guo Huei Abbot-President, Dharma Drum Mountain
- Lord John Alderdice House of Lords, UK
- Mr Christian Picciolini Founder, Free Radicals Project
- Dr Azza Karam Senior Advisor on Culture, United Nations Population Fund and Coordinator, UN Inter-Agency Task Force on Religion and Development
- Professor Chaiwat Satha-Anand Professor of Political Science, Thammasat University and Founder, Thai Peace Information Centre
- Professor Lai Pan Chiu Interim Dean and Professor of Religious Studies, Faculty of Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- Dr Ali Al Nuaimi Chairman, The World Council of Muslim Communities
- Dr Anna Halafoff Research Associate of the UNESCO Chair of Interreligious and Intercultural Relations – Asia Pacific
- Bishop Emeritus Dr Wee Boon Hup Member, Presidential Council for Religious Harmony, Singapore
- Dr Dicky Sofjan Core Doctoral Faculty. Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada
- Dr Patrice Brodeur Associate Professor, Institute of Religious Studies, University of Montreal and Senior Advisor- (KAICIID)
- Dr Kumar Ramakrishna Head, Policy Studies and Head, National Security Studies Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
- Pastor Tan Seow How Senior Pastor, Heart of God Church
- Dr Mohamed bin Ali Assistant Professor, Studies in Inter-Religious Relations in Plural Societies Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
- Mr Christian Picciolini Founder, Free Radicals Project

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Desert Bloom founder participated in the URI Accelerate Peace Conference

The URI Accelerate Peace conference took place on June 26 and 27, 2019 at the Hoover Institution on the Stanford University campus in California, USA. It brought together more than 400 peacebuilders from around the world to discuss challenges to peace, both in their local communities and on an international level, and also to discuss action-oriented solutions to benefit all of humanity.  Mamoun Khreisat shared his experience in involving youth in building resilient community and preventing youth from radicalization that leads to violence.

The main sessions included:

  • Remembering Victims of Violence and Injustice
  • Peacebuilding through Promoting Enduring, Daily Interfaith Cooperation: From Dialogue to Action
  • Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons
  • Ending Religiously Motivated Violence
  • Building Cultures of Peace, Justice and Healing for the Earth and all Living Beings: Women’s Empowerment and Environmental Sustainability
  • Building Cultures of Peace, Justice and Healing for the Earth and all Living Beings: Global Organizations and Grassroots Partnerships
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Desert Bloom participated in “70 years of Human Rights” Youth Exchange

The project “70 years of Human Rights” was inspired by the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 Dec. 1948.  The Declaration was the first effort in human history spell out basic civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights that all human beings should enjoy. The training aimed at increasing the awareness of the widely accepted human rights that everyone should respect and protect. It was designed to enable young people from different cultures and backgrounds to understand the Human Rights and to reflect on them as well as to share their local contexts of Human Rights. Non-formal education methodology where used to encourage active participation of young people.

The training was hosted by ETV EuroTreviso - APS, Italy, and the 25 participants came from Armenia, Italy, Jordan, Poland and Lebanon. The Desert Bloom team comprises: Duha al-Saudi, Dalia Qasem, Husam al-Hawari, and Makram Elias. Desert Bloom and the United Religions Initiative (URI) were introduced in organizations’ presentations.

The facilitators presented the history of Human Rights Declaration. Participants were engaged in activities, exercises, and debates to understand the articles of the Human Rights Declaration. Additionally, they attended a short seminar organized by the renowned NGO “Amnesty International” that mainly discussed the nature of the NGO’s work and how it exerts efforts in various ways to defend human rights on an international level.

On the evening of the second day, during the intercultural night, each country set up a small booth demonstrating their countries’ attractions, traditions, foods, sweets, clothes…etc.

On the third day, participants went on a small trip to Venice that included a visit to the Armenian Island, San Lazzaro degli Armeni. The guide at the island explained the history of the island and how the Armenian Church was first founded in Italy. Furthermore, the host organization explained the history behind the most famous monuments and iconic sites in the historical city of Venice, such as the San Marco Church and the Jewish Ghetto.

On the following days, participants took part in more activities and exercises revolving around human rights and watched a movie called Wadjda, directed by Haifaa al-Mansour, a Saudi Arabian film director. The film focus on women’s issues in Saudi Arabia through telling the story of a 10-year-old girl growing up in the suburbs of Riyadh. After the movie, participants engaged in a debate discussing the situation of human rights in some difficult countries.

On the last two days of the workshop, Desert Bloom participants made a short presentation on human rights in Jordan, the history of minorities in the Kingdom, and how they were integrated into the Jordanian society.

Feedback of Desert Bloom’s participants:

The workshop was a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we will remember and cherish forever. We learned many things about the history of human rights and realized how a person can simply take them for granted and forget how many other people in the world are fighting to attain and enjoy them. It is safe to say that we will not look at human rights the same way we did in the past and that we will definitely appreciate them as long as we live. Furthermore, we will most certainly share the knowledge we acquired during the workshop and will spread awareness on human rights’ issues around the world.

We would like to thank Desert Bloom for providing such opportunity to Jordanian youth.

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Desert Bloom participated in "Play with me: Refugees inclusion through games and sport" Youth Exchange project

Desert Bloom participated in "Play with me: Refugees inclusion through games and sport" Youth Exchange project in Padova, Italy from 22-30 July 2019


The project aimed at providing friendly spaces and atmospheres for young people from Europe and Mediterranean countries and young refugees/immigrants to have a real interaction through engaging them in several games and sportive activities. Games and sport are truly among the best universal tools to integrate immigrants and refugees into receiving societies. The project which was hosted by the Italian organization, “Via Firenze 21”, involved 36 participants coming from 6 countries of Europe and the Middle East & North Africa. In addition to cultural games and sport, the 6 representatives of Desert Bloom shared Jordan’s good practices in integrating refugees throughout the last 70 years.

The project used formal and non-formal education, games and sport activities to promote tolerance, mutual understanding, multicultural dialogues as well as to enhance the management and innovation capacity and internationalization of participants.

Below is some feedback of Desert Bloom's participants:


Bahaa Eddin Al-Qatanani (the group leader)


It was wonderful experience for me. My major takeaways were firstly the interaction with illegal immigrants and refugees and understand the reason behind their migration decision. In addition to learning more about the risks and dangers they were through during the journey.

Secondly, based on the number of participants which is relatively high (36) and the countries diversity, the opinions and thoughts regarding the refugees and illegal immigrants were dissimilar and the arguments were rich with ideas.

Finally, the participants learned how to use sport for refugees’ inclusion, and the importance of including refugees into communities.


Fares Rawas:

 

The program included diverse activities related to sport, multiculturalism and refugee’s integration. I have learnt several games from different cultures. Also, I learnt how to think out of box and be creative. I enjoyed every day of the program. We started our first day from ESTE Castle where we were asked to accomplish 11 tasks require the whole team cooperation. The excises helped us to build common grounds as one team. The second day was greatly dedicated to get to know each other. The intercultural night at the evening was so creative; each team where asked to represent other country. Jordanian talk about Greece culture, food and traditional clothes. The third day was amazing, we hiked at "Villa Beatric" to simulate the hardships face refugees throughout their journey as they leave their homes and crossing borders. We shared and reflected our experience for refugees focusing on solutions for this problem. During the fourth and fifth days we work in groups to create and play games that support refugee integration for youth and children. Every group choose a theme and share their game with other, then we played them together. On the Sixth day, we played universal games and reflect on each game. Also, we had some workshops on refugees’ integration. On the 7th day we visited the city of padova, then went to a summer club to play with Italian kid, the games we had created just for them on the fifth day of the project. On the 8th day we review the learning and reflect on how we will apply what we learnt in our countries through our sending organizations. The 9th day, we did the evaluation and closing.

Wesam Al- Zawahreh

For me this experience was amazing and fruitful. I learnt how to integrate and include refugees and youth through sports and games. It is so creative idea, because it fosters meaningful interaction with everyone around. I will make sure to transfer this gained knowledge and experience throughout my work with youth in Jordan. I would like to thank Bloom Desert organization for providing this opportunity to participate in this training to gain this wonderful experience.

Photos are available on the belwo link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1i5GnZQOd70pWQ84RV7ukW3tn98eUU00X?usp=sharing

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Desert Bloom participated in "Youth in Rural Development" training course

The project aimed to provide participants (who represent youth-focused organizations) with competencies needed for youth economic empowerment, particularly youth in rural and marginalized areas who have limited employment opportunities.
The 32 participants came from 8 countries: Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Jordan and North Macedonia.
The training covered several competencies including project management and Entrepreneurial skills. Also, it contains several field visits to local startups and small businesses, including Rose Factory, Sweet Factory, Water Factory and Agrotouristic house. Additionally, we had interactive sessions with two representatives from Rural Development Commissions, the Minster of Agriculture & Rural Development and the Mayor of Nicosia (the Capital of Cyprus). We learnt about the government strategic plans to enhance rural youth employability.
The Government is running different programs to restore traditional villages to promote agrotourism in Cyprus which creates jobs for rural youth. The number of agrotouristic houses is increasing every year across all villages attracting more and more visitors every year and attracting back those who have already experienced it to come again- such is this unique experience of nature and traditional Cyprus villages. The project took place in Agros village, where we met with many locals and learnt about the nature in troodos mountain villages. We spent a week there experiencing the simple and serene life, learning old folk customs, enjoying the surrounding peaceful nature life and the unique traditional foods and drinks.
The project was hosted by Youth Dynamics organization, Cyprus in cooperation with Youth Board of Cyprus under Erasmus plus program.

Photos are available on the below link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12gZGTxrFmSerQP1t92uEt4iojb5RGinh

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Honoring the International Day of Peace 21 Sept. 2019- Climate Action for Peace

Desert Bloom in cooperation with URI MENA honored the Internationally Day of Peace by organizing an interactive workshop on “Our earth urges you to become a peace-builder- Stories from religious Traditions”.

The Muslim Imam highlighted that environmental awareness and protection of natural resources is an integral part of Islamic beliefs. As viceroys of Allah on this earth, we have to utilize natural resources in a sustainable manner in order to ensure that Allah’s Bounties to continue. Therefore, Islamic attitude towards environment and natural resource conservation is not only based on prohibition of over-exploitation but also on sustainable development. The Holy Quran says:

“O children of Adam! … eat and drink: but waste not by excess, for Allah loves not the wasters.” (Surah 7:31).

Prophet Muhammad (SAW) encouraged the planting of trees and the cultivation of agriculture which are considered as good acts. Her said: “There is none amongst the Muslims who plants a tree or sows seeds, and then a bird, or a person or an animal eats from it, but is regarded as a charitable gift for him.”

The Imam explained how Islamic teachings urge us to take care about everything around us, whether it is natural resources (soil, vegetation, animals, air, water, mineral resources...etc.) or man- made things.

 The Baha'i speakers presented a paper on “Seizing the Opportunity: Redefining the challenge of climate change” reviewing the global initiatives and attempts to sustain peace since the world War one. The highlighted the failures of global efforts in achieving peace and sustaining resources. Therefore, it is time to seize the opportunity and take the next step in the transition from a state-centered mode of interacting on the world stage to one rooted in the unity which connects us as the inhabitants of one biosphere, the citizens of one world and the members of one human civilization. The nature of this step, its significance and some of the means for its accomplishment are the focus of the Baha'i International Community’s contribution to forging a path out of the climate change challenge. To contribute to this important discourse, we assert that the principle of the oneness of humankind must become the ruling principle of international life. This principle does not seek to undermine national autonomy or suppress cultural or intellectual diversity. Rather, it makes it possible to view the climate change challenge through a new lens - one that perceives humanity as a unified whole, not unlike the cells of the human body, infinitely differentiated in form and function yet united in a common purpose which exceeds that of its component parts. This principle constitutes more than a call for cooperation; it seeks to remold anachronistic and unjust patterns of human interaction in a manner that reflects the relationships that bind us as members of one human race. and resources stemming from the belief of the oneness of mankind.

The Christian speaker highlighted the fact that Adam was a special creation of God made from the dust of the earth, and then the breath of God in which the spirit of life and man became a living being. Environmental peacemaking is based on the principle of our shared dependence on natural, environmental and health resources that facilitate cooperation between communities and nations and thus enable us to promote peacemaking.

The concept of environmental peacemaking is based on three pillars of sustainable development: economic sustainability, social and cultural sustainability and environmental sustainability

As is the case in other religions, the Christian religion stated the religious culture of preserving the environment as follows:

  • The Old Testament of the Bible: «The skies of heaven for the Lord and the earth made it for the people of man.
  • Pope John Paul II sent a message in which he said that respect for the environment is a manifestation of human respect for the Creator. Therefore, he considered that the destruction of man to nature is the bullying of the Creator.

In conclusion, one must learn that the earth cannot renew itself with its wealth, riches and tenders forever while consuming it without calculation. Collective action is essential to keep the earth from a religious, social, moral and economic duty.

After the speeches, the participants shared their ideas about how to become a promoter for peace and a protector of nature. As an action plan, the participants agreed to clean a natural rural forest and to visit an Ecovillage to promote ecotourism.

 

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Events

2022-07-07

Come and play it "Young Entrepreneurs, play it right” an educational game on Social Entrepreneurship


2019-11-24 November

Building community resilience to prevent violent extremism

Amman

2019-04-07 April

Training Course On "Preventing Youth From Radicalization"

12 pm - 03pm

Amman

2019-02-09 Feb

Celebrating the World Interfaith Harmony Week- February 2019

12 pm - 03pm

Amman