MEPEACE Chat - September 5

Event link: http://www.mepeace.org/events/mepeace-chat-september-5


We're proud to invite you to the start of yet another series of three Chat Workshops around an interesting and relevant topic.

Today (02 September), after a seemingly endless deadlock, the leaders of Israel and Palestine meet again for direct Peace Talks. A sign of hope, certainly, but we must doubt that the talks alone will bring peace to the region.

Our efforts are necessary, too, to establish genuine peace. Even if - some day - all political questions will be resolved, peace must still become a part of the people's hearts and minds. Prejudice must be overcome, trust be established. We need to learn to know each other, to understand each other, to understand each other's histories.

Religion is a central part of the lives of many of us. It also plays an important role in the Middle East Conflict. Though we might well argue that the Middle East Conflict is not about religion, still religious zealots from both sides are ceaselessly attempting to ruin peace and reconciliation efforts. But religion can play a different role in conflict. We want to dedicate this new series of three Chat Workshops to 'Interfaith Peacebuilding'.

Our fundamental goal will be to find out how religion can be used in conflict resolution, how faith and dialogue of the faithful can help to transform society. In our first workshop (05 September) we will introduce Interfaith Peacebuilding, by first developing a definition of Interfaith Peacebuilding - one we all can live with. Subsequently we will discuss the actors in Interfaith Peacebuilding and talk about both opportunties and risks of using religious dialogue to resolve conflict.

The leading questions of our workshop on 05 September are:

How would you define Interfaith Peacebuilding?

Who is involved in Interfaith Peacebuilding? How are Interfaith Peacebuilders 'made'?

What are the risks, what are the opportunities of Interfaith Peacebuilding?

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Please note that the event will start on Sunday, 05 September at 20.00 Jerusalem time, in the MEPEACE Chat.

If you have any questions regarding the event, please don't hesitate to contact us at mepeace.dialogue@gmail.com.

We look forward to your participation!

The MEPEACE.org Dialogue Team
Çiğdem Yılmazer, Clara Singer, Tanya Kasim & Oliver Haack