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KAICIID Fellows Programme begins dialogue training for future religious peacemakers

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10 years ago

December 3, 2015

Twenty religious educators and scholars from around the world have been accepted into the second KAICIID Fellows Programme, a year-long programme of training in conflict resolution, and social cohesion, the Vienna-based intergovernmental organization announced today.

Almost half of them come from countries which are currently undergoing periods of violent conflict with religion as a factor, such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nigeria and Iraq.

The training programme aims to equip educators from Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Muslim training institutions with the skills to train a new generation of religious leaders in conflict prevention, interreligious dialogue and social cohesion, so that they, in turn, can be active peacemakers in their communities.

“Religious leaders are immensely influential in their local communities: through their words, actions, and spiritual guidance, they can, and do, hold communities together in the face of threats like radicalization and extremism. The KAICIID Fellows programme is designed to help them in this task, through concrete, institutional, skill-based training programmes.”

The Fellows programme also connects institutions that train future religious leaders, thus building an active global community of leaders in dialogue who share the vision of integrating dialogue in religious education.

The Fellows undertake three one-week trainings with KAICIID moderators and facilitators, and also receive ongoing support throughout the year in their work, including micro-financing for community projects in dialogue.

KAICIID Secretary General, Faisal Bin Muaammar said: “Even though the Fellows Programme has only been in existence for a year, our trainees have already delivered very positive results.

We are amazed and motivated by the positive changes that can result from bringing people from different religious traditions together in dialogue, and we are confident that leaders in religious communities, and through them, the larger public from all these countries will benefit directly as a result.”