Home FAITH Gowon, Abdulsalam, Sultan Sa’ad, Onaiyekan Storm Abuja For Religious Summit On Tuesday

Gowon, Abdulsalam, Sultan Sa’ad, Onaiyekan Storm Abuja For Religious Summit On Tuesday

sultan-onaiyekan-and-abdulsalamFormer Nigeria military leaders; Generals Yakubu Gowon, Abdulsalam Abubakar; the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, Cardinal John Onaiyekan are expected to converge on Abuja, the Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for a summit on inter-religious understanding among Muslim and Christian communities in Nigeria on Tuesday.
The Summit, organized by a Vienna, Austria based International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), is expected to run from Tuesday September 27 to 29, and will also be attended by traditional and religious leaders from various sections of the country.
The event, according to a statement today, Sunday by KAICIID’s Nigeria Country Expert, Joseph Atang, is aimed at creating “effective platforms towards promoting inter-religious understanding among Muslim and Christian communities in Nigeria.
The statement said that apart from creating a platform for exchange and engagement among Nigerian religious leaders, the Summit will also feature two intra-religious meetings prior to an inter-religious event offer religious leaders from Christian and Muslim communities throughout Nigeria, an opportunity intensive dialogue.
The Summit is coming on the heels of a parallel meeting aimed at fostering greater interaction between the intra-religious meetings.
KAICIID Director General Fahad Abualnasr, who is expected to open the conference said: “a group of selected representatives from each meeting already engaged in inter-religious meetings will also meet for one-day preparatory workshop to formulate aligned agendas, including objectives for both intra-religious meetings.”
Abualnasr expressed hope that the world’s only inter-governmental organization dedicated to promoting inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue, will to produce a positive outcome for the country.
The statement said that KAICIID Senior Adviser, Mohammed Abu-Nimer, a professor at the School of International Service at American University, will also attend the Summit, among other senior officials from the organization.
Abu-Nimer is renowned to have conducted inter-religious conflict resolution training and interfaith dialogue workshops in conflict areas around the world, including Chad, Egypt, Niger, Iraq, Palestine, Philippines (Mindanao), and Sri Lanka.
The statement described KAICIID as an inter-governmental organization that promotes dialogue to build peace in conflict areas and that it does this by enhancing understanding and cooperation between people of different cultures and followers of different religions.
The Centre was founded by Austria, Saudi Arabia and Spain. The Holy See is the Founding Observer even as its Board of Directors is made up of prominent representatives from five major world religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism). The Board has the responsibility of designing and supervising the Centre’s programs. [myad]

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