Religious leaders must set an example if peace and love are to be embraced by their followers, Dr Ahmed Al Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar told the Global Conference of Human Fraternity on Monday.
This means confronting extremists with courage, including both those who claim to base their actions on religious teachings and those who seek to drive faith completely from public life, he said.
The conference, at the Emirates Palace, was essential to begin opening doors that would achieve peace, coexistence and tolerance for all people, regardless of their faith, Dr Al Tayab said.
That it was taking place in the UAE was a demonstration of the commitment of the country and its rulers to promote what Dr Al Tayeb called the eternal values of tolerance and coexistence.
The two-day Global Conference of Human Fraternity was organised by the Muslim Council of Elders and coincided with the visit to Abu Dhabi by Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic faith.
But its reach has gone far beyond dialogue between just Muslims and Christians. Among those also invited to take part were Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jewish rabbis.
All have expressed a desire to actively work for better relations between different religions. And many will have made new connections not just by listening to the speeches and presentations, but also in the informal interactions over lunch or a coffee break.
The scale of their task was underlined by a survey released during the conference that examined global attitude to religion across the West and the Middle East region.
In several countries, especially in Europe, it showed a widespread belief that Islam was incompatible with the values of their society.
In France and Germany this represented nearly half of those polled, while in the USA and Britain well over one in three said they agreed with the statement that: “There is a fundamental clash between Islam and the values of society in my country.”
Only a minority in the YouGov poll said they felt the reverse was true - that there was no conflict with Islam.
In Britain, this was one in four, while the percentage fell to just one in five in Germany and 17 per cent in the US.
Asked if they were worried about the rise of extremism linked to Islam, the numbers were even higher, rising to 72 per cent in France and Germany, 66 per cent in Britain and just over half of Americans.
In a stark contrast, the numbers were more than reversed in the Middle East, where an overwhelming majority said they did not feel Christianity posed any threat to Islamic values.
In the UAE only 13 per cent said they supported the view of a fundamental clash with Christianity, while the number fell to just three per cent in Egypt, where over half felt Christian and Muslim values were compatible.
The concept of a “clash of civilisations” was challenged by one of the main speakers on Monday, who said such conflicts were not based on ideas but ignorance.
Irina Bokova is the former Director General of Unesco and now honorary president of the Alliance for Hope International, a global organisation seeking to end violence and abuse against women and children through social change.
Intolerance and prejudice were due to a lack of education rather supposed differing values, Dr Bokova said.
She added that she believed peaceful coexistence could be achieved by “dialogue and creativity in all its forms through exploring new opportunities for creating connections between people that we can prove that diversity is our strength".
The destruction of religious sites as the result of extremism that had been witnessed by Unesco was a tragedy for all faiths, she said. “We all suffer. We are all diminished.”
“We need understand and knowledge about each other,” Dr Bokava added. “Many of the answers come through education. We can combat stereotypes and prejudice.”
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Challenge Cup result:
1. UAE 3 faults
2. Ireland 9 faults
3. Brazil 11 faults
4. Spain 15 faults
5. Great Britain 17 faults
6. New Zealand 20 faults
7. Italy 26 faults
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
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Dubai Hurricanes 24-12 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
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New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
New Zealand 15
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Conversions: B Barrett
Penalties: B Barrett
British & Irish Lions 15
Penalties: Farrell (4), Daly
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
