Symposium calling for “tolerance” wraps up in Sana’a
Sana’a, May 27, 2008 (YemenOnline) - A two-day symposium entitled “religious and political tolerance in Yemen” concluded Monday in Sana’a calling for tolerance, societal peace and universal and human existence. The symposium, which was organized by the Cultural Bridges Forum (CBF), issued a “tolerance call” asserting that all revelations call for the oneness of the Creator and principles of love and peaceful existence of the nations worldwide.
Participants underlined that dissemination of tolerance requires a revival of inter-faith dialogue abandoning of religions politicization.
The participants further stressed that terrorism has not religion or home.
Dr. Abdulkareem al-Iryani, head of the Cultural Bridges Forum (CBF) and political advisor of President Saleh underlined the importance of dissemination of religious and political tolerance in Yemen.
Dr. Iryani said that the symposium reflects the urgency spread the culture of tolerance, accepting the other and abandoning all calls of political sectarianism and religious sedition.
In his speech, Dr. Iryani also reviewed Yemen’s history in religious and political tolerance as Yemen was and is still a home for many faiths creeds and believes.
Moreover, Dr. Yaseen Saeed No’aman, Yemen Unity’s first parliament speaker and head of Yemeni Socialist party (YSP), who is also a member in the CBF, shed light on the experience of southern Aden city in the religious tolerance during the second half of the last century.
Minister of Endowments and Religious Guidance, Judge Hamoud al-Hitar, stressed the need to reconsider some religious doctrines in a way that meets the changes necessitated by the times and places.
Participants stressed that the Yemeni society, by nature, rejects all forms of extremism and fanaticism and that violence and rejection of the other is a culture alien to the Yemeni society.
“The symposium’s chief objective is to get rid of violence in all its forms and promote culture of peaceful dialogue and tolerance; being a religious and political tolerance in Yemen main principle in our religion of Islam and a key-component in the culture of Yemen,” Dr. Iryani told YemenOnline.
In attendance were Yemeni intellectuals and media people in addition to foreign diplomats, academics and experts specialized in Yemeni affairs representing different Arab countries and a number of dignitaries from different walks of life.
