Five years ago, the International Dialogue Centre was inaugurated in Vienna. Since then, we’ve come a long way. We’re proud to exhibit our work and want to thank the organizations and individuals we have worked with in promoting our common mission for peace and dialogue globally.

In five years, we have conducted 28 conferences 31 workshops, 42 trainings, and reached thousands of trainees. We are currently working in four focus areas, which include the Arab Region, Central African Republic, Myanmar & Nigeria. In each of these focus areas, we have established country offices and have experts on the ground. We have also trained 112 Fellows as well as providing support for refugees in our home country of Austria.

This month, we would like to share some of our accomplishments and look forward to many more years of promoting social cohesion and peace through dialogue. 

Dialogue Days is a KAICIID annual campaign to promote awareness of interreligious and intercultural dialogue around the world.  Dialogue Days aims to celebrate interreligious dialogue as a tool for harmony, social cohesion, peace and reconciliation. Dialogue Days may become an annual event during which KAICIID and other organizations can conduct interreligious dialogues at all levels, conduct training and raise public awareness through other events and activities.

The field of interreligious dialogue is growing. More and more people are convinced that the open encounter offered through dialogue is critical to creating understanding and productive cooperation between religious communities.

Our era sees multiple conflicts along lines of religious identity. In many places, the relationships between religious communities—if not between individual members of those communities—are marked by mutual suspicion, fear and distrust. Misinformation about the motivations, beliefs and desires of the Other (people of different cultural and religious backgrounds) persist. Thus dialogue—including dialogue between secular and religious communities--is an essential part of ending conflict, and preparing for a lasting peace and reconciliation.

Interreligious dialogue is valuable even in areas where religious groups coexist in peace. Dialogue offers an opportunity for religious communities to identify shared concerns and work together in any field, from the environment to health to education.

DIALOGUE DAYS 2014

KAICIID Dialogue Days were launched in November 2014 in Nairobi, Kenya, and New Delhi, India, to raise awareness of interreligious dialogue as a tool for peace, broaden KAICIID’S service to religious and interreligious dialogue leaders, and pilot new KAICIID training material in the field.

In 2014, as a reflection of KAICIID’s programmatic focus on the Image of the Other in the Media, Dialogue Days activities centered around the theme of how the media impacts interreligious relations.

Dialogue Days in Nairobi was held from 15-18 November in cooperation with Arigatou International—Nairobi (Global Network of Religions for Children), and with the support of KAICIID’s Expert for Africa Programmes, Ambassador Mussie Hailu. Dialogue Days in New Delhi was held in cooperation with Sarva Dharma Samvaad from 22-25 November 2014. In each city, events began with two parallel training courses for religious leaders and dialogue practitioners, Media Wise and Speak Up. These were followed by high-level panel discussions on the impact of the media on interreligious relations, which brought together national figures from the realms of religion, policy, and media.

Nairobi and New Delhi were selected as the locations in which KAICIID would premier Dialogue Days because they are located in regions with complex and dynamic interreligious relations, and because of the presence of trusted local partners in each city.

The initiatives brought together religious leaders, dialogue practitioners, policy makers and media experts for training and discussion on these groups’ roles in shaping perceptions of the religious Other in East Africa.

In Kenya, one senior participant, who had changed his plans last-minute to fly in for the trainings from Tanzania, said in an address to participants that he had definitely found the effort worthwhile: “If I had missed this, I would have missed a lot.”

See Dialogue Days report here

KOCID is being offered as a pilot starting in the Winter of 2015 using a Moodle platform. This pioneer course is the product of an ongoing collaboration between KAICIID and several universities: the University of Montreal (Canada), the Institut Superior de Ciències Religioses de Barcelona as well as the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Using a combination of peer-reviewed and group collaboration approaches with auto-evaluations and online-assessed technics, KOCID aims to enhance capacity-building in the field of interreligious dialogue, train instructors who will tutor KOCID, build expertise in education.

Contemporary debates and discussions about interreligious and intercultural dialogue often suffer from two limitations: they neglect the century-old history of dialogue encounters and they frequently restrict themselves to an exegesis of the major documents emerging from those encounters.

The Talking Dialogue project aims to counterbalance these limitations and seek answers to new questions and place older ones in a new framework of reference in order to generate new information useful to interreligious and intercultural dialogue.

The project examines the major interreligious and intercultural encounters in modern history – from the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions, through the 1970 Kyoto World Conference on Religion and Peace, to the Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders in
2000. By using different and new source materials, Talking Dialogue looks at debates and discussions that were not recorded in official chronicles of these major dialogue encounters.

KAICIID brought together a group of young scholars from around the world to carry out this research. These researchers study interreligious and intercultural dialogue from a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. The Talking Dialogue project offers an opportunity to examine the archival material of interreligious and intercultural encounters, official records, interviews and other documents.

The resulting analyses will add new perspectives to our present-day understanding, highlighting best practices and identifying repeated mistakes.

As part of the KAICIID Talking Dialogue project on the history of interreligious dialogue, we have been working with the students who are part of the project, Eight of them have kindly provided blog entries.

Zachary Wone: “Talking Dialogue”: Detective work at the archives of the World Alliance for International Friendship through the Churches

Minjung Noh: “Talking Dialogue”: Exploring the archives of the Universal Peace Federation

Semiramis Del Carmen Vieira Rodríguez: “Talking Dialogue”: The American Unitarian Association, the world’s oldest international interreligious association, opens its doors to historical research

Maryam Mouzzouri: “Talking Dialogue”: Jenkin Lloyd Jones and the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions

Maryam Mouzzouri: “Talking Dialogue”: The birth of worldwide interreligious dialogue in 1893

Maria Bargo: “Talking Dialogue”: a first-hand look through the archives of the Oxford International Interfaith Centre

Janna Ditz: “Talking Dialogue”: Exploring the history behind the 1993 Parliament of the World’s Religions

Sana Saeed: “Talking Dialogue”: Travelling back in time – the 1936 World Congress of Faiths

Verena Kozmann: "Talking Dialogue": Rudolf Otto and the Religioeser Menschheitsbund (1921-1937) 

These were only some of the findings of yesterday’s public event at the RadioKulturhaus, a heritage building in Vienna where event partner, Austrian National Radio (Oe1), hosted the evening of dialogue. The event was organized by the International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), in partnership with the Austria Kultur/ The Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs, the Holy See, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, representing the Centre’s Council of Parties.

Diplomats, media, leaders of religious communities, representatives of civil society and members of the interested public in KAICIID’s host city, Vienna, Austria, took part in the exploration of KAICIID’s work that is carried out around the world since its founding 5 years ago.

As KAICIID Secretary General Faisal Bin Muammar said in his opening address:

“We are uniting people against violence in the name of religion. More than 5 billion people on this planet are religious, thus their religious leaders have a huge influence on our world. Whether we want to end war, promote human rights, relieve poverty, or prevent discrimination, we need religious leaders to be part of the solution. So we try all over the world, to bring religious leaders into dialogue with each other, and with policymakers. Peace between cultures and nations cannot be reached without dialogue and peace between the followers of religions.”

The Secretary General also expressed the Centre’s gratitude to the people of Vienna and Austria, and his hope that the Centre’s work could contribute to Vienna’s well-deserved reputation as the home of dialogue.

The audience learned from the representatives from Austria, the Holy See, Saudi Arabia, and Spain about the initiatives that led to the founding of KAICIID, an intergovernmental organization with a unique mandate.

Teresa Indjein, Director General of the Section for International Cultural Relations from the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, spoke with pride of the Centre’s home in Austria: “Austria and the city of Vienna in particular has a long tradition of hosting international organizations. It is a place for dialogue, and dialogue should always be an intrinsic part of diplomacy. Dialogue is a very compassionate way of communicating and when it works it will bring about change, understanding and can even heal wounds. That in a nutshell is KAICIID’s mandate. KAICIID bridges a gap in international peacebuilding and that is why we as Austrians are proud to host the Centre.”

From Dr. Khalid Al-Jindan, Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Austria, the audience learned of the historic 2007 meeting between the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, the late King Abdullah, and Pope Benedict XVIth, and their shared vision of a better future for all people. This meeting led to the founding of KAICIID with the support of Austria and Spain, and the international community.

The Vatican’s perspective was provided by Bishop Miguel Ayuso, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and KAICIID Board member: “Pope Benedict as the head of the Catholic Church felt in conscience that something has to be done in response (to the late King’s invitation to cooperate) and therefore he supported the initiative and entrusted it to the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue to initiate dialogue for the creation of the Centre. The Holy See has seen in KAICIID another initiative with the vision the Church wants for all humanity: a constructive dialogue for anyone, anywhere, anytime. A dialogue open to all. A dialogue that is inclusive and based in respect and friendship.”

On behalf of Spain, Belén Alfaro Hernández, Ambassador of Interreligious Dialogue, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, described the benefits that nations can derive from KAICIID’s work: “Interreligious dialogue is a tool for preventive diplomacy, and the prevention of extremism. Governments cannot act alone. This is a common endeavour. Religious leaders, intergovernmental organizations, civil society representatives need to work together towards this common goal.”

From Nigeria, Sheikh Abdullahi Maraya described how dialogue has changed his state of Kaduna: “In Nigeria, from 1988-2015, thousands of lives have been lost in my state of Kaduna, but today, due to the intervention of KAICIID and other partners, from 2017 to this day only 20 lives have been lost. Today people of diverse religious identities Imams, Christian clergies are visiting each other: this success is attributable to dialogue.”

Amal Al Moallimi from the National Dialogue Centre (KACND) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia spoke about the experience of the KACND in using dialogue as a capacity-building tool to help women be more involved in society in Saudi Arabia, because, as she said, “women are 50% of the population, and they are raising the other half.”

These practical examples were followed by a panel discussion where some of the multireligious Board of KAICIID provided an understanding of how dialogue is perceived in their respective religious traditions. Dr. Kezevino Aram, from India, described how dialogue, for her, is a means of connecting oneself to the divine grace. “Dialogue is beyond mere conversation, or even working together towards a shared purpose. It is a call to live the truest form of our tradition.”

Metropolitan Emmanuel of France said: “Dialogue is a call, and also a communication. And when we use the word dialogue, it also refers to a communication between humanity and the Divine.

Chief Rabbi David Rosen described dialogue as “the opportunity to genuinely encounter the other, to engage the other at the deepest level of his or her identity and through that to encounter that which transcends that which is human. For the religious person, dialogue is a religious experience. There is something pure and spiritual in the encounter itself. Dialogue is a tool for peacebuilding yes, but it is also much more than that.”

Dr. Mohammed Sammak said that dialogue does not eliminate diversity, but celebrates it. “Dialogue is the art of searching for the truth in the point of view of the Other.”

Myanmar, the second largest country in South-East Asia, with around 56.8 million inhabitants, is a country facing both political and economic transition. It struggles with identity issues along ethnic and religious lines (with more than 135 recognized ethnic groups). A number of violent attacks target the Muslim community in various parts of the country, particularly in the Rakhine State. 

A surge of violence erupted again in August 2017, which resulted in over 1,000 people killed, according to the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, while Médecins Sans Frontières reported casualty numbers of 6,700 people killed. The UNSG has called on Myanmar authorities to end violence against the Rohingya. 

Following violent tensions in this region in October 2016, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report in 2017 which spoke of the “devastating cruelty” deployed against the Rohingyas by Myanmar’s security forces; documenting serious human rights violations. 

The newly elected government faces a huge challenge in calibrating its political, policy and security responses to keep violence under control. Negotiations for a national peace settlement with the ethnic armed groups have yet to make any significant progress. Although the government argues that the Rohingya are illegal migrants from Bangladesh and has made no real effort to provide them any formal legal status, recent events show that it has started increasingly turning against the radical groups. More than half a million Rohingya refugees have fled a violent offensive since August 2017, with the UN repeatedly calling “to suspend military action, end the violence, and uphold the rule of law.” 

"Was wäre, wenn man den Zusammenhang zwischen Religion und Konflikt illustrieren könnte, aber gleichzeitig auch den zwischen Religion und Frieden, Zusammenleben, Menschenrechten und Entwicklung?"

Konflikte im Namen der Religion sind heutzutage eine Tatsache des Lebens für uns alle. Von terroristischen Akten gegen Medienvertreter, über die schaurige Rhetorik des "Islamischen Staats", bis hin zu den blutigen Spannungen entlang religiöser Grenzen in Nigeria, der zentralafrikanischen Republik und Kamerun – Die Medienwerden überschwemmt von Berichten über Menschen, die ihre Religion als Entschuldigung für Gewalt nutzen.

Doch dies ist nur ein Teil der Geschichte.

Überall auf der Welt und seit Anbeginn der Zeit gibt es viel mehr Menschen die von ihren religiösen Überzeugungen dazu motiviert werden, Frieden und Toleranz zu leben.

Das KAICIID Peace Mapping Projekt ist eine interaktive, gruppenbasierte Online-Datenbank die versucht, diese entgegengesetzten Paradigmen abzubilden.

Einerseits gesteht es existierende Spannungen und Konflikte im Namen der Religion ein und dokumentiert diese. Andererseits belegt es die zahlreichen Aktionen von Menschen, die durch interreligiösen Dialog Differenzen zu überbrücken suchen.

Das Peace Mapping Projekt ist ein Instrument für Studenten, Forscher, Politiker und Dialogexperten um mehrere hundert Organisationen kennenzulernen, die sich dem interreligiösen Dialog verschrieben haben: sei es Konfliktlösung, das Einhalten von Menschenrechten, Erziehung oder Entwicklungsarbeit.

Das Projekt will sogar noch einen Schritt weiter gehen: Es will erklären was interreligiöse Dialog-Intervention zu einem einzigartigen, effizienten und nachhaltigen Weg zum friedlichen Zusammenleben für uns alle macht. 

The International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) has allocated funds to sponsor small scale short-term projects that focus on building dialogue bridges between diverse religious and ethnic communities in the Arab region. Possible grants range from 3000 Euro to 5000 Euro and will be evaluated based on specific selection criteria (attached below). Projects should be fully implemented within six months upon the receipt of the grant, including the submission of the final reports.

Projects focusing on the following areas will be given preference:

1. Countering & preventing hate Speech in the name of religion on the national /regional level.

2. Promoting the role of diverse religious leaders and institutions as active partners involved with policymakers, governments, and international institutions to confront this pandemic and deal with crises in general, and this includes, but is not limited to: raising awareness of individuals and societies, facing all the effects of the crisis in various fields such as education, unemployment and the economic implications, psychological support, combating social stigma and domestic violence etc.

3. Enhancing the role of Interreligious dialogue (IRD) in responding to Covid-19 in promoting public health. Preference will be given to interfaith initiatives focusing on community engagement and responses to the current situation concerning COVID-19 outbreak amongst vulnerable groups (elderly, people with special health conditions, children, and refugees, etc.)

The following methods, approaches and formats could be used to address the topics highlighted above:

• Advocacy for policy changes.

• Capacity building (preferably online workshops and training).

• Traditional/Social media engagement, live streaming events, broadcasting, radio programs, TV programs, short videos, documentaries, etc.

• Knowledge exchange.

• Awareness raising.

• Research and publications, online and offline publications (digital/print), policy papers, booklets, infographics, articles and blogs.

• Information and Communication Technology (ICT) such as phone Application, text messages and push notifications.

Who can apply?

The small grants scheme targets organizations and institutions, as well as individuals who can support interfaith efforts to respond to the themes identified in this call. More specifically, these partners include the following entities:

• Interfaith/interreligious dialogue platforms, organizations and networks. 

• Religious leaders and faith-based organizations (FBOs).

• Youth and women organizations and other civil society organizations.

• Social media influencers and bloggers.

Please note that:

• Proposals might include more than one method and multiple formats.

• Only proposals consisting of (1) an application form includes the proposal and (2) a detailed budget will be considered.

• Please provide electronic copies rather than scans.

• To increase the chances of your project to be selected, please consider the set of selection criteria outlined (Attached below) to this Application Form, which will serve as basis to evaluate the projects to be awarded.

Deadline for the submission of applications: MAY 31, 2020

Tips before starting the online application form:

• It is advised to prepare the entire project on a side file and use it when starting the application process.

• Please prepare the budget file completely and attach it to the application form in the space provided

• Please prepare supporting documents (CV and registration documents in one pdf file not exceeding 2MB)

For inquires and further information please contact Grants-arabregion@kaiciid.org

Selection Criteria Application form Budget template