Under the slogan
The International conference of Religions and Beliefs in Mesopotamia will be held in 10-11 January 2022
The worst wars which occurred in history and are occurring are wars between religions or religious doctrines, and these created and are creating an atmosphere of hostility in society. This situation has repeated itself many times in different places and times, now again in many places people live in fear because of wars in the name of religion. If we are not able to stand against this fire and cannot extinguish this fire, there is a risk humanity will be annihilated, including many religions, beliefs and doctrines that are at risk of being destroyed.
Therefore, there is a need for a strength of religions and beliefs to thwart off this wave of aggression of which systems of power and politicians profit. Connected with this we see that in many states which are facing war, nationalities, ethnicities or religions are the bases of these wars. When the revolution started in Syria for example, this revolution transformed into a war on the basis of religious doctrines, ethnicities and nationalities under the influence of foreign states which sent their mercenaries to Syria to participate in this war or supported local terrorist groups of mercenaries. Under the cloak of religion these groups like ISIS, Al Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and many others pursued killings, plundering’s, kidnapping and the selling of free women at markets; these form a real danger for peace of the world and the celebrated revolution of the 19th of July 2012 struggles against this way of thinking.
The people of North and East Syria of all religions, beliefs and ethnicities have unified themselves to defend their land and honor with belief and persistence against terrorist organizations like ISIS and many others. Not only they defended their own land, at the same time they defended universal humanitarian values against the danger of dogmatic doctrines like ISIS, which for example we now can perceive in Afghanistan, where the Taliban threatens the lives and the freedom of the people’s, which make the people in Afghanistan live in fear and attempt to flee.
Representatives of all religions, beliefs and civil organizations in North and East Syria saw the need to establish an umbrella of all beliefs and religions in North and East Syria to prevent the establishment and spread of this idea; with this view they established a center of encounter of all religions and beliefs, including Ezîdî, Christian and Islam on the 9.04.2016.
The emphasis has been put on values like human fraternity, equality, especially equality between men and women, freedom and the spreading of the message of love. These values can be an answer to the current situation we are now facing with an ongoing attack on humanity and human values which affects the society very deeply.
Aims of the forum:
– To invite all international institutions involved which are concerned with these topics to create stronger relationships among each other in order to be able to support each other in a stronger way. In this sense we greet with our whole hearts the initiative of the Imam of al-Azhar and the Pope of the Vatican who made historical steps in signing the document of human fraternity on the 23.05.2019 and initialized a day for human fraternity.
– An invitation to break the wall of silence and to raise the voice against oppression, which is as well one of the tasks of religion
– An effort to establish spaces of mutual support and collective activities in order to strengthen the relationships between religions and beliefs and to reject strongly all kind of wars either on the basis of religions, beliefs, religious doctrines, nationalities and ethnicities or politics around the world
– To emphasize the importance of peace and equal civil rights for all people of all ethnicities, religions and beliefs
– To encourage the language of dialogue with love, understanding and peace on the basis of living together and to keep away from political influences.
– To achieve the wish of God who created us with all our differences and colors to encounter all people of all religions, beliefs and ethnicities in a positive way and to bring together all cultures and stories with love in the way God wishes.
– To turn away from religious and nationalist extremism which took many lives and rights. Religious extremism, where religion is being used by politics leads to a situation of terrible oppression.
We would like to invite you to join the conference by attending physically or via Zoom