The National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) organised on Sunday an interactive educational programme for imams and preachers of mosques on "The values of tolerance between Islamic law and international human rights law."
In a statement, NHRC stressed the importance of such programmes in light of the spread of the phenomenon of Islamophobia, which aimed to fuel hate speech against Islam, whose Shari'a law embraced the principles of human rights and preserved human dignity for more than 1,400 years.
Speaking at the opening of the programme, the Director of NHRC Administrative and Financial Affairs Department, Hamad Majid al-Marzouqi, said that the programme aims to defend the Islamic religion by spreading its tolerance values and its keenness to respect human rights and preserve their dignity, contrary to what is being promoted.
He emphasised Islam's keenness on human rights and respect for his dignity and freedoms, as the lofty message came to consolidate the principles of justice and equality among all human beings, to end injustice, tyranny, racism, and persecution, and to call for peace and coexistence with different sects, races, and genders.
Al-Marzouqi reviewed NHRC's efforts to spread the Islamic values of peace, tolerance, and dialogue through the Arabic calligraphy exhibition on "Human Rights in Islamic Culture," which includes artistic paintings of Qur'anic verses and honourable Prophetic hadiths embraced by the principles of human rights and have become a guideline for all Muslims' daily behaviour.
The interactive programme included two working papers on "The values of tolerance between Islamic law and international human rights law" and "Islamophobia... dimensions of the phenomenon and prospects for confronting it from a human rights perspective".
The first working paper included the meaning of tolerance and its roots in the Arab and Islamic heritage and the values of tolerance in international law for human rights, in addition to NHRC's role in spreading the values of tolerance.
The second paper dealt with the historical introductions to the phenomenon of Islamophobia and its forms and manifestations, and the Arab, international, and UN position on it and ways to confront it, in addition to the dangers of the phenomenon and its repercussions and proposals to address it.
