Sie sind herzlich eingeladen von Baraza und URI Europa, im Februar an einer spannenden Webinarreihe anlässlich der UN World Interfaith Harmony Week teilzunehmen. Wir freuen uns, dass sich hervorragende Referenten bereit erklärt haben, uns ihre Perspektive zu wichtigen Themen zu vermitteln.

Unsere Absicht ist es, Gelegenheiten zum Lernen, zur Verbindung und zu Einsicht in Aktivitäten zu bieten, die sich einsetzen für Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und Heilung.

Wir freuen uns auf die Veranstaltungen und hoffen, Sie dort zu sehen.

Zur Teilnahme am Webinar bitte den auf dem Seminartitel hinterlegten Link klicken.

Christian – Muslim relations: Lessons from history about the dynamics of Muslim-Christian encounters
Prof. Douglas Pratt
Wednesday 24th February 2021 - 8pm CET

Hearing the Other “with the ears of the heart" - Resilience in our pandemic time and my hamsoya (neighbors)
Prof. Dr. Nargis Nurulla-Khodzhaeva
Friday 26th February 2021 - 5pm CET

The first webinar in Baraza - URI Europe webinar series was titled “Heritage for Reconciliation in Syria” and it was held on 2nd February. Three grassroots associations born during the Syrian conflict, who have attempted to save Syria’s collective memory, are hoping that this will contribute towards the healing of this deeply wounded country.

The second webinar in Baraza - URI Europe webinar series was titled “Interreligious dialogue and the problem of defining religion” and it was held on 3rd February. Even though ‘religion’ is a core theme of many contemporary debates, a solid and settled definition of the concept cannot be procured. Several possibilities have been proposed by plenty of academics, yet they vary greatly and no single definition ever became generally accepted. On top of it, the word 'religion' had many different meanings throughout history and until quite recently, the concept didn't exist in various cultures throughout the world. So how can we actually engage in proper interreligious dialogue if we're not really sure what religion actually is? What seems like a semantic debate at first, leads to profound philosophical questions. It forces us to have a deeper look at the very idea of religion itself and to perhaps rethink our approach to dialogue in our contemporary globalized world. Jonas Atlas is a theologian and peace activist from Belgium. He writes and lectures on religion, mysticism and societal change. Spiritually, he’s rooted within the Christian tradition, although, for many years, he also immersed himself into various Eastern religions. After his studies in philosophy, anthropology and theology at different universities he became active in various sorts of local and international peace work, often with a distinct focus on cultural and religious diversity. His texts, essays and books can be found on www.jonasatlas.net.

The third webinar in Baraza - URI Europe webinar series was titled “Faith, Ecological Crisis & Coronavirus” and it was held on 9th February. During the webinar, the long-term impact of Coronavirus on religious and belief communities – worship, interactions and choices were discussed. Speaker was Dr. Maria Reis Habito who is the International Program Director of the Museum of World Religions in Taipei, organizing symposia and conferences on Interfaith themes from her Dallas office. She is also the US representative of the Elijah Interfaith Institute and has served as an advisor to the Fetzer Institute Council on World Religions and Spiritualities.  Besides this, she is an authorized Zen teacher in the Sanbokyodan lineage. Previously she has served as an Adjunct Faculty member of the department of History and also of the Master of Liberal Studies Program at Southern Methodist University, having taught a course on East Asian History and other subjects related to Asian Religions and Spirituality. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Munich and also studied in Taipei, Taiwan and Kyoto, Japan.  Her published works include academic titles in German and also edited works in English.

The fourth webinar in Baraza - URI Europe webinar series was titled “An Agenda for Interfaith: From Tolerance to Holy Envy  (Six stages of interfaith encounter)” and it was held on 16th February. During the webinar, key ingredients to make a success of community-based projects using case study examples were discussed. As well as what worked, why and what improvements could be made. Speaker was Prof. Dr. Douglas Kindschi, who is now in his 45th year at Grand Valley State University, served as Dean for 28 of those years. He is currently University Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy and the Director of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute. Also, he did graduate study at the Divinity School, University of Chicago, where he first encountered interfaith dialogue. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed a minor in philosophy as a part of his doctoral study. Besides this, in January 2010 he was appointed as the founding director of the Kaufman Interfaith Institute. In addition to interfaith involvement in a number of Middle East countries including multiple visits to Oman, he brought the very successful exhibit, “Religious Tolerance: Islam in the Sultanate of Oman” to two different venues in Michigan. Prof. Kindschi is a visiting fellow at the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme at Cambridge University in the UK.

This webinar offers participants to hear about grassroots interfaith and intercultural initiatives from Italy. Speakers at the webinar were: Prof. Paolo Luigi Branca - Born in Milan, Prof. Branca is Associate Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Catholic University of Milan. He focused his studies on Islam and Modernity and has written very many publications to this effect.

Prof. Antonio Cuciniello - He is an Arabist and Islamologist. He holds a PhD in Humanities, Tradition and Modernity (Religious Sciences) from the Catholic University of Milan, where he is a professor of Arabic culture and literature as well as a Research Fellow in the History of Islamic countries. After graduating in 2000 from the University of Naples – “L’Orientale”, in 2001 he obtained a Diploma in Arabic Studies and in 2002 a Licentiate in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (PISAI) of Rome. He then lived in Cairo, Egypt for three years. He was part of the Scientific Committee of the Group for Islam of the Office for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI). He has considerable expertise in interreligious and intercultural relations, as well as with research and publications in the academic field.

Prof. Francesca Bocca-Aldaqre - PhD (2015) Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (Munich), she is Professor for Arabic Language and Culture at the Società Umanitaria in Milan, and Professor for Islamic Theology at the Italian Institute for Islamic Studies. She writes about the relationship between Islam and European (especially German) culture. She is also interested in the issue of Islam and education; she is director of the Averroè Institute, teaching Arabic language and religion to around 300 children a year.

Imane Barmaki - Imane says, “My last name is Persian, my first name is Arabic. Geographically I am Moroccan, culturally I am Italian and historically I am francophone. A kaleidoscope of identities that sometimes mesh smoothly and some other times tend to clash”. That's how Imane likes to describe herself to emphasize the complexity of her cultural background. Imane was born in Morocco and moved to Italy when she was 13 years old. As a socially-committed second-generation immigrant, she has always been passionate about fighting religious stereotypes and misconceptions and has therefore devoted much time and effort in helping to promote dialogue and mutual understanding among people of different faiths through concrete actions.