SEEU Hosts Panel for Inter-Religious Dialogue supported by UNESCO

The panel participants included: Representative of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, Priest Igor Kalpakovski, Head of the Bektashi Community of Macedonia, Dede Edmond Brahimaj, Vice Chairman of the State Committee on Relations with Religious Communities and Groups, Anton Sereci, Head of the UNESCO Project Office in Skopje, Ms. Zojka Naskova, SEEU Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Dr. Paul Foster. The topics discussed focused on thehumanistic values that religions bring to the society: the inter-cultural and intra-cultural aspects and the cohesion between the religious values and international human rights, and the promotion of inter-cultural dialogue in Macedonia.

The South Eastern University Provost, Dr. Paul Foster opened the panel by saying that “diversity is a strength, this is the motto of our University. SEEU is proud to host this conference that will serve as a tool to foster mutual trust and inter-religious dialogue in society.” Priest Igor Kalpakovski, among other things discussed that this conference serves as a great opportunity to discuss the recent interethnic and interreligious events that have occurred in Macedonia, and share opinions and ideas with young people and students in order to go beyond the conflict and promote dialogue and understanding. Dede Edmond Brahimaj, head of the Bektashi community in Macedonia spoke about the importance of religious and interethnic dialogue and gave a few examples on how religion can foster intercultural dialogue. Zojka Noskova, head of the UNESCO Project Office in Skopje stated that the goals of UNESCO’s Interreligious Dialogue Programme are to promote dialogue among different religions, spiritual and humanistic traditions in a world and it stresses the reciprocal interactions and influences between, on the one hand, religious, spiritual and humanistic traditions, and on the other, the need to promote understanding between them in order to challenge ignorance and prejudices and foster mutual respect. Whereas Anton Sereci, Vice president of the State Commission on Relations between Religious Communities in Macedonia, concluded that there should be more dialogue and understanding between different religious communities in Macedonia.

At the end of the debate, Ms. Zojka Naskova instructed the students participating in the event to take a look at the UN Human Rights Convention and explore the connections between human rights and religion. She asked the students to write essays about the relationship between human rights and religion, and the best essay would be published on the web-page of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, SEEU and on the website of UNESCO.