With the participation of the UN and the High Commission of Human Rights and with the presence of many of the clergy of various Iraqi religious minorities and distinctive civic and academic participation, Masarat declared strategies for “Our Creative Diversity” in Iraq which are included in a book distributed to the audience in a conference held in Baghdad.
After Masarat played a documentary film entitled “Our Creative Diversity” which observes the efforts of the foundation in the field of interreligious dialogue during the previous years. Four sessions had been held to discuss the strategic chapters:
The first session focused upon a debate discussing the chapter related to interreligious dialogue in the strategy of “creative diversity” to provide it as a second choice diplomacy after the failure of the political choice diplomacy and as a type of popular diplomacy. Mr. “Saad Salloom”, the chairman of Masarat foundation, tackled the expertise of Masarat foundation concerning interreligious dialogue and role in founding “the Iraqi Interreligious Dialogue Council”. Father “Ara Bedlian”, pastor of the EvangelicalBaptistChurch, talked about the expertise of the Islamic-Christian dialogue in Lebanon. While Sheikh Alaa Aziz Tarish, deputy chairman of the Mandaean Community in Iraq and the World, showed the significance of such dialogue to defend the freedom of belief for religious minorities.
Whereas the second session discussed the topic of legislation and the enhancement of multilateralism with the participation of UN and High Commission of Human Rights experts in Iraq. It introduced the content of the first law to enhancement of multilateralism in Iraq and the Arab World which was posted as an appendage in the strategy of “creative diversity”, which is a summary of the cooperation between civil society and parliamentary committee and called for the development of this preliminary version to pass it during the next parliamentary session.
face of the stereotypical pictures that break down the identity of the minority out of incomplete and deformed acquaintance.
The fourth and the last session had been dedicated to the role of the youth in enhancing the multilateralism. Masarat displayed the goals of the project about “ambassadors of citizenship” that works on training youth from different governorates on multilateralism to establish citizenship embassies in their governorates and to hold voluntary activities aiming to enrich the social dialogue. Ambassadors of citizenship from Al-Anbar, Al-Kut and Baghdad explained various activities of the project to the audience.
It is worth mentioning that Masarat is a non-profit organization specialized in minorities and interreligious dialogue, founded in 2004. It issues a magazine specialized in minorities called Massarat Magazine. It also publishes books and produces documentaries to enhance multilateralism in Iraq. In 2013, Masarat contributed in founding the Iraqi Interreligious Dialogue Council.
The third session discussed the role of the curricula in enhancement of multilateralism with the participation of experts from the Coalition of Iraqi Minorities. Mr. “Alaa Hameed”, member of the board of directors, talked about the vision of Masarat concerning creating new curricula due to the expand of the unawareness of the other party in Iraq and what the minorities
