MASARAT and Heartland Launch a Series of Community Leaderships of Ninawa to Restore Trust in the post-Daesh Era
For restoring and building trust and coexistence in Ninawa Province , among the components of the province in the post-Daesh era, MASART Institution for Cultural and Media Development in partnership with Heartland Alliance International concluded a series of joint meetings of religious and community leaderships of Muslim, Christian, Yazidi communities and other minority groups of Ninawa. Participants in these meetings discussed the future of coexistence in areas of diversity liberated by Iraqi armed forces from Daesh control, in context of transitional justice based on making the perpetrators accountable for their deeds and giving justice for victims, in a way that flows in the way of spreading culture of peace and acceptance of the different other, presenting criminals to justice and redressing the victims in a way that ensures the prevention of retaliation and violence in the future. Clerics who participated in these meetings showed readiness to cooperate with each other, regardless of their different religions and sects, to restore the social fabric to its previous status in Mousil City and other liberated areas. The meetings led to an agreement between Muslims and Yazidis to save no efforts to liberated the Yazidi women abducted by Deash and the Yazidi Children taken by them. They also agreed on launching a joint campaign to rebuild the Yazidi, Christian and Muslim shrines destroyed by Deash. From another perspective, the participants in the meetings urged the Sunni Endowments Diwan to give directions to all preachers and imams of mosques to adopt some moderate religious speeches in their prayers focusing on coexistence and the values of respecting the other. MASARAT Institute conducted 30 joint meetings within three months in which 157 social figures, including clergymen, academicians, civil activists and prominent figures from the minority communities have participated.
