As he received Ibn Rushd Prize for the Freedom of Thought on Thursday the 8th of September 2022 in Berlin, the general coordinator of Masarat Institution Dr. Saad Saloum called for enacting legislation to criminalise racism of all forms, especially ethnical racism and hate speech, on all outlets and platforms.
Mr. Saloum’s call came in the context of his speech as he accepted the award. He also referred to the need to stand against racist practices towards minorities including racial discrimination against black people. During his award acceptance speech, Mr. Saloum stated: ” I believe that legislations must be enacted to begin with to criminalise racism of all forms, especially ethnical racism and hate speech, on all contexts and platforms. Next up, school curriculums should be revisited to ensure that they are free of hate speech, even the unintended statement. Furthermore, school curriculums should be provided with the right topics to empower cultural diversity, equality and accepting each other and without that, a positive change will not be achieved in the path of supporting the state of citizenship.”
To mention, Mr. Saloum is one of the founders of The National Center for Observing and Confronting Hate Speech which is the first of its kind that works on monitoring, analyzing and preventing hate speech. The centre also engaged, with the cooperation of Masarat Institution, in several campaigns that helped to raise awareness of preventing hate speech and the damaging effects on Iraqi society.
Moreover, Mr. Saloum mentioned: “Masarat Institution manages to work on protecting religious diversity in Iraq and the Arab world and how important it is to strive for the vast recognition of the unacknowledged religious minorities.” He added: “we need a revolution against the restricted approach toward the freedom of religion which clashes with the straight points of human rights. A revolution that stands upon the mutual respect of dignity for all. As the vast understanding of the freedom of religion/belief remains an effective decision for the equity of the rich diversity in the region’s countries.”
The academic and expert in religious diversity affairs also called for changing the written context about diversity in the Arab world. As he mentioned in his award acceptance speech: ” there is no chance to set a selective ideological history, especially with the risks of diversity being ended in the Middle East, so I invite the Arab specialists and researchers to get their
irrational guard down and to highlight the significance of diversity and to show the right ways to manage it. As I tried to draw attention to diversity and how important it is representing a source of empowerment and solidarity with a total of 18 books, I wish to witness matching interests in all Arab countries.”
Of the most prominent Arab figures who were awarded Ibn Rushd Prize in the past years: Mohammed Arkoun, Mohammed Abed Al-Jabri, Nasr Hamid Abu-Zaid, Samir Amin, Mahmood Amin El-Alem, Azmi Bishara, Sonallah Ibrahim, Rached Ghannouchi, and Saad Saloum who is the first Iraqi to be awarded this prize.
The prize is usually given to those who engage in a major role in supporting and spreading democratic free thought and innovation in the Arab countries. This year, the prize was decided to be awarded to a person or an institution that contributed to empowering and supporting the freedom of religion/belief, standing against racism amongst the citizens on religious bases, and acknowledging diversity to support and establish a society that is dominated by social peace.
