Doha - Information Office - January 03
Winners of the third edition of Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations were announced in Doha on Monday.
Qatar Global Award For Dialogue Among Civilizations is organized by Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Qatar University represented by the ISESCO at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies.
A research on the role of the media in preventing and reducing hatred and building civilizational cooperation in the horizon of founding cooperative civilizations for Dr. Abdelkarim El Qalali from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fes, the Kingdom of Morocco, won the second place of the prize in its third edition. It was unanimously agreed by the members of the Scientific Committee and the members of the external jury to withhold the first prize given the lack of research that achieved the standards of excellence worthy of the value and prestige of the prize, symbolically and materially.
A research on hate speech and the problem of civilized communication by Dr. Ali bin Mubarak from the Community College of Qatar won the third place; while a research on the role of civilized communication in promoting coexistence by Prof. Dr. Khalif Mustafa Hassan Gharaibeh from Al-Balqa Applied University in the Kingdom of Jordan, and a research on social networks and its effects on activating discourse to reducing hate speech and enhancing coexistence by Dr. Abdul Salam Riyah won two incentive prizes.
The scientific committee of the award announced that the theme of the fourth edition of Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations 2022-2023 will be "Science Dialogue: Towards a Civilized Framework for Knowledge Integration" within one of the four areas around which the States plan revolves in the field of dialogue and alliance of civilizations - the field of education.
Commenting on the occasion, HE Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Chairman of Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi underlined that the third edition of Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations 2020-2021 came within the framework of implementing the stated goals of the State of Qatar's plan for the Alliance of Civilizations (2018-2022), which emphasized the provision of awards for outstanding research work and funding of distinguished research in dialogue among civilizations.
HE said that the Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations was launched in 2018 as the fruit of cooperation between Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Qatar University represented by the ISESCO at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies, noting that allocating the award in its third session to the best research on the "role of Dawah and the media in consolidating the values of coexistence and preventing hate speech" comes within the framework of the efforts of the State of Qatar in issues of civilized dialogue, cultural communication and addressing extremist thought at the local and international levels; and embodying the goals and objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030 which calls for "care and support for the dialogue of civilizations and coexistence between different religions and cultures."
HE the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations aims to create highly qualified elites to enhance the values of dialogue and coexistence through coherent scientific research, and to spread and consolidate the culture of tolerance and peaceful coexistence and the ability to formulate awareness and culture of dialogue in accordance with the renewed reality and within the framework of authenticity and constants.
HE Dr. Al Hammadi said that the award has made great strides during the past four years, and has become the focus of attention of academic and research departments, institutions and intellectual elites from different cultures. The Award is attracting researchers from different countries around the world, which is reflected in the increase in the number of applicants, and this certainly adds to the State of Qatar which was at the forefront of the world countries in supporting the United Nations initiative for the Alliance of Civilizations, and hosted many important events, most importantly is the Fourth Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations in 2011, and the UN Alliance of Civilizations' (UNAOC) Fellowship Program (2011-2019).
HE Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi expressed his aspiration for more cooperation and partnership with Qatar University in various aspects and fields of the Alliance of Civilizations through the implementation of many initiatives and projects included in the State of Qatar's plan for the Alliance of Civilizations, foremost of which is Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations.
He congratulated the winners and extended sincere thanks and gratitude to the members of the jury for their sincere efforts, perseverance and dedication to work for the success of this event which promotes the State of Qatar as a sponsor of dialogue among civilizations and cultures at the regional and international levels.
For his part, HE President of Qatar University Dr. Hassan bin Rashid Al Derham praised the cooperation between Qatar University, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the ISESCO which resulted in this distinguished event, and commended the appreciated efforts of the winners and participating research.
HE QU President noted that the Award, which was launched four years ago, aimed at achieving various educational, research and development goals and outcomes, serving as the driving force for peoples energies towards progress, prosperity, openness to human horizons, and spreading a culture of harmony, tolerance, coexistence, understanding and mutual respect among nations and peoples.
He added that this new achievement comes in the context of the great academic, scientific and research movement that Qatar University has been witnessing, and as a culmination of that strategic path that it had started years ago, during which it achieved qualitative achievements and distinguished gains in the fields of education, research, community service and the priorities of the State and the nation. The most prominent of these achievements in the field of research and community development are the initiatives achieved by the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies through the ISESCO Chair for the Alliance of Civilizations, most importantly Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations which has spread and expanded to include the five continents in terms of participation; and the international strategic research project "The Encyclopedia of Occidentalism" to be released soon.
The President of Qatar University expressed his sincere thanks to the collaborating parties in the implementation of these two scientific projects and other pioneering projects locally, regionally and internationally, praising the efforts of Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) in supporting the various initiatives of Qatar University in the field of civilizational dialogue.
Dr. Ibrahim Al Ansari, Dean of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University, spoke about the Colleges efforts during the past period in preparing this edition of the Award, noting its role in the file of the Alliance of Civilizations, and its contributions to implementing the provisions of Qatar National Vision 2030 and the States plan in this file. Among these contributions are the adoption of the Masters Program in Religions and Dialogue of Civilizations at the College, the adoption of an annual international award for the dialogue of civilizations "Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations", the adoption of the Encyclopedia of Occidentalism as a global encyclopedia and the completion of the first four volumes that will be published at Doha International Book Fair, as well as the holding of conferences, seminars and periodic workshops at the College and abroad on topics of the alliance of civilizations dialogue.
Al Ansari noted a new cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Diplomatic Institute, noting that it was initially agreed to offer a four-month international training diploma in "Dialogue and Civilized Communication" for graduate students (Masters and PhD) and for various related legal, humanitarian and social disciplines related to the topic of dialogue and the alliance of civilizations.
Dr. Ezzedine Mamiche, Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Award, presented the most important stages in the process of sorting the international participations in the Award, noting that the committee received 238 abstracts in the three languages (Arabic, English and French) from 40 countries. A total of 58 abstracts were accepted for the final stage. The researchers were given a full-time year to complete the research, stipulating precise scientific, methodological and technical standards.
He added that after a full year, the committee received 26 papers in the final stage, six of which were excluded because they did not meet the basic criteria stipulated in the Awards preamble, and 20 papers were presented for preliminary arbitration. Then, the scientific committee shortlisted 5 papers and sent them to an international committee outside the State of Qatar. After careful and extensive reports from this committee, and final deliberations by the members of the scientific committee supervising the award, the final results were reached.