Address by Prof. Dr Faruk Čaklovica, Rector, University of Sarajevo upon the Occasion
of Closing the Conference on Interfaith Dialogue entitled: “Social Media and InterReligious Dialogue: A New Relationship”
Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue
Doha, 25/10/2011
Dear Professor Al-Naimi, dear professors – colleagues, esteemed representatives of
religious communities, ladies and gentlemen,
At the beginning, I would like to thank you for the given opportunity to be present at
such eminent gathering and to take a part in conversation with experts from the entire
world. Today, in the age of general globalization and the era of integration, it is
necessary to talk about implementing the social media for the interfaith purposes.
Because of the Internet, especially to the social networks, distant is becoming closer,
limits unlimited, and all social networks have a sole objective: to connect people.
The new media are strong tools for education, enrichment of culture, commercial and
political activities, interfaith dialog and understanding. They can also serve a religious
purpose. The means of communication that could be used for welfare of humankind
unfortunately can be abused and used for manipulation, corruption and spreading of
hate against others and different ones. It is necessary for all of us to communicate,
exchange information and mutually exercise influence upon our thinking and behaving,
to in order to prevent misusing of the new media and spreading the hate speech. A
couple years ago, Ron. L. Hubbard wrote that a man is alive as much as he well
communicates. Non-efficient communication causes the misunderstanding and
conflicts, while the consequence of poor communication is accumulation of negative
sentiments, which in extreme cases produce wrongdoing. Social networks are a mean
through which the process of communication happens, so they should be serving to us
as a good foundation and the mean of better understanding among the people.
We have been able to see through the history that vicinity or physical presence of two or
more religions at one place is not per se enough for their followers to be fully aware of
other religions or other people's religious freedoms. Social networks should be dealing
with the enhancing of values of communicating with others; with understanding of
another human being, and with promoting the good communication in the world of
media. Pope Benedict XVI in his recent address to Italian bishops said never to lose
faith in youth, but rather to meet them halfway by accepting them together with current
living environment which encompassed new means of communication as well. He also
stated that media were created with the purpose of helping people live together, and
that WWW was conducing to the forming of new and more complex intellectual and
spiritual horizons and new forms of common awareness.
The very fact that 64% of American population is using Internet for religious purposes,
precisely shows how much is today the topic of religion “actual“. There is no doubt that
use of social networks, one of the most powerful tools available today, for the purposes
of interfaith dialog can be deemed as a way of fighting malicious propaganda. It can
also reduce the tensions forming against followers of a religion, and be a possibility for
expressing one’s own outcry and disagreements with deeds that are being committed in
the name of religion. Social networks are an excellent platform helping us to insist on
our common values, an opportunity to present the best in a human being. The Holy
Qur’an sends us the very same message: “O People of the Scripture! Come to a
common word between us and you: that we shall worship none but God, and that we
shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside
God.” (3, 64).
I am extremely happy for having been able to be a part of the conference at which I
have learned so much about the importance of dialog and media that are helping to
build peace-loving societies. At the same time, thank you for giving me the opportunity
to address you with several messages that absolutely support the activities of
conferences like this one.
Thank you for your attention!