The Cordoba Update, January 2023

The Cordoba Update, January 2023

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January 2023

Dear Reader,

Cordoba Peace Institute – Geneva has just celebrated its 20th anniversary. These two decades have been rich in experiences, encounters and networking with so many friends in many countries who want to promote peace and develop the means and skills to do so.

From its beginnings with the “Tent of Dialogue” in the Parc Tremblay, Geneva, CPI has been able to develop, first in Europe with a dialogue around the Danish cartoon crisis of 2006, and then the vote against the construction of minarets in Switzerland in 2009. As from 2010, with the support of the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, CPI has been able to develop training and research programs with local actors in North African and West Asian countries to help build understanding and stimulate mediation and dialogue on a variety of issues and divides: ideological, political, religious, ethnic, and tribal.

The continued support of our donors, who have been joined over time by the European Union, the German and Dutch foreign ministries, the Templeton Foundation, the ICRC, ISESCO, and the Geneva municipalities, has enabled us to expand our activities to the Sahel countries and to West and East Africa.

The open or latent conflicts in these regions, as well as the specter of extreme violence, have led us to work with people of all backgrounds, of all ages, young and old, women and men, and with civil society leaders, including religious and traditional leaders. Everywhere we have found partners for peace, working with courage, conviction and patience to build a better world for our children, taking into account the culture and spiritual, intellectual and material heritage of each country and region.

For us at CPI, it is a real privilege to know and be able to work with such people and organizations, and we would like to thank them all for their support and encouragement, and to wish all our partners and friends an excellent New Year 2023.

The CPI-Geneva Team

20th anniversary CPI

Celebration of CPI’s 20th anniversary, Geneva – 4 November 2022

News of the Institute


Social Cohesion in Iraq – CPI organized two drawing and painting classes at the “Cordoba Cultural Café” in Telafar for talented youth and children from the Telafari community including returnees. The first course was held from September 3 to 8, 2022, and was attended by ten young people between the ages of 18 and 27 (7 girls and 3 boys). The second course took place from September 13 to 17, 2022 and was attended by ten girls between the ages of 10 and 14. These courses were inaugurated by the Mayor of Telafar and the Director of the Telafar Youth and Sports Center.

Social Cohesion in Iraq – CPI organized a peer review workshop on October 27, 2022 in Geneva to present and discuss two academic papers prepared by two Iraqi scholars on the right to know the fate of missing persons from the perspective of Islamic law and international humanitarian law (IHL). The workshop brought together Iraqi academics, Iraqi peer reviewers and other Iraqi IHL experts actively working on the issue of missing persons in Iraq.

Dissemination of the Humanitarian Values of Islamic Law and International Humanitarian Law – A workshop on “The Role of Muslim Scholars in Disseminating the Humanitarian Values of Islamic Law and International Humanitarian Law in Times of Conflict” was held in Stonetown, Zanzibar, between December 4 and 7, 2022. The meeting brought together a group of eight religious scholars who are respected in their communities and listened to in society. The scholars came from the Swahili-speaking region of East Africa and the eastern parts of the Great Lakes region.

Linking Quranic Schools to the Malian National Education System – CPI organized a methodological workshop in Bamako between June 19 and 23, 2022 to prepare participants for the implementation of the linking of Quranic Schools to the national education system from a technical point of view. The specific objectives of this workshop were, among others, to inform and share with the members of the Consultation Committee the experiences of CPI with the teachers of Quranic schools (TQSs) in seven regions of the country (adherence to the process, challenges, recommendations, etc.); to equip religious, state and civil society actors in conflict transformation and peace promotion in the educational environment; to identify the key success factors of such a process through case studies from outside Mali; to open a space for dialogue between the Ministry of National Education (MNE) and the TQSs through the sharing of ongoing actions of the MNE and the expectations and needs of the TQSs.

Interfaith in Action – As part of the project supported by the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT) to help reduce interfaith tensions and promote social cohesion in Burkina Faso and Nigeria, CPI organized two workshops (three days each) to train participants in conflict transformation, religious perspectives on peacebuilding, and to share experiences. The first workshop was held in Abuja between November 28 and December 1, 2022, and the second in Ouagadougou between December 12 and 14, 2022.

Construction of Alternatives Narrative in Nigeria – As part of the project “Empowerment of Youth through the Construction and Dissemination of Alternative Narratives” funded by the Swiss FDFA until February 2023, Dar Al Andalus Centre (DAAC), CPI’s implementation partner in Nigeria, conducted several workshops gathering more than 100 participants during the last quarter 2022 targeting displaced women, journalists and religious leaders. The intervention aims at enhancing the capacity of influential members of the community (religious and traditional leaders, journalists, women, students, and young intellectuals) to seek and promote alternatives to violent extremism in order to encourage peaceful co-existence and respect for all people.

20th Anniversary of CPI – CPI celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022 and organized a ceremony to mark the occasion in Geneva on November 4, 2022. A presentation and discussion of the book “The Scholar and the Leader” was led by the author, Hmida Ennaifer, president of the Tunisian League for Culture and Plurality. The conference was followed by a beautiful concert of Andalusian music presented by Imma Fernandez, member of the Board of Trustees of CPI, and given by the guitarist Rafael Moreno Ortega.


 

Book Alim Zaim

Violence and tyranny are not the destiny of Muslim peoples

by Salaheddine Jourchi, Member of the Consultative Committee of CPI

    Read the article    

 

Tunisia Getty web

Tunisia: The context and its Challenges

by By Ahmida Ennaifer and Maher Zoghlami

    Read the article    

 

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