Foro Abraham ha trabajado con otras asociaciones dedicadas al diálogo y a la promoción de una cultura de paz en un documento sobre la importancia de aprovechar la creatividad, la expresión artística y los medios de comunicación para acercar a las personas de diferente tradición religiosa.
La ONG italiana Europe HOPEs, la jordana Youth Spirit y la marroquí Creadores sin Fronteras, junto con Foro Abraham, han firmado la siguiente declaración:
The signatories of this declaration believe that:
Though diversity often creates difficulties and arouses conflict and wars, if properly lived and understood it enriches our societies and our world. We respect and admire the traditions of each individual society and feel that cultural diversity should be cherished and protected against homogenisation. Furthermore we believe that people of different ethnicity, nationality, language or religion can live together peacefully and learn from each other.
Religion can also be used to divide people and to incite violence. We think, however, that religious beliefs can and should contribute to a more inclusive, fair and humane society.
Every culture is the result of a blending of different communities and traditions over the course of centuries. There is a narrative that binds a community together and too often this narrative is developed against other community groups who have different beliefs or traditions.
Both formal and informal education should take account of this diversity and teach respect for other people's beliefs and traditions thereby promoting an inclusive society that tackles the issue of exclusion and discrimination.
Frequently, the media contributes to the spreading of prejudices and stereotyping of "others." In most cases, this misinterpretation of "others" is unintentional and is a result of ignorance and oversimplification. The long-term consequence of this miscommunication is a "de-humanisation" of "the other person", so that the image of him/her presented in social media does not correspond to a real person with feelings, fears, rights and aspirations similar to those of any other human being.
In order to counterbalance the negative effect of such communication, the signatories commit themselves to:
- creating spaces of dialogue and exchange between young people ofdifferent cultures and backgrounds
- sharing experiences about faith, culture and tradition
- stimulating creativity in order to use journalism and the arts (music, writing, theatre, film-making, photography, painting, sculpture, architecture, design, computer games, on-line applications) to provide innovative tools to overcome existing stereotypes and re-interpret one's community narrative
- developing critical thinking to identify prejudices and stereotypes in the media and the arts
- establishing permanent on-line communication tools between our organisations and members to ensure long-term cooperation.
We believe creativity can and should contribute to building bridges between communities for the global common good.
