Religious scholars to spread awareness for community development

Under the auspices of Minister of Social Solidarity Nevine el-Qabbag, the first meeting of Christian and Muslim scholars commenced on Thursday with the aim of spreading awareness for sustainable development and decent life.

The meeting was organised in the framework of the awareness programme for community development launched by the Ministry of Social Solidarity in co-operation with Muslim and Christian institutions and civil associations.

The five-day-meeting is attended by Muslim and Christian scholars from Al-Azhar, Dar El-Iftaa, Ministry of Religious Endowments and the Egyptian churches (Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical) . It aims at spreading twelve awareness messages pertaining to the development of Egyptian family in general, and the protection of women and children in particular.

The meeting is meant to prepare leaders from religious scholars who can communicate the message of awareness programme to local communities, specifically in villages covered in the presidential initiative Decent Life.

The meeting will present real-life problems and enable participants from among religious scholars to address them clearly.

Vivian Fouad, advisor of awareness programme for community development, said that she expects that this meeting would lead to greater coordination between Muslim and Christian religious scholars in spreading the messages of awareness campaign for community development.

She noted that the meeting’s opening session witnessed discussions between  Muslim and Christian religious scholars around the negative role of social media in disrupting society through rumour and the good opportunities to communicate  useful content to children and youth in a simple and attractive way.

Magdi Ashour, advisor for the Ministry of Social Solidarity, noted that most social problems are the result of wrong inherited cultural conceptions and this meeting is important so that religious scholars can change these misconceptions across the platforms of their religious institutions.

Rafael Tharwat, a representative from the Orthodox Coptic church, pointed to the role played by the development programmes in the church to spread the messages of awareness programme in a simple way that can be absorbed by all age and social groups.