MABDA Report 26/4/2015

King honours winners of World Interfaith Harmony Week award

His Majesty King Abdullah on Monday acted as patron at the King Abdullah II World Interfaith Harmony Week (WIHW) award ceremony.

During the ceremony, which took place at Husseiniya Palace, His Majesty presented awards to the top three winners, according to a Royal Court statement.

Royal family members and senior officials attended the event.

The WIHW was first proposed at the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2010 by King Abdullah. Just under a month later, on October 20, 2010, it was unanimously adopted by the UN and henceforth the first week of February has been observed annually as World Interfaith Harmony Week.

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Islamic Education in Germany Fights Radical Islam

In a bid to fight extremism, Germany has been taking drastic steps to offer state-sponsored Islamic education, placing it on equal footing with Christianity and Judaism.

“A sound knowledge of Islamic theology and philosophy and psychology, and strategies of discourse and discussion,” is the best antidote there is to extremism, Harry Harun Behr of Frankfurt University, told the Christian Science Monitor on Thursday, April 23.

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Vatican urges dialogue with Islam

Vatican City: Dialogue is needed with Islam "now more than ever", the Vatican said on Wednesday, stressing that most Muslims abhor violent acts perpetrated in the name of religion.

"Recent events have caused many to ask if there is still room for dialogue with Muslims," the Vatican's interfaith dialogue body said in a statement.

"The answer is yes - now more than ever," added the statement.

Recently, a purported Islamic State (IS) video showed 30 Egyptian Christians being beheaded and shot in the head on a beach in Libya.

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