Doha offers beacon of hope for world, says al-Muraikhi

Qatar participated in the 9th UN Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC) Global Forum: 'Towards An Alliance of Peace: Living Together as One Humanity' convened on Nov 22-23 in the Moroccan city of Fes. Qatar was represented in the forum by HE the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi who reaffirmed that Qatar is committed to continuing its co-operation with the Group of Friends of the UNAOC to support the alliance in achieving its supreme goals and in contributing to building bridges among various cultures and communities, as well as enhancing the unity and solidarity among the states and world's peoples.
He extended Qatar's thanks to the Moroccan government, represented by Minister for Foreign Affairs and African Co-operation Nasser Bourita, for hosting the forum.
He also thanked High Representative for the UNAOC Miguel Angel Moratinos and his work team for organising the forum that comes at the appropriate time and requires intensifying the efforts in pursuit of bringing the peoples, civilisations and religions together in the midst of divisions under the echo of hate speech and racism which are unfortunately rampant in the world today.
He added that in spite of that he is pleased to address the forum while his eyes are turned to Doha from where he came holding with him a beacon of hope that was reignited two days ago during the opening ceremony of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 in the presence of millions of peoples with their diverse cultural, religious and racial backgrounds who had celebrated together the launch of this historic event which is being organised for the first time in the Middle East region, and in an Arab and Islamic state to prove to the world that humanity is still intact and is capable of being united despite the differences behind one goal once willingness and appropriate environment are provided.
HE al-Muraikhi asserted that Qatar has offered and will offer during the upcoming weeks a model of how sports is harnessed for the sake of living together as one mankind in an atmosphere of harmony and balance to achieve development and peace. He said that he and all people are proud of Doha because it is offering at these moments and over the coming weeks, an opportunity for the peoples of the world to enjoy the Arab hospitality, and openness and get familiarised with the civilised history of the region, along with its rich and ancient culture.
He underlined his confidence that hosting this sporting event by Qatar will leave a valuable and sustainable legacy at the social, humanitarian, economic and environmental levels, whether in Qatar or the region and the entire world. He reiterated that the Islamic civilisation along with other civilisations has largely contributed and still contributing to human progress, stressing that no one can deny the crucial role of the Arabic and Islamic culture in promoting dialogue and resolving conflicts and disputes, and upholding the values of tolerance, solidarity and peace among peoples, and in combating extremism and intolerance.
He said that Qatar is among the first countries that supported the alliance since its inception as a mechanism that harmonizes and translates its policies into encouraging the values of diversity and respect for human rights, mutual respect, intercultural and interfaith understanding and cooperation, prevention of disputes and settling them by peaceful means.
In this regard, HE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs pointed to Qatar's hosting of the 4th United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in 2011 and was the key sponsor of the 8th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations that was convened in New York in 2018, in addition to providing generous financial contributions to support the alliance throughout the past years in pursuit of enabling it to achieve its goals.
His Excellency noted the recent support provided by Qatar with the value of $1.5mn for the period 2020-2022 to implement the alliance's programs and projects that are intended to promote sports and education for the sake of achieving peace, combating extremism, religious xenophobia, as well as promoting the role of youth in mediation.
He also pointed to the Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations that was launched in 2018 with the objective of co-opting highly competent elites in pursuit of promoting the values of dialogue and co-existence through the refined scientific research, propagating and enhancing the culture of tolerance and co-existence, including elites that are capable of formulating the awareness and culture of dialogue in accordance with the evolved reality.
He announced that the theme of the 4th session of the award for the years 2022-2023 will be "Science Dialogue: Towards a Civilized Framework for Knowledge Integration".HE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs emphasized the desperate need to stand together for the sake of unity and solidarity to build just, peaceful and comprehensive communities capable of countering the contemporary challenges in their all forms.