The conference “Religious Media in Strengthening the Values of Tolerance and Moderation” was held in Beirut over the past two days at the invitation of Dar Al-Fatwa in Lebanon in cooperation with the German “Berghof” Foundation, with the participation of the muftis of Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan. Its recommendations called on the Arab fatwa institutions to cooperate in drawing up a strategy for religious media to confront extremism and terrorism. At the close of the conference the “Beirut Declaration for Enlightened Religious Media” was issued, which affirmed the importance of “commitment to a reformist and centrist religious discourse, the spreading of the values of tolerance and moderation, the strengthening of peace in societies, support for the traditions of coexistence and the correction of the relationship with the world”.
The declaration, signed by the mufti of Lebanon Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian, the mufti of Egypt Sheikh Shawki Allam and the mufti of Jordan Sheikh Abdel Karim Khasawneh after their meeting at the Lebanese Dar Al-Fatwa, renewed the commitment to developing an enlightened religious media that works at spreading the values and the vocabulary of responsible religious preaching.
The declaration affirmed “acceptance of the religious, denominational, national and international other, and commitment to peace, parity and trust in cases of disagreement”.
The declaration regretted “the worsening of the phenomena of extremism in Arab and Islamic societies and their use of the means of communication in inciting killing, brutality and takfir, in a way that offends religions and morals and the rules and conventions of coexistence and freedoms”.
The declaration also pointed to “the phenomena of looseness and sensationalism in interviews and opinions and their broadcasting in the media and communication outlets in forms that are irresponsible religiously, nationally and morally”.
It called on the private and official Arab media outlets to “deal with religious issues with knowledge and responsibility, to keep away from sensationalism, discrimination and distortion, and to cooperate with the religious bodies in order to build relations of trust and mutual respect”.
The declaration also called on the Islamic and Christian religious bodies to cooperate in establishing an “observatory” for coexistence, based in Beirut, to follow the religious situation in the Arab world.
The declaration affirmed “cooperation among the fatwa institutions in Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon in the fields of exchanging information, expertise and visits related to preaching and media, and cooperation in training imams and teachers in the means and media of combating extremism in religion and any other extremism that threatens the security, unity and stability of Arab societies”.
It may be said that this conference and the declaration issued by it constitute a positive step at the level of correcting religious discourse in the Arab and Islamic world in the face of the extremism and violence that are spreading in the world today under a religious cover.
While awaiting the turning of this declaration and the recommendations issued by the conference into practical steps, some observations and problems must be noted about the conference held at the Lebanese Dar Al-Fatwa. The conference was confined to certain official religious institutions, while many religious and media institutions and civil society institutions were absent from this conference; some of the speeches delivered were not at the level of the challenges religious discourse faces today in the Arab and Islamic world; and some speakers were content to describe the negative phenomena without offering deep studies and ideas about their causes and how to treat them.
Likewise the preparation for the conference and the manner of its holding, with some of its sessions taking place behind closed doors without opening the door to media institutions to see what was going on and to take part in its work, and the absence of specialized media and research figures from its sessions, constituted a great gap in the conference's work. It is to be hoped that this will be overcome at other conferences so that they may achieve the practical results sought.
