A research on the role of the media in preventing and reducing hatred and building civilisational co-operation in the horizon of founding co-operative civilisations by Dr Abdelkarim El Qalali from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fes, the Kingdom of Morocco, won the second place in its third edition.
It was unanimously agreed by the members of the Scientific Committee and the members of the external jury to withhold the first prize given the lack of research that achieved the standards of excellence worthy of the value and prestige of the prize, symbolically and materially.
A research on hate speech and the problem of civilised communication by Dr Ali bin Mubarak from the Community College of Qatar won the third place; while a research on the role of civilised communication in promoting coexistence by Prof Dr Khalif Mustafa Hassan Gharaibeh from Al-Balqa Applied University in the Kingdom of Jordan, and a research on social networks and its effects on activating discourse in reducing hate speech and enhancing coexistence by Dr Abdul Salam Riyah won two incentive prizes.
The scientific committee of the award announced that the theme of the fourth edition of Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilisations 2022-2023 will be "Science Dialogue: Towards a Civilised Framework for Knowledge Integration" within one of the four areas around which the States plan revolves in the field of dialogue and alliance of civilisations — the field of education.
Commenting on the occasion, HE Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Chairman of Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilisations Dr Ahmed bin Hassan al-Hammadi underlined that the third edition of Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilisations 2020-2021 came within the framework of implementing the stated goals of Qatar's plan for the Alliance of Civilisations (2018-2022), which emphasised the provision of awards for outstanding research work and funding of distinguished research in dialogue among civilizations.
He said that the Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilisations was launched in 2018 as the fruit of co-operation between Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilisations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Qatar University represented by the Isesco at the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies, noting that allocating the award in its third session to the best research on the "role of Dawah and the media in consolidating the values of coexistence and preventing hate speech" comes within the framework of the efforts of Qatar in issues of civilised dialogue, cultural communication and addressing extremist thought at the local and international levels; and embodying the goals and objectives of Qatar National Vision 2030 which calls for "care and support for the dialogue of civilisations and coexistence between different religions and cultures."
The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilisations aims to create highly qualified elites to enhance the values of dialogue and coexistence through coherent scientific research, and to spread and consolidate the culture of tolerance and peaceful coexistence and the ability to formulate awareness and culture of dialogue in accordance with the renewed reality and within the framework of authenticity and constants.
HE Dr al-Hammadi said that the award has made great strides during the past four years, and has become the focus of attention of academic and research departments, institutions and intellectual elites from different cultures.
The Award is attracting researchers from different countries around the world, which is reflected in the increase in the number of applicants, and this certainly adds to Qatar which was at the forefront of the world countries in supporting the United Nations initiative for the Alliance of Civilisations, and hosted many important events, most importantly the Fourth Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilisations in 2011, and the UN Alliance of Civilisations' (UNAOC) Fellowship Programme (2011-2019).
Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Hassan al-Hammadi expressed his aspiration for more co-operation and partnership with Qatar University in various aspects and fields of the Alliance of Civilisations through the implementation of many initiatives and projects included in Qatar's plan for the Alliance of Civilisations, foremost of which is Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilisations.
He congratulated the winners and extended sincere thanks and gratitude to the members of the jury for their sincere efforts, perseverance and dedication to work for the success of this event which promotes Qatar as a sponsor of dialogue among civilisations and cultures at the regional and international levels.
For his part, President of Qatar University Dr Hassan bin Rashid al-Derham praised the co-operation between Qatar University, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Isesco which resulted in this distinguished event, and commended the fforts of the winners and participating research.
The QU president noted that the Award, which was launched four years ago, aimed at achieving various educational, research and development goals and outcomes, serving as the driving force for people's energies towards progress, prosperity, openness to human horizons, and spreading a culture of harmony, tolerance, coexistence, understanding and mutual respect among nations and peoples.
He added that this new achievement comes in the context of the great academic, scientific and research movement that Qatar University has been witnessing, and as a culmination of that strategic path that it had started years ago, during which it achieved qualitative achievements and distinguished gains in the fields of education, research, community service and the priorities of the State and the nation.
The most prominent of these achievements in the field of research and community development are the initiatives achieved by the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies through the Isesco Chair for the Alliance of Civilisations, most importantly Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilisations which has spread and expanded to include the five continents in terms of participation; and the international strategic research project "The Encyclopedia of Occidentalism" to be released soon.
The President of Qatar University expressed his sincere thanks to the collaborating parties in the implementation of these two scientific projects and other pioneering projects locally, regionally and internationally, praising the efforts of the Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilisations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Isesco) in supporting the various initiatives of Qatar University in the field of civilisational dialogue.
Dr Ibrahim al-Ansari, Dean of the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University, spoke about the College's efforts during the past period in preparing this edition of the Award, noting its role in the file of the Alliance of Civilisations, and its contributions to implementing the provisions of Qatar National Vision 2030 and the States plan in this file.
Among these contributions are the adoption of the Masters Programme in Religions and Dialogue of Civilisations at the College, the adoption of an annual international award for the dialogue of civilisations "Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilisations", the adoption of the Encyclopedia of Occidentalism as a global encyclopedia and the completion of the first four volumes that will be published at Doha International Book Fair, as well as the holding of conferences, seminars and periodic workshops at the College and abroad on topics of the alliance of civilisations dialogue.
Al-Ansari noted a new co-operation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through the Diplomatic Institute, noting that it was initially agreed to offer a four-month international training diploma in "Dialogue and Civilised Communication" for graduate students (Masters and PhD) and for various related legal, humanitarian and social disciplines related to the topic of dialogue and the alliance of civilisations.
Dr Ezzedine Mamiche, chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Award, presented the most important stages in the process of sorting the international participations in the Award, noting that the committee received 238 abstracts in the three languages (Arabic, English and French) from 40 countries.
A total of 58 abstracts were accepted for the final stage.
The researchers were given a full-time year to complete the research, stipulating precise scientific, methodological and technical standards. He added that after a full year, the committee received 26 papers in the final stage, six of which were excluded because they did not meet the basic criteria stipulated in the Awards preamble, and 20 papers were presented for preliminary arbitration.
Then, the scientific committee shortlisted five papers and sent them to an international committee outside Qatar. After careful and extensive reports from this committee, and final deliberations by the members of the scientific committee supervising the award, the final results were reached.
