Qatar Global Award For Dialogue Among Civilizations – Third Session 2020-2021

Qatar Global Award For Dialogue Among Civilizations – Third Session 2020-2021

In the name of Allah, the Merciful the most Gracious

QATAR GLOBAL AWARD FOR DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS – THIRD SESSION 2020-2021

Under the Theme: “The role of Da’wah and the Media in Consolidating Values of Coexistence and Reducing Hatred Speech”

In collaboration between ISESCO Chair for the Alliance of Civilizations of the Faculty of Sharia and Islamic Studies – Qatar university, and Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar, and The Federation of the Islamic World Universities of ISESCO

1.     The general context of the Award:

The world is witnessing a turbulent stage at regional and international levels, in which crises are threatening the stability of human societies and, in turn, the international peace and security. This will be reflected on the message of Da’wah and the media and the role they play in disseminating facts, enlightening minds, spreading constructive culture, and consolidating values of coexistence, as well as reducing hatred. The main role of media during these global turbulent circumstances is represented in spreading peace, promoting values of dialogue between cultures and civilizations, tolerance, coexistence between nations and peoples, and confronting and reducing hatred. If the current societal transformations are strong enough to impact the message of Da’wah and the media, then the responsibility of those in-charge of them is multiplied with regard to dealing with negative transformations, and gearing them towards the well-being of societies, in order for the message of Da’wah and the media to become a humane message that spreads values of modesty and moderation and promotes the culture of dialogue and peace.

Today, the international community is experiencing, in reality, anxiety and tension, the reasons for this, include, inter alia, deviation of the media from discharging its humane mission, there is also deficiency of dialogue among human cultures. Such deviation and deficiency are apparent in the lack of distinction between the right to expression and the obligation to respect human rights and halt exercising hatred. Talking about the role of Da’wah and the media in consolidating values ​​of coexistence and reducing hatred is inseparable from the main issues that today make intellectual, cultural and academic elites at the global level mentally-preoccupied and which constitute one of the pivots of international relations in their cultural contexts, especially those related to peace-building through the dissemination  of values of dialogue, coexistence and tolerance, and their role in developing society and realizing its stability and coexistence between its various groups, considering that all means are makers of public opinion, and as a driving force for the energies of peoples towards achieving progress, prosperity and openness to human horizons, and spreading a culture of harmony, tolerance, coexistence, understanding and mutual respect among nations and peoples. If dialogue and media aimed at disseminating facts and enlightening public opinion provide an atmosphere of peaceful coexistence among nations and peoples, then they will also contribute to reducing hatred and racial discrimination.

It is noted that hatred speech is escalating in our world today in a frightening way, despite the great efforts that have been made during the past three decades, in the field of intercultural dialogue and the alliance of civilizations. Therefore, the situation has shifted from joint action to promote these lofty values and ideals to cooperation in confronting this abhorrent phenomenon, which spreads discourse of hatred as well as religious and ethnic racism, in a way that violates international peace and security. Hatred speech has spread widely across the media, and is mostly targeting immigrants, religious minorities, and certain cultures, where focus is on getting rid of them, intimidating and disdaining them. This kind of racial discrimination and hatred of the other, as much as it stokes feelings of hostility and hatred, is one of the reasons for fueling intercultural collision and conflicts among civilizations, as well as undermining the efforts to consolidate values of coexistence and tolerance.

While coexistence between nations and peoples is considered one of the most important values on which international relations are built in the contemporary international community, the necessity of establishing its values through educational curricula and media programs is becoming even more urgent and inevitable today under the globalized international order, where barriers between countries and peoples have been removed, distances diminished, and interests among countries, civilizations and cultures mingled and intertwined. Therefore, the international community produced a bunch of  rules of universal human rights declaration, rules of international media law, which all emphasize the need to intervene to limit the media’s abuse to the right of others having  their religious being respected and cultural idiosyncrasies  being heeded to promote the values of peace, security, and coexistence. The human rights treaty body, for example, places restrictions on freedom of opinion and expression through the media, if it continues to infringe on the private life of individuals or tries to harm the security of states, or public order, with its various social and economic components, or when it dares to incite and encourage all kinds of racism and hatred. These restrictions, which are celebrated by international human rights and international informatics law, have become by consensus imperative norms that should not be violated.

It has also become necessary to educate advocacy and media institutions about the negative effects of hate speech in societies, enable preachers and media professionals to possess the best techniques and skills for hate speech analysis, produce alternative media contents that urge society members to become fully convinced with the values of coexistence, the importance of tolerance and respect for others. The role of Da’wah and the Media will also be effective and influential in fostering coexistence and confronting hate when these means, in their traditional and new form, introduce different cultures, traditions and beliefs to eliminate stereotypes that reinforce hate attitudes within the media. To achieve these goals, there is an urgent need to develop the professional and communicative capabilities of preachers and media professionals in order to identify and confront hate speech in the most effective way.

In this context, and in recognition of the fact that the Da’wah and media are among the most important instruments of expression in the contemporary world, and among the most essential components for propagating the values of tolerance, promoting pluralism and social diversity. and ensuring peace, security, and awareness of the entities supervising the organization of the Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations of the importance of research-workers engagement in international efforts aimed at  consolidating the values of coexistence and limiting hate speech, and its contribution to activating the international resolutions calling for banning the publication of ideas based on racial hatred, and in order to encourage and support the production of a discreet, objective and credible media discourse capable of reducing hate speech and call for tolerance , cooperation and dissemination of the values of peace, has been chosen theme of the third session of the Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations, in 2020-2021, entitled ” The role of Da’wah and the Media in establishing the values of coexistence and reducing  hate speech”

Three major areas for scientific contributions nominated for participation in the award have been identified:

·    Conceptual rooting field

·    Legal and human rights field

·    Field and applied field

2- Themes of the Prize

1.    The first axis: The mechanisms of civilized communication and the means to activate the Islamic Dawa to reduce hate speech and promote joint human life.

2.    The second axis: Moral and legal violations of the media content promoting hatred, civilizational conflict and Islamophobia

3.    The third axis: The techniques of employing new media to spread the values of coexistence among youth and confront hatred.

4.    The fourth axis: Best practices for qualifying religious programs in the mass media for the coexistence and tolerance of the followers of religions.

5.    The fifth axis: A model study of cultural, scientific, intellectual, local, regional, and international personalities, who have an effective impact on regional and international public opinion  to enhance the values of coexistence and dry  up the sources of hate speech.

3- Conditions of participation:

·    Commitment to one of the themes of the award

·    Deep cognitive and methodological discourse in research

·    The research should not be less than (100,000 hundred thousand words / about 300 pages, according to the specifications required in the outcome and the paper)

·    The research should be in Arabic, English or French

·    That the research be original or documented with reference to the sources and references, not published or derived from a scientific thesis,

·    The reference shall be complete upon the first mention of it in the margin, the sources and references shall be mentioned in the letters of the glossary at the end of the research, and the conclusion includes a summary of the research ideas and the most important results that are reached.

4- How to participate:

·    The letter of participation must include the following:

·    A full resume’ of the participant, with a recent colored photo.

·    Letter of intent to participate and send a summary of the research in at least two pages (according to the specifications listed below) before the date of July 01, 2020.

·    Final copy of the research in Word and PDF format must be received before May 1, 2021

·    Submit a letter in which the participant undertakes that the research is not a scientific dissertation and has not been published before.

·    As for the dimensions of the text of the research, it is as follows:

·    Font type in Arabic: Traditional Arabic, font size: 16 / note: 12

·    Font type in Latin: Times New Roman, font size: 12 / note: 10

·    Line and paragraph spacing: single ( one line )

·    Margins: 11.69×8.27” (210x297mm) utsizeA4

·    The referral shall be complete upon the first mention of it in the footnote, and the sources and references must be mentioned in the  letters of the glossary at the end of the research, and the conclusion includes a summary of the research, ideas and the most important results that are reached.

5- The value of the prize:

·    The value of the award is determined by the order of winners:

·    First winner: 160,000 Qatari riyals (one hundred and sixty thousand Qatari riyals)

·    Second winner: 90,000 Qatari riyals (ninety thousand Qatari riyals)

·    Third winner: 50,000 Qatari riyals (fifty thousand Qatari riyals)

·    The sponsors will also print and distribute the research papers of the first and second winner, provided that the winner will have 50 copies.

·    The prize may be withheld if the required criteria are not met scientifically and methodically

6- Prize delivery date:

·    The winners are announced on a date during the second half of the year 2021 on the occasion of Doha being announced as the capital of Islamic culture. The awards will be distributed at an outstanding ceremony, under the auspices of His Excellency Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the State of Qatar. The winners will be invited to attend the ceremony and receive the prizes, and the organizing entity will bear the costs of transportation and accommodation during the award ceremony.

7- Communication modes:

·    Theses of the participants must  be sent exclusively to the award email:

·    csis-worldhiwar@qu.edu.qa