‘Media against Hate’ conference highlights Jordan’s model of coexistence

AMMAN — Deputising for HRH Prince Ghazi, Chief Adviser to His Majesty King Abdullah for Religious and Cultural Affairs and Personal Envoy of His Majesty, and member of the Muslim Council of Elders, Senator Mohammad Momani on Monday attended the “Media against Hate” conference.

Momani said during the inauguration ceremony of the event, which is co-organised by the council and Catholic Centre for Studies and Media, that the top challenges facing the nation, religion and human civilisation today is the spread of hate speech, shunning the values of tolerance and peace and refusing difference.

The senator said that the values of tolerance and peace are in complete harmony with the “teachings of our religion and the all divine religions”, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. 

He added that Jordan has always been at the forefront of countries that defend Islam and the human values that Islam has always defended for centuries, referring to the Jordanian and Hashemite role that has always been present in international ideological, cultural and political events.

Momani said that His Majesty was always present to explain the values and teachings of Islam, defend Muslims and their cultural heritage, and in the struggle to counter the spread of Islamophobia, that spread in non-Muslim societies. This targeted Muslim minorities for belonging to a religion that some of its followers distorted through perpetrating massacres and violence acts, he continued.

Jordan has offered several initiatives to spread tolerance and coexistence, such as the Amman Message that was written and approved by the elite of Muslim scholars and was translated into dozens of languages, he noted.  

Secretary General of the Council Sultan Al Remeithi expressed his gratitude to King Abdullah and the Jordanian leadership over the years for establishing a unique model of coexistence and tolerance.

Remeithi added that the council’s efforts aim at combating the hate speech and discrimination in Arab media, whether on the Internet or beyond, through enhancing moral values and activating media pacts to preserve the dignity of humans. 

Father Rifat Badr, head of the Catholic Centre for Research and Media, said that the term “hate speech” is “obnoxious”, noting that the terrorism is not the result of religion even if terrorists adopted religious slogans, but is instead the result of misunderstandings of religious texts and policies of poverty, hunger and injustice.