There is no doubt that dialogue is one of the important themes in the visit of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, to the Vatican and his meeting with Pope Francis Pope of the Catholic Church. This meeting was very important in consecrating coexistence and global values of tolerance, and in opening the door to dialogue about effective solutions to the issues and crises in various parts of the region and the world.
One of the objectives of this important visit as His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan said, is that ‘the UAE under the leadership of President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, never hesitate to participate actively with the international community in all that would achieve security, stability and development, and promote values of peace and coexistence and justice in the various regions of the world. ‘
There is no doubt that the UAE’s efforts are based on a vision and a conscious policy of the causes of the problems and their real roots, which was confirmed by the Prince when he said, ‘If the trends of militancy and extremism witnessed by the world in recent times are due in part to the absence of a culture of coexistence and dialogue and acceptance of others, there is an urgent need to strengthen cooperation among all States and regional and international organizations and the UN in order to formulate strategies to promote constructive dialogue between cultures and respect for beliefs and religions and to spread the culture of peace in order to respond to attempts at defamation of religions as well as religious hatred. ‘
Accordingly, the UAE makes diplomatic efforts for the consecration of the value of dialogue and coexistence among civilizations, cultures, religions and peoples, founded on tolerance and openness away from extremism, intolerance and violence, as His Highness also said in his statement on the occasion of the visit.
One of the focal points of the mission is that this historic visit converges with the efforts of the Pope, who has been constantly tackling the issues of extremism, intolerance and religious hatred and facing attempts to offend religious sanctities with strong positions, setting a solid foundation for the dialogue of civilizations, cultures and religions.
Another important point is that there are common values between the UAE and the Vatican in search of international security and stability. Both sides seek not only to eradicate intolerance and violence and discrimination ideologies, but they also seek to combat poverty, ignorance hatred speech, and everything that sets an atmosphere of cultural and religious conflict among nations and peoples.
HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan expressed a conscious political vision to strengthen the international effort against violence, terrorism and the culture of hatred, which aggravate conflicts around the world today and constitute a challenge that requires concerted efforts by states, institutions, leaders and religious figures to combat these negative phenomena and prevent their intrusion into communities.
Personally, I admire in His Holiness the present Pope, his poise and strong faith in moderation and tolerance. He rejected linking Islam to violence, and uttered explicitly, ‘If you talk about Islamic violence, you should be talking about Catholic violence, not all Muslims are advocates of violence.’ His historic position expresses a deep awareness of the danger of inciting cultural and religious conflicts. He also believes in the value of communication and cultural openness in the present sensitive context, in order to save the world from mad advocates of violence, terrorism and conflict of civilizations.
The Pope is also an advocate of dialogue and tolerance, so it was not surprising that the UAE is seeking to cooperate with His Holiness to disseminate important human values that need combined efforts to be expressed in every opportunity to build a united front against all forms of intolerance, said His Highness Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, in his article for the CNN published on the occasion of the visit.
HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s visit to the Pope is a message with many connotations. It asserts the belief of the United Arab Emirates in common values of dialogue, tolerance, coexistence, openness, moderation, respect and acceptance for others that need to be spread in all communities in a way to overcome hatred speech, violence and terrorism. Moreover, the advocates of extremism and hatred and violence groups should be faced on cultural, political, security, military and religious levels, as they are criminal groups that have no relation to religions, nations or ethnic groups.
The world wants partners for peace, tolerance and coexistence, linked by channels of communication, solidarity and cooperation, to fight for a noble humanitarian cause and save future generations from falling into the clutches of extremism, violence, hatred and terrorism.
