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Interfaith Exchange: Discussions on Religion, Culture, and Society

2023-1-SI02-KA152-YOU-0001472242023Mobility of young peoplefinalized
Countries: SI|TR|MK|RS|BG|ES|RO · Grant: €32,160
European identity, citizenship and valuesPreventing radicalisation

Objectives

The project ‘Interfaith Exchange: Discussions on Religion, Culture, and Society’ was implemented to open the topic of interreligious dialogue among young people and address the raising hate speech towards people coming from different religious backgrounds in the participant's countries: Slovenia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Spain, Romania, and Türkiye. For our project, we chose this subject for three primary reasons: 1. We agreed that one of the real issues is the rise in hate and hate speech, especially in online media against people representing different communities and having different religious backgrounds. The subject of interreligious dialogue came up as a crucial topic to be covered and explored when we looked into this issue more deeply and included young people from our organizations in the discussion; 2. We included organizations that have shown a strong interest in this subject, and they are also becoming increasingly aware of the need to work on it in light of the circumstances in their own communities. 3. We realized that interreligious dialogue is a crucial subject to be discussed in the open if we want to look for ways to cooperate and live in harmony while discussing the future of Europe. As it addresses a feature of the true mosaic of cultures, traditions, and languages that Europe is becoming, the topic itself exhibits a strong European dimension. The main purpose of the exchange "Interfaith Exchange: Discussions on Religion, Culture, and Society" was to establish a forum where young people from Slovenia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Spain, Romania, and Türkiye can discuss religious diversity and intercultural dialogue as a strategy to combat religious prejudice. Additionally, the exchange supported the promotion of non-formal education ideas in the participating nations. In summary, it approaches the subject from three angles: the right to religious freedom as a human right, the diversity of religions, and young people's involvement in the fight against religious prejudice. Objectives of youth exchange 'Interfaith Exchange: Discussions on Religion, Culture, and Society' were : 1. To introduce the subject of interreligious dialogue and examine the diversity of religions in the participating nations; 2. To foster an environment where it is safe to talk about the causes of religious prejudice and the prevalence of hate speech in all participating nations; 3. To consider how to make communities and societies that respect those with different religious backgrounds and are more open and inclusive; 4. To increase participants' abilities in areas like communication and teamwork and give them a chance to fully benefit from an international youth activity under the Erasmus + Program; 5. To foster an environment that is inspiring and to encourage the generation of ideas for new international projects; 6. To produce a short film as a key project outcome in order to introduce young people in participating communities to the idea of interreligious dialogue; 7. To plan film screenings in involved countries with the intention of bringing up interreligious dialogue and promoting the Erasmus + Program to a larger audience.

Project partners (7)