IEP21 Forum

IEP21, is delighted to highlight an extraordinary opportunity for real engagement with the global community. Globalisation for the Common Good (GCG), a remarkable organization founded by Dr. Kamran Mofid (UK), announces the latest in a series of conferences entitled “Interfaith Perspectives on Globalisation for the Common Good”.

Recent conferences were held in Dubai, Kenya, and Hawaii. (Click for an overview of the project.)

You can visit the GCG web site for more information on the conference series, including the stirring declarations published at the Kericho, Kenya and Honolulu, Hawaii conferences. Click here.

We hope that friends of the Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21) will participate in the upcoming gathering. The program promises to be extraordinary. A wonderful post-conference tour package is also available.
Click here for conference information!

INTER-CIVILIZATION YOUTH ENGAGEMENT

The Interreligious Engagement Project (IEP21) is pleased to endorse and to participate in this exciting project: an international youth camp, to be held June 17-24 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The purpose of the gathering is to promote civilizational coexistence.

For more information about the youth camp, contact Abdullah Ahsan , project organizer.

For information about arranging the participation of youth (between 20 and 25 years of age) from North America or Europe, contact Jim Kenney , IEP21 Executive Director.

Introduction

Bewildering, frightening, hopeless–these are some of the expressions used by sensitive and caring people across the globe describing the world today. Youths in particular are caught up in an atmosphere of despair, when hope, aspiration and enthusiasm should be their driving force. More than any other age group, the future and the responsibilities ahead, belong to youths. It is their privilege to envision their life and roles with the promise of a better future, one rooted in justice and motivated by compassion, and to live with a spirit of togetherness and cherished co-existence with one and all, with the human family as well as the non-human family.

To prepare themselves for such a noble co-existence, they need to reach out and learn from one another. It will be significant and effective if they experience a real life situation of meaningful global exchange with various religious and cultural communities. The Inter-Civilization Youth Engagement program gives youths this opportunity. The program opens avenues for youths to know each other directly, to engage with one another on a person-to person basis, and help youths envision and map out concerted and concrete start-off points, and to continue and sustain the engagement through various global network apparatus. This allows the envisioned peaceful and meaningful future of co-existence, a chance to materialize.

Sometime ago two Chicago, USA, NGOs — Interreligious Engagement Project: A Network for the 21st Century (EP21) and World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations (WCMIR), approached JUST to explore the possibility of holding a conference to discuss civilizational relations. When we met to discuss, it occurred to us that instead of having academic discussions on the issue, it would be more useful to involve youth with workshops so input can be gathered from participants. We also believe that close interaction between experienced professors and the youth may lead to innovative ways to address these issues. Meanwhile Malaysia based ABIM expressed interest in joining the project. It is in this context that we are proposing to hold an international youth camp in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in June 2007.

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