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“Interfaith Dialogue

for Peace”
1st Interfaith Colloquium
on Religion and Belief
Introduction

Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK) is a multi-religious partnership of all major faith communities
in Kenya namely; KCCB - Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops, NCCK - National Council of Churches
of Kenya, EAK - Evangelical Alliance of Kenya, OAIC - Organization of African Instituted Churches,
SDA - Seventh Day Adventist Church, SUPKEM - Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims, NAMLEF -
National Muslim Leaders Forum, Shia IthnaSharia Muslim Association and HCK - Hindu Council of
Kenya. Each of these religious coordinating bodies has a national coverage with structures that reach
the grassroots level. Additionally, IRCK has formed Local Interfaith Networks to act as platforms for
local advocacy and action in various counties.

Background

The Inter-Religious Council of Kenya (IRCK) in partnership with Mensen met een Missie (MM) and
Kenya Community Support Centre (KECOSCE) is implementing a project dubbed “Freedom of
Religion and Belief (FoRB)” in Mombasa and Kwale Counties at the Coastal region of Kenya. The
project seeks to increase respect and protection for religious minorities by strengthening, sensitizing
and connecting duty bearers to claim holders from various backgrounds at county and national levels.
IRCK and KECOSCE aim to achieve this through the establishment of networks with relevant state
and non-state actors, gathering and documenting evidence, creating awareness among the duty
bearers and claim holders, capacity building initiatives and use of civic spaces to ease access to
justice and create equal opportunities thus fostering religious tolerance and information sharing, and
linking local religious leaders to local security agencies to ensure sustainability of the efforts.
The Inter- Religious Council of Kenya will host a colloquium that will bring selected Religious Leaders
and identified scholars to examine theological foundations of radical extremism and propose new
ways of responding to radical extremism from a religious perspective. The details of the colloquium
will be documented, published and disseminated through social media, local radio station and print
media

The colloquium will cover the following proposed topics:

a) Push factors for religious instituted conflicts and violent extremism- way forward for the
coast region

b) Theological perspectives to dealing with violent extremism- interfaith relations, cooperation


and inclusion of vulnerable groups

c) Breaking down the ‘do no harm approach’- Is the state an opponent on proponent to
countering violent extremism
Mr. Hassan Abdi Abdillehas over 25 years of work and research
experience in human rights and governance, humanitarian aid,
peacebuilding and development work in Africa working with govern-
ment and various NGOs.He holds a Master of Arts Degree in Conflict,
Security and Developmentfrom King’s College, London.He also has a
Master of Arts degree in Humanitarian Assistance (Majoring in
International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law& Complex
Political Emergencies) from Tufts University, Boston, USA.
Hassan currently works with Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI) as
the Executive Director. He is a peace and security analyst and his

current focus is to recognizing the need to develop holistic, inclusive, community-rooted and civil
society-led solutions to effectively address violent extremism and operating space for civil society
organisations (CSOs). His research interests are broadly concerned with Geopolitics, CSOs, Aid,
Policing, Ethnicity/Religion, Security, Human rights and Governance.

Breaking Down The ‘Do No Harm Approach’- Is The State an Opponent or Proponent to
Countering Violent Extremism
Conflicts are never simple and DO NO HARM cannot make things simpler but rather helps us get a
handle on the complexity of the environments where we work. It helps us see how decisions we make
affect intergroup relationships (dividers and connectors). It helps us think of different ways of doing
things to have better effects. The aim is to help us deal with the real complexities of providing
interventions with less frustration and more clarity and better outcomes for the societies where
support is provided. All citizens and their property require protection and security from harm for
development and prosperity to be achieved. Security remains the basic and fundamental unit of
human needs and wants. The threat to security due to, among other factors, radicalization and
violent extremism in our midst is real. Experience of supporting government systems to be more
conflict sensitive is more limited, and this is an area for further work.
Peace and security interventions or any other development interventions can do harm as well as good
if they are not based on strong conflict and governance analysis and designed with appropriate
safeguards. Consequently, there is need to take responsibility for the ways interventions affects
societies. For example, interventions if not well designed on robust conflict and governance sensitivi-
ties and without appropriate safeguards could inadvertently create societal divisions, increase
corruption, diminish trust and can lead to escalations. One such example is the experiences of the
hard counterterrorism approaches in societies affected by terrorism. The prevention of terrorism is
about protecting some of the most basic human rights – a fact which sometimes gets lost in the
debate about terror prevention and civil liberties. States are under the obligation to take the
measures needed to protect the fundamental rights of everyone within their jurisdiction against
terrorist acts, especially the right to life. This positive obligation fully justifies States' fight against
terrorism. The question for any government is how best to provide that protection and to not do
harm.
Ibrahim Lethome Asmani has over 20 years’ experience as a
practicing advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a senior partner at
Mohamed and Lethome Advocates specializing in Muslim personal law
matters. He is also currently consulting with Population Council,
Nairobi office, as a resource person in the debate around FGM/C and
Islam and a member of Shariah Advisory Board, Kenya Commercial
Bank on interest-free banking.
Ibrahim holds a postgraduate diploma in Legal Profession from the
Kenya School of Law. He ggraduated from International Islamic
University, Islamabad, Pakistan and qualified for the award of LLM in
Law and Shariah specializing in Muslim personal laws. He holds a Bachelor of Educationfrom The
Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan, and qualified for the award of an Upper Second class Honors. He
also ggraduated from International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan and qualified for the
award of LLB First Class Honorsin Shariah and Law. Publications:

PUSH FACTORS FOR RELIGIOUS INSTITUTED CONFLICTS AND VIOLENT EXTREMISM-


(WAY FORWARD FOR THE COAST REGION)”
Conflict and violent extremism are perhaps the most serious threats to peaceful co-existence
between different communities whether religious or ethnic communities. This is a reality at the
global, regional, national and local levels.Conflict driven by religion presents a bigger challenge in
that religion is very emotive and for many people, it is unquestionable.
Conflict resolution or P/CVE intervention, whether by state or non-state actors, cannot be effective
unless it addresses all the underlying root causes and likewise for interventions to prevent/counter
violent extremism.Whenever there is a conflict, religious leaders have a responsibility to resolve the
conflict and ensure peaceful co-existence.
Where religious teachings are misused to justify or drive conflict/violent extremism, it is important to
(i) Identify the religious narratives used, (ii) understand other factors in interplay with religious
narratives, (iii) develop appropriate religious counter- narratives, (iv) develop appropriate religious
alternative narratives.
Religious narratives can only be effectively challenged or dealt with by religious scholars hence it is
important to identify scholars from the concerned religion. They effectively; (i) explain religious
terms and concepts, and (ii) Correct misconceptions.

WAY FORWARD:
Religious leaders must; (i) appreciate that religion is underlying cause of conflict and violent extrem-
ism, hence the need to sensitize them, (ii) accept that they have an obligation to address conflict and
violent extremism especially where religion is used, (iii) come up with effective strategies to address
all the underlying causes of conflict and violent extremism and especially religious teachings and
concepts, (iv) use available religious platforms and institutions to address religious conflict and
violent extremism, and (v) identify strategic partners.

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