Promoting Peaceful Coexistence and Common Citizenship

[ 22 ] other parts of Africa, designed to foster more cooperation. Finally, we have hosted a conference on promoting peaceful coexistence and common citizenship, and have agreed to cooperate more closely on those issues, especially in South- east Asia. In addition, we played a very important role in resolving the conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR), ensuring that the elections took place, and using our influence, in particular with the Muslim parties there. We organized and participated in conferences in Bangalore (2014) and Senegal (2017) in order to promote improvements in democracy and coexistence, even between different countries. We also went back to the CAR and spoke to religious leaders again from all parties, in order to encourage them to implement the Freedom Agreements. The OIC works on spreading the values of peace, frater- nity, and respect. It is supported by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and cooperates with the United Arab Emirates and its Centre for combating stigmatisation and segregation. We need to thank all of these institutions — KAICIID, centres in Saudi Arabia, centres in the United Arab Emir- ates, because they all play a part in bridging and building coexistence around the world. Thank you again for this invitation. Thank you all for participating in this conference. May peace and God’s grace be upon you. — INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE FOR PEACE — HE Dr. Yousef Bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation HE Dr. Yousef Bin Ahmad Al-Othaimeen holds a BA in Social Studies from King Saud University in Riyadh in 1977. He also earned an MA in Political Sociology fromOhio University in 1982 and a PhD in Political Sociology from the American University inWashington DC in 1986. Press conference with, from left, His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Mar Bashar Boutros Al-Ra’i, HE Faisal Bin Abdulrahman Bin Muaammar, HE Sheikh Dr. Shawki Ibrahim Allam