The Namibian Abrahamic Interfaith Dialogue - Foundation Office Namibia and Angola
Event Reports
The Forum for the Future (FFF) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Namibia-Angola held the Namibian Abrahamic Interfaith Dialogue at NamPower Convention Centre in Windhoek from the 4-5 April 2017. The idea behind this event was the shared conviction that faith serves as a spiritual and moral guide in the life of the individual persons and nations. Regardless of their different faith traditions, people listen more attentively when a message is being conveyed by a spiritual leader. Therefore, Namibian spiritual leaders have a responsibility to guide the nation on how the citizens should interact among themselves. It was out of these considerations that Forum for the Future (FFF) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Namibia-Angola conveyed a two-day national dialogue with numerous representatives of the Abrahamic Faiths in Namibia. These are Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Baha'i faith. As a representative of the Buddhist faith expressed her keen interest to join the conference, she was also invited to participate.
The overall purpose of the conference was to mutually discuss the question of "What keeps society together?" This topic was chosen due to the conviction that people of different believes and religions share the same moral values and also experience the same social challenges in their day-to-day life and in their respective communities. Therefore, as a contribution towards strengthening mutual acceptance and harmony in Namibia, FFF and KAS felt that it was important that representatives of these faith communities come together and share their ideas on their collective role in the life of the country. It is the believe of both organisations that such coming-togethers will create an environment for Namibians to know more of each other's faiths, will contribute to a respectful and tolerant commerce between the different faith communities and will therefore make them instruments of promoting respect, understanding and peace in the country.
The conference had around 50 participants. A representative of each faith community presented a formal paper on the conference's theme of "What keeps society together?" which introduced the basic teachings of the respective faith, but also touched on their specific views on current social issues and challenges of the Namibian society and possible problem-solving approaches.
The different contributions were later on discussed in several work groups. In these groups, the participants identified national issues where the Abrahamic faith needs to give a concerted guidance to promote harmony and peace among Namibians. These conclusions were summarised in an official "Namibian Abrahamic Interfaith Declaration" which can be downloaded here.
