| Young Muslims for peace | | Print | |
| Hetty Rooth | 13.02.2009 | National Affairs - News items [en] [sw] | ||||||
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100 young Muslim peace agents have received training and qualifications in a collaboration between two of the study associations in Sweden which are run along religious lines. “There is a great need for Muslim voices for peace and mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims” thinks Yasin Ahmed, one of the project managers of the Peace Agents. For two years the study association, Sensus, which has Christian roots, and the Muslim study association, Ibn Rushd, have offered peace studies to young Muslims in Sweden between the ages of 16 and 25, which will help to put a different perspective on the image of Islam in the Swedish debate and promote active work for peace. A few hundred young Muslims have now received training in peace issues via study circles and 100 of them have been certified as “peace agents”. This means they are ready to go out and meet other young people to discuss peace and conflict resolution. For example, the peace agents will visit schools, companies and organisations who want to have an open dialogue about the role of Islam in Swedish society. The peace agents’ work is based on renouncing violence and the project aims to highlight the desire for peace existing within Islam. The diplomas for the 100 newly graduated peace agents were awarded during a peace conference at the Kulturhuset in Stockholm. This occasion also saw the launch of a Muslim peace movement, ”Swedish Muslims for Peace and Justice”, and the book ”Salam – War, Peace and Islam”, a handbook on Islamic peace culture. The conference was opened by the Swedish Minister for Trade, Ewa Björling, who stressed her support for the peace agents: “I am impressed by the way in which you, young Swedish Muslims, have breathed new life into what we call "the Swedish model", she observed. A further aim of both the peace agents and the peace movement is to spread the concept of peace throughout Europe through liberal adult education. During Sweden’s Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2009, it is hoped that the hundred Swedish peace agents can be turned into a thousand European agents for peace. |
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