Fez – Abdelkrim Elkellali, a professor at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez, won on January 3 the 2nd Qatar Global Prize for Dialogue of Civilizations.
Elkellali presented his research entitled “the role of the media in preventing hatred and building civilizational cooperation on the horizon of establishing cooperative civilizations.”
The Qatar Committee of the Alliance of Civilizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organized the 3rd edition of Qatar Global Award for Dialogue Among Civilizations under the theme “the role of Da’wah (advocacy) and Media in Consolidating Values of Coexistence and Reducing Hate Speech.”
The jury withheld the first prize due to the absence of a work that “achieved the standards of excellence worthy of its value, symbolically and materially.”
The third prize went to Ali bin Mubarak from the Community College of Qatar with research on hate speech and the problem of civilized communication.
An incentive prize was granted to research on the role of civilized communication in promoting coexistence by Khalif Mustafa Hassan Gharaibeh from Al-Balqa Applied University in the Kingdom of Jordan. Another incentive prize went to professor Abdul Salam Rayaah for his research on social networks and its effects on activating discourse to reduce hate speech and enhance coexistence.
Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, secretary-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vice Chairman of the Qatar Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations, stressed on this occasion that the Qatar Global Award for Dialogue among Civilizations 2020-2021 falls within the implementation of his country’s objectives set out in the Qatar Plan for the Alliance of Civilizations (2018-2022).
Read also: UN Adopts Moroccan Proposal for International Day Against Hate Speech
Morocco succeeded in July 2021 to convince the UN to commemorate a day each year to mark global efforts to combat hateful speech.
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has long advocated for steps to combat hate speech. The monarch advocated for “principles of cohabitation, acceptance of plurality, and otherness,” in a 2018 public address, as part of his vision of the actions needed to establish “stability, growth, and prosperity” around the world.
Morocco has also advocated for other worldwide anti-hate measures through the United Nations in the past.
Two notable instances for Morocco in its hate speech battle are the 2013 “Rabat Plan of Action” and the 2015 “Fez Process,” which focused on religious leaders’ involvement in combating hostile discourse.
