Human fraternity: Young people prepare guide to solidarity for universities
By Alessandro Di Bussolo
A new “practical guide to solidarity solutions” aims at bringing the values of the Document for Human Fraternity, signed five years ago by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Al-Tayyeb, to young people, starting with university communities and campuses around the world.
The guide is the work of eleven university students selected for the “Human Fraternity Fellows program for the promotion of intercultural and interreligious harmony.” The students travelled to Abu Dhabi from 3-10 February for a week of dialogues, lectures and guided tours, on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Document.
A guide to help young people experience fraternity
As part of their visit to Abu Dhabi, the fellows took part in the third discussion panel of the “Majlis of Human Brotherhood” on the afternoon of 4 February at the Abrahamic Family House. They also participated in the roundtable of the Zayed Prize for Human Brotherhood, on the morning of February 6 in the Emirates Palace Hotel.
Speaking with Vatican Media, Egyptian judge Mohamed Abdelsalam, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Elders and the Zayed Prize, who has worked on this project from the beginning, said the “practical guide” being produced by the students aims at “illustrating how young people can experience human fraternity in their communities and on college campuses.”
The students will continue to meet online, as they did from October 2023 until the eve of the Abu Dhabi trip, to finalize the guide, which will be published as an e-book.
Online dialogues promoted by Georgetown University.
Joining Judge Abdelsalem, was the representative of Georgetown University in Washington, which is promoting the fellowship program with the High Committee for Human Fraternity. Thomas Banchoff, the director of the Berkley Center and vice president for global engagement at the U.S. university, emphasized that the Human Fraternity Fellowship, “recognizes that universities, as microcosms of larger societies, can be fertile ground for cultivating mutual understanding and respect between different faiths.”
The program’s first offering was four “Global Dialogues on Human Fraternity,” held online from February to March 2023 and hosted by Georgetown, which for 90 minutes featured more than a hundred young students from 40 countries sharing their impressions of the Human Fraternity Document, discussing its relevance to their local contexts and campus communities, and proposing creative ideas for promoting intercultural and interfaith solidarity in practice.
Sofia: 'We will continue to meet'
From among those taking part in the dialogues, eleven students were selected, who then met in person in Abu Dhabi after having identified, in initial online interviews, some of the obstacles to interfaith dialogue and inclusivity within their university settings and beginning to explore solutions that build on the principles outlined in the Document.
“Today, after this experience, we have become a group of friends who over the years will continue to share” online and in person, “what we have learned here in Abu Dhabi, including with other students at our universities,” emphasized Sofia Lanza, who is majoring in Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland.
A practical approach to interreligious dialogue
As secretary and interreligious officer of the Catholic Students’ Union at her university, Sofia is committed to promoting understanding and dialogue between different religious communities, especially through communication.
She explains that she wanted to participate in the program because she would like to see “a more practical approach to interfaith dialogue,” which she considers “too diplomatic” today. “So many times,” she tells Vatican Media, “confrontations and debates between people of different faiths are not understood by young people because they seem so distant from us, almost surreal, whereas this program gives us a chance to actually experience this dialogue as our own, and I want to do my part.”
Sofia says the Document on Human must become “a document that we can use every day, in our lives and at university, and that we can refer to when we want to speak and make peace. For the youth of today and for the youth of tomorrow.”
Ishan: 'A text that speaks to us'
Next to her, Ishan Datey, a student at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, nods in agreement. Ishan’s family is originally from India, and Ishan is in charge of interfaith dialogue for the university’s Hindu Student Association
As it stands, he says, “I don't think [the Document] is ‘digestible’ in all its parts for us young people. There is work to be done, but [even] as it is, it speaks to us young people about peace, harmony, and dialogue. We all have one Father, and so human fraternity is a value for all human beings.”
Hindu values in Document
Active in Georgetown’s Dharmic community, Ishan sees the human fraternity fellowship program as “an opportunity to engage with people from around the world about religion and make the Hindu Dharmic tradition known.”
Upon returning to the United States, he says, “I will share what we discussed here with my family and our friends, but then also, through social media, with fellow believers in India and South Asia, to explain how people loyal to our tradition can interact with human fraternity and join this cause.”
Aisha and the ‘House of Tolerance'
Also taking part in the program is Aisha Alyassi from Dubai, a graduate student in International Studies from the American University of Sharjah in the UAE, who is attending King's College London in Britain as a postgraduate student.
Passionate about promoting peace and global tolerance, her current research focuses on religious minorities in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly the Iraqi Jewish community. In February 2022, she launched the "House of Tolerance" project on Instagram, documenting her visits to various places of worship around the world.
In her speech at the February 4 discussion panel, she reiterated her interest in studying not only her own religion, Islam, “but also the other Abrahamic religions, Christianity and Judaism.”
Respect for everyone’s religious beliefs
Aisha stresses that for her, the Human Brotherhood Document is “a guiding text, but it is also the responsibility of us young people to make it concrete, working for peaceful coexistence among us.”
She is convinced that it is very important that the document “emphasizes equality between men and women.” She was especially impressed by the part of the text that insists on “respect for everyone’s religious convictions, among the faithful of different religions.” Because in the end, she tells us, “We are all believers one God, even if we interpret Him differently. So why argue about this anymore?”
Shaddy: celebrating together
For Shaddy Makhlouf, born in Pennsylvania to a Catholic family of Palestinian (Nazareth) and Lebanese descent, a student at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, coexistence was never just theoretical.
“I grew up with Christian, Muslim and even Jewish friends,” he says. “For us there has never been a difference: my best friends celebrate Ramadan with me, and I celebrate Christmas with them. It is part of my life to be surrounded by people of different faiths and traditions.”
That’s why the Human Brotherhood Document is so important to Shaddy, who was very happy “to see the Pope and the Grand Imam sign with the same conviction,” because he believes “that all people are equal and should work together, be supportive, support each other, and respect each other's beliefs.”
‘We will send our guide to all universities’
Shaddy has worked in Haifa and Amman, and in the U.S. Senate. He organized an interfaith trip for 15 Georgetown students to Jerusalem, led by an imam, a priest, and a Jewish university lecturer. He is co-captain of Georgetown’s Arabic debate team and is active in Georgetown’s Catholic community.
Looking at what is happening in Gaza in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack on Israel, Shaddy emphasizes that the Document “advocates dialogue and tolerance in peace, but also calls for justice.” He calls for using the Document to build peace “not only in words, but also in deeds.”
He says the solidarity solutions guide being produced by the Human Fraternity Fellows Program will be sent to universities around the world. “It will highlight the problems college students face in interfaith dialogue,” he tells Vatican Media, “and propose solutions to overcome these obstacles.”
Plans to take human brotherhood to social media
The Human Brotherhood Fellows group, Sofia adds, will also use social media to share experiences and ideas with the international university world.
Ishan plans to leverage his knowledge in student organizations at other U.S. universities, but also to fill social media such as Instagram, Snapchat, X and YouTube videos with content that promotes the value of being human. He will first take the Document “to the different religious clubs on campus,” as well as to platforms such as the International Relations Club, which could open “a discussion on global human brotherhood as an issue of international relations, deepening the diplomacy aspect of faith.”
Finally, Aisha wants to boost her “House of Tolerance” Instagram project, where she documents her visits to different places of worship. “For example, if I go to a church in Australia, I take pictures, post them on social media and interact with people. I also visit different places of worship, take pictures of them and add them to this little project I started. Because I think we can use social media to our advantage and spread peace and harmony among all people.”
Vatican Media English Section staff contributed to this report
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