Bangladesh has highlighted the prevailing religious harmony in Bangladesh at the United Nations (UN), as the global body observes inter-faith harmony week.
Speaking at an event held at the UN Headquarters titled “Addressing hate speech and preventing incitement to discrimination, hostility and violence: Synergies within the United Nations system” on Tuesday, Bangladesh's Permanent Mission at the UN, Ambassador Rabab Fatima described how the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians in the country are cohabiting in harmony and peace.
The program was a part of observance of the “Inter-Faith Harmony Week,” organized by the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect this with Bangladesh, Morocco and Italy as cosponsors.
Meanwhile, a special adviser to the UN secretary general has praised the recent decision of Bangladesh to allow the Rohingya children at the camps in Cox's Bazar to be formally educated.
Quoting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s statement that religion is one’s own; but festivals are for everyone, Ambassador Fatima shared how Bangladesh has been leveraging the place of religious leaders and teachers in society to guard against misuse of religion and spread of hatred, intolerance and violence.
In this context she cited some examples of involving religious leaders, places of worship and religious organizations and highlighted Bangladesh's “zero tolerance” policy towards terrorism and violent extremism.
"While adopting a ‘whole-of-society’ approach in our efforts, we have also included de-radicalization and counter-terrorism issue in school curriculum," she added.
Ambassador Fatima focused on Bangladesh’s multilateral engagements in preventing the violent extremism and propagating inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue as the proponent of Bangladesh’s signature resolution on Culture of Peace.
She cited the ongoing Rohingya crisis while providing some suggestions on the issue of encouraging the ongoing initiatives at the UN, including the Plans of Action to counter hate speech.
Adama Dieng, the UN secretary general's Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, moderated the event.
In his concluding remarks, Dieng praised Bangladesh's decision to initiate formal education for the Rohingya population in the camps in Cox’s Bazar.
A large number of Member States and civil society organizations attended the event.
