The Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) took part yesterday, in the conference on “The Sectarian World of Central Asia: Status, Risks and Methods of Resolution.” The Nursultan Nazarbayev Center for Development of Interfaith and Intercivilization Dialogue held the videoconference in Kazakhstan.
Several religious leaders and representatives of international organizations attended the conference to discuss pertinent issues on the prospects of inter-state relations in the sectarian field.

Ambassador Khalid Fathalrahman, Director of the Department of Dialogue and Cultural Diversity, and Dr. Sidra Tariq Jamil, communication expert at the same Department, represented ICESCO.
Ambassador Fathalrahman stressed that the tolerance that prevails in the majority of countries in the region is the result of long years of cultural coexistence. These countries were part of the former Soviet Union, and are all characterized by similar limited levels of development, he explained. The Ambassador stated that the continuity of coexistence largely depends on governments’ adoption of policies that take into account the ethnic and religious and multicultural diversity of the region.

During the conference, the Nursultan Nazarbayev Center for Development of Interfaith and Intercivilization Dialogue presented the various initiatives that Kazakhstan undertook to promote peace and harmony among societies and peoples of the world.