The second day of the first International Conference "Towards a Culture of Interreligious Dialogue" will be completed on Wednesday, September 13, organized by Al Ma'arif University and the Lebanese Society for the Advancement of Science. On the second day of the conference, which was sponsored by Lebanese President Michel Aoun, the last two meetings (fourth and fifth) were held at the Lancaster Hotel in Beirut.The fourth session dealt with the issue of "dialogue institutions".

The fourth session dealt with the issue of “Institutions of Dialogue". Kerlys Bostros, Archbishop of Beirut of the Melkite Catholic, presided the session and introduced the keynote speakers, pointing out their academic and social work in society.

Dr Salim Dakash, President of the University of Saint Joseph, took the initiative to discuss the role of educational institutions in fleshing out the conditions for a sincere context of dialogue. He believed that the development of a culture of dialogue required having education holding the responsibility to institute a real co-existence among people of different religious backgrounds and free up a margin for free liberal thoughts. He also stressed the need to encourage graduate studies to address and solve issues and problems of dialogue as well as the necessity of raising up proactive cadres of youthful generation.

Professor George Qorm, the Former Minister, presented a different dimension of the dialogue argument by noting to the “ proactive role of youth institutions in a civil society" in creating a social fabric that transcends fanaticism and conflict as well developing an atmosphere of convergence and dialogue.

In his turn, Dr Ibrahim al-Moussawi, the researcher on the issues of political thought and media, addressed the role of media institutions in spreading out the culture of dialogue. He warned of the danger of employing media in mental colonization of peoples, which in effect would undermine the foundations of dialogue and interaction. He was supportive of the idea of having a media charter that could regulate media institutions particularly the recent media technologies, within a framework of common principles, policies and governance.

The fifth and final session of the international conference “Towards a Culture of Dialogue between Religions” dealt with the problem of "the Future of Dialogue" between Religions”. Sheikh Maher Hammoud, President of the World Union of Scholars of Resistance, chaired the session by describing the thematic development that each of the keynote speakers would like to focus on the way they would anticipate the future of the dialogue.

In the first intervention, Dr Ahmed Abdel Halim Attia, an Egyptian scholar and a member of the International Society of Islamic Philosophy, provided the ‘problematics’ of dialogue between religions and was the idea that there should be a distinction made with regard to the “dialogue of beliefs”, “dialogue of official institutions”, and “dialogues based on scientific research”. Such a distinction might be of great assistance to resolve the “problematic” with the aim to establish” a purposeful and common cosmic life that could embrace everyone”.

Dr Edgar Trabelsi, subsequently, presented a paper entitled "Culture of Dialogue in the Face of the Culture of Exclusion". He presented the challenges to our societies particularly when it came to finding the best method on how to conduct a dialogue that "could build an integrated community " as well as and equip it with the tools to "eradicate social sedition."

Dr Ali Reza B Niaz, President of the University of Mustafa International in Lebanon, conveyed at the start of the speech the best greetings of Dr Al A’arafi, President of the University of Mustafa International in Iran. The former stressed the critical significance of religions in playing an indispensable role in the "engineering of the human psyche". He contended that the human tragedy is common. Salvation could be obtained by "the unity of religions and their complementarity and acquaintance, that is, by participating collectively in the restoration of divine religious understanding as well as associating human behaviour with God's mercy.”

Finally, the two-morning sessions witnessed interesting and insightful interventions and questions by the audiences from all walks of life.

By the end of the two-day seminars, members of the organizers from Al Maaref University and the Lebanese Association for the Advancement of Science formed a committee to formulate the final recommendations of the Conference.