global message on Bahraini experience in promoting peaceful
coexistence among various religions and sects. The history of the
Kingdom of Bahrain has always been characterized by religious
coexistence in harmony, where all residents practice their faiths,
religions, and beliefs freely. In 2017, the Kingdom of Bahrain held
unique events in order to familiarize the world with Bahrain's model
of religious freedom and peaceful coexistence throughout the
centuries; “King Hamad's Global Centre for Interfaith Dialogue and
Peaceful Co-existence” was launched in Los Angeles; and the “King
Hamad Chair in Inter-Faith Dialogue and Peaceful Co-existence.” was
launched at the Sapienza University in Rome.
7.4
The Kingdom of Bahrain is firmly committed to the protection of
religious freedoms and respect for pluralism in its intellectual,
cultural, and religious diversity, as an ideal means of preserving the
specificity and status of the Kingdom of Bahrain as the home of love
and peace. To this end, the “Cathedral of Our Lady of Arabia”, the
largest church in the Arabian Peninsula, is being constructed on a land
donated by His Majesty the King and will be erected next to a new
mosque. This is a clear evidence of the Kingdom's desire to retain its
status and to expand it as a leading source of religious freedom and
peaceful coexistence in the region.
7.5
The NIHR calls for the need to rationalize the religious discourse whatever its source is - and to refrain from advocating the hateful
poison of sectarianism, or what can be interpreted as incitement to
encourage violence, and to direct it towards nurturing the spirit of
Parallel Report by the National Institution for Human Rights of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the Human Rights Committee © 2018
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