The defence of religious freedom serves to combat violent forms of extremism that use religion as a pretext for their own dissemination, Minister Giulio Terzi underscored as he opened an ISPI-sponsored international workshop on the promotion of religious freedom today at the foreign ministry in Rome, co-chaired by Italy and Jordan.
Italy’s guiding role in the UN
Extremists and radical groups, Terzi pointed out, “abuse religious messages for their own violent political ends”. On the contrary, “the battle is between those who wish to impose religion as a form of totalitarianism and those who wish to send a message of tolerance in order to build a modern society”, he underscored, recalling Italy’s continuing commitment to the cause of tolerance and dialogue, and its “guiding role” in the UN — which led in December to the adoption of two resolutions in defence of religious freedom — and the EU, where new guidelines on these matters are being drafted.
System comparisons and media’s role the workshop focus
Today’s conference, in which many students are participating, is attempting to analyse the resurgence of religion in international relations in terms of various aspects: the first, a comparison of various constitutional and legal systems; second, the role of religion in the cultural, economic and social contexts of various countries and geographic areas; third, the role of information, communications, networks and traditional media.
