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Grassroots initiative faces uphill funding battle
Dino Patti Djalal (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)An ambitious interfaith movement to set up global discussions among grassroots leaders of the world’s Abrahamic religions is struggling to find sponsors, even though its initiators at the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) are convinced the idea would find success if it could be widely implemented
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Dino Patti Djalal (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
An ambitious interfaith movement to set up global discussions among grassroots leaders of the world’s Abrahamic religions is struggling to find sponsors, even though its initiators at the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) are convinced the idea would find success if it could be widely implemented.
The 1,000 Abrahamic Circles movement, which the FPCI introduced at the Paris Peace Forum in November last year, aims at bringing together religious leaders of the three Abrahamic traditions — Islam, Christianity and Judaism — from around the world in multiple groups called “circles” that promote interfaith dialogue.
Former Indonesian diplomat and FPCI founder Dino Patti Djalal said the initiative had garnered wide praise in its presentation at the Paris event, but was eventually foiled by a lack of funding, preventing it from gaining traction.
“Where are we at now? We are still struggling to make this a reality. We have a great concept and it has achieved international recognition, but we are still looking for sponsors,” Dino said in a recent interview with The Jakarta Post.
Under the initiative, grassroots representatives from at least 38 countries are encouraged to convene in discussion circles in an effort to reduce tensions and understand dogmatic differences.
The initiative expects religious figures from the Islamic, Christian and Jewish traditions to spend at least one week taking turns to stay with hosts of a different background, in an effort to understand each other’s religious values.
These figures are selected from countries that often deal with interreligious tension, particularly among followers of the three Abrahamic faiths.
Representatives come from all over the world, including the Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Germany, Malaysia, the Philippines, Pakistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and several Middle Eastern countries.
Previously, Dino and his fellow initiators had expressed hope of kicking off the movement in mid-2020 with seed funding for 15 circles. He did not reveal the cost for each circle.
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"We have a great concept and it has achieved international recognition..."
Among those who have officially expressed an interest in sponsoring two of the circles is the Danish government, Dino said.
Additionally, Dino said his team was trying to reach out to several other governments including those of China, the United Arab Emirates, Germany and France.
A spokesperson from the Danish Embassy in Jakarta confirmed Copenhagen’s interest, saying that representatives of the government had held meetings with Dino’s side.
“We have not signed an agreement yet but it is in the process,” the embassy’s political affairs counselor, Elsebeth Sondergaard Krone, told the Post on Monday.
The Danish government’s decision to sponsor the initiative, Krone continued, owed to its own belief in the effectiveness of interfaith dialogue — which the initiative aims at achieving — and that it was “a good way of supporting tolerance and peace”.
Previously, Dino said the 1,000 Abrahamic Circles movement was initiated to encourage religious leaders to take part in peace building efforts at the grassroots, as such figures are believed to have more influence in society than leaders at the national or global level.
While Indonesia has hosted many interfaith dialogues that involve religious leaders from around the world, Dino said they usually involved figures who were affiliated with government or mainstream religious organizations.
He said these larger-scale efforts rarely got exposed to the pious masses at the grassroots, which in the purview of interfaith dialogue misses the mark because it does little to impact the public in general.
Besides funding, the movement also faces other challenges in its implementation, which includes finding and selecting participants who meet the strict requirements set out by the FPCI. Dino said the initiators wanted to involve religious leaders who could remain open minded in spite of their fanaticism.
“They must also have an abundance of followers at the grassroots, be able to communicate well and have true intentions to promote interfaith dialogue,” he said.
The initiators were also trying to figure out how to create a good environment for women participants. “We have to make sure that the men in these circles themselves don’t mind living with women participants and that the local community can accept it too.”
