King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue

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King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue
KAICIID
 

King Abdullah Center logo
English name King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue
status active
Seat of the organs Vienna , Austria
Secretary General Faisal bin Abdulrahman bin Muammar ( General Secretary )
founding

October 13, 2011

www.kaiciid.org
The Palais Sturany is the seat of the center

The King Abdullah Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) is an intergovernmental organization founded by Saudi Arabia , Austria and Spain in October 2011 . The Vatican is also approved as a founding observing member of the center. They receive regular reports on what is happening with the centre's funds. The central task of the center is to use dialogue as a means of avoiding and resolving conflicts around the world and to promote mutual understanding and cooperation. KAICIID works all over the world and has priority programs in Myanmar , Nigeria , the Central African Republic and in the Arab world .

The partner organizations of KAICIID at project level include the World Scout Organization , Caritas , the UN Alliance of Civilizations , the African Union , UNESCO , UNDP and the Organization of Islamic States (OIC). The KAICIID employees come from 29 different countries. Around 30% of the centre's employees come from Austria , 5% from Saudi Arabia and 4% from Spain . More than half of the workforce is female.

The center opened on November 27, 2012 in Vienna . On June 12, 2019, the Austrian National Council asked the Austrian Foreign Ministry to terminate the headquarters and establishment agreement for the King Abdullah Center.

history

On October 13, 2011, the contract for the establishment of the Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna was signed by the governments of Austria , Spain and Saudi Arabia .

The center itself was then opened on November 27, 2012 in the Palais Sturany in Vienna. Representatives of different religions took part in the opening ceremony. However, the celebration was overshadowed by protests by the Austrian Greens and numerous Austrian NGOs, who denounced the inadequate human rights situation in Saudi Arabia and expressed the fear that the KAICIID would be misused by Saudi Arabia to spread Wahhabism in Europe.

For example, extremism researcher Moussa Al-Hassan Diaw found xenophobic comments in Saudi Internet forums that the center, run by Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Jews, was a place for infidels. For Arabic studies professor Stephan Procházka at the Vienna Institute for Oriental Studies, the opening of the center represented a domestic political risk for King Abdullah. “After Saudi Arabia, you are not even allowed to take a Bible or a cross with you. For a Saudi king it is a break with tradition, almost a revolution ”.

On June 12, 2019, the Austrian National Council passed an initiative by a large majority in which the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asked to terminate the official seat and establishment agreement for the King Abdullah Center. A little later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it would implement the Parliament's decision and examine all the necessary legal steps. Some foreign policy observers commented critically on the parliamentary decision and spoke of an "incomprehensible change of heart". They were of the opinion that the relocation of an international organization would damage Austria's reputation as an international location. In this context, the Austrian journalist and Middle East expert Gudrun Harrer speaks in the daily newspaper " Der Standard " of a "ridiculous policy" and mentions that the Austrian approach in this case should serve as a warning to other international organizations in Vienna.

mission

The KAICIID, based in the Austrian capital Vienna , aims to promote interreligious and intercultural dialogue worldwide. The central task of the center is to bring together religious dignitaries and political decision-makers in order to jointly develop and subsequently implement multilateral initiatives for social cohesion and conflict resolution. KAICIID supports experts and organizations around the world who are active in this field.

According to KAICIID, the topics of human rights , justice , peace and, above all, the avoidance of abuse of religion as a means to justify oppression and violence are important to KAICIID .

partner

The KAICIID works with partner organizations around the world. These include, in particular, the UN Alliance of Civilizations , UNESCO , the African Union , UNDP , the United Nations Office for Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect, Religions for Peace and the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC). At the project level, the center also works with the World Scout Organization , the Red Cross and Caritas . Together with Caritas, the Red Cross and Human Relief as project partners, KAICIID developed the "Toolkit" for refugees, which should facilitate their integration in Austria. The toolkit offers extensive information on health services, training and further education opportunities as well as Austria's legal system.

Legal status

According to the agreement between the Republic of Austria and KAICIID, the center and its employees enjoy similar rights and privileges as an embassy . For example, the center is exempt from taxes and duties (Art. 10) and social security contributions (Art. 12) and, with a few exceptions, is not subject to Austrian jurisdiction (Art. 5). House searches at the headquarters also require the consent of the center (Art. 4).

Board of Directors

The members of its Board of Directors are:

Public criticism

The center hit the headlines in October 2014 when its deputy general secretary Claudia Bandion-Ortner made statements in an interview with the news magazine Profil that aroused fierce criticism in politics, the judiciary, the media and NGOs such as Amnesty International . When asked about public executions in Saudi Arabia, she replied: “It's not every Friday!” This statement was voted the 2014 Un-verdict . In January 2015, Bandion-Ortner's resignation from this function was announced - after a conversation with Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz .

After the Saudi Arabian blogger Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for allegedly “insulting Islam”, criticism of the center intensified because it failed to criticize the Saudi judgment. Both the verdict and the inactivity of the center outraged numerous Austrian politicians from the SPÖ , the Greens and the FPÖ, as well as numerous representatives of civil society , who have since been calling for the center to be closed. The Green held vigils for the release of Raif Badawi in front of the headquarters of the Dialog Center several times.

Liberal Muslims warn against the center and its structures, which they believe are opaque, as they see it as a gateway for radical Islamists.

Since the center is bound by a mandate that was given by the founding countries together with the Vatican, the organization does not express itself on political or social events in specific states.

Among the most prominent supporters of the center is the former Austrian President Heinz Fischer . It is not enough to say “at every opportunity”, “We are the bridge builders who force the dialogue” - and “when there is a bridge, such a prominent bridge that so many can cross, we stop and say, I will not cross this bridge ”, said Fischer in October 2019. The Viennese pastoral theologian Paul Zulehner described the possible closure of KAICIID in Vienna as a“ serious religious-political error ”.

See also

Web links

Commons : KAICIID Dialogue Center  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Christoph Zotter: A visit to the King's experiment. In: NZZ Austria . January 29, 2015, accessed June 27, 2017 .
  2. ↑ KAICIID Who we Are. Retrieved July 20, 2020 .
  3. ↑ KAICIID: KAICIID Annual Report 2019-2019. In: Annual Report. KAICIID, January 1, 2020, accessed on July 1, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Abdullah Center opened . In: orf.at . November 26, 2012. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  5. ^ Speech by Vice Chancellor Federal Minister Michael Spindelegger in the King Abdullah Center . Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs . Retrieved October 8, 2013.
  6. ^ Abdullah Center: Advertisement and protests at the opening . In: The press . November 26, 2012. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  7. ↑ Sudden end for the Abdullah Center . In: The press . June 12, 2019. Accessed June 14, 2019.
  8. ^ Gudrun Harrer: Discussion about Abdullah Center: Laughing Number Austria. In: The Standard. Daily newspaper Der Standard, June 30, 2019, accessed on July 1, 2020 (German).
  9. ^ Gudrun Harrer: Abdullah Zentrum withdraws: Vienna's gift to Geneva. Der Standard, June 19, 2020, accessed July 29, 2020 .
  10. ↑ what we do. Retrieved July 1, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Homepage KAICIID . Retrieved June 14, 2019.
  12. ↑ KAICIID: Our Partners. Retrieved July 29, 2020 .
  13. ↑ KAICIID: KAICIID's new, free toolkit contributes to a successful long-term integration in Europe. In: Austrian Press Agency APA. Retrieved July 29, 2020 .
  14. ↑ see RIS of the Federal Chancellery (website at www.ris.bks.gv.at, accessed on February 27, 2015)
  15. ^ The Board of Directors , at kaiciid.org. Retrieved June 18, 2015.
  16. ↑ profil.at : Interview with Claudia Bandion-Ortner on everyday life in Saudi Arabia: "Not every Friday is beheaded"
  17. ↑ Salzburger Nachrichten : OLG should examine the Bandion-Ortner cause
  18. ↑ orf.at : Council of Ministers: Outrage over Bandion-Ortner
  19. ↑ orf.at : Excitement about Bandion-Ortner
  20. ↑ diepresse.com: Anneliese Rohrer : Woman without shame - please contact Josef Pröll
  21. ↑ profil.at : Amnesty calls for "measures" against the Abdullah Center
  22. ↑ derStandard.at - "Situation elastic" is the word of the year . Article dated December 3, 2014, accessed December 3, 2014.
  23. ^ DerStandard.at - Abdullah Center: Bandion-Ortner resigns . Article from January 17, 2015, accessed on January 17, 2015.
  24. ↑ Nina Weissensteiner: Faymann on Abdullah Center: "We should get out" , Der Standard , January 16, 2015
  25. ^ Kurier : Green vigil in front of the Abdullah Center , 23 January 2014
  26. ^ AHVV Verlags GmbH .: Criticism of privileges: Liberal Muslims warn against King Abdullah Center. In: Today. Retrieved April 12, 2020 .
  27. ^ Initiative Liberal Muslims Austria - ILMÖ: King Abdullah Center as a gateway for radical Islamists? ILMÖ calls for increased vigilance from the Austrian authorities. Risk of infiltration into Austria by radical Wahabites and the Muslim Brotherhood. OTS, December 1, 2015, accessed April 10, 2016 .
  28. ↑ KAICIID Agreements. January 27, 2015, accessed on July 29, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Fischer defends appearance at Abdullah Center. In: ORF.at. ORF, accessed on July 29, 2020 (German).
  30. ↑ KAICIID-Aus would be a "serious religious policy error". In: Austrian Catholic News Agency. Retrieved July 29, 2020 .