January 12, 2011 - ADIC Egypt - First Board of Directors Meeting

Eng. Khalid Rabei, executive director NOKIA-Siemens; Mrs. Ghada Gharib, international relations manager ADIC Egypt; Ms. Ghada Khalil, international manager NEXOS Allianza; Eng. Naguib Sawiris, CEO Orascom; Dr. Munir Fakhri Abdel Nour, minister of tourism and secretary general of Wafd Party; Dr. Zeinab Radwan, professor of Islamic philosophy University of Fayoum and former parliamentarian; Dr. Aly El-Samman, president ADIC; Mr. Enrique Gaspar, president NEXOS Allianza

Cairo (12-1-2011) On October 16, 2010, ADIC finalized the registration of its official office in Cairo under the Egyptian NGO law. A number of prominent members of Egyptian society, Muslim and Copt, have since joined ADIC Egypt in order to participate in local intercultural and interfaith activities.

The first meeting of the board of directors was held in Cairo on January 12, 2011, during which the folowing proposals for improving relations between the two communities were approved.

A proposal by Naguib Sawiris, chairman of ORASCOM:

1. To publish a study describing the elements common among the three monotheistic religions to be prepared by leading scholars from each religion. Supported by quotations from the Qur’an, the Bible, and the Torah, the study would then be approved by the highest authorities of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism authority so to deflect any criticism of its content. The study would serve as an important tool for those seeking to defend the truth about religions other than their own.

Two proposals by Dr. Zeinab Radwan, professor of Islamic philosophy at the University of Fayoum and former parliamentarian:

1. To publish the study that Dr. Radwan prepared detailing specific mistakes in the Egyptian public school textbooks used for religious classes, both in the way that the Islamic texts portray Christians, and vice-versa. This study would then be used in a campaign to persuade the Ministry of Education to correct the textbooks for both religions.
2. To publish and distribute the “Oteify Report”, which was produced by a joint Muslim-Coptic parliamentary committee in 1972 to determine the causes of sectarian strife in Egypt. At the time, President Sadat praised the committee’s work and stated, “There is no politics in religion and no religion in politics.”

A proposal by Dr. Aly El-Samman, president of ADIC, to implement the agreement between ADIC Egypt and NEXOS Allianza signed in Madrid on June 28, 2010, including:
1. To hold regular meetings of young people from different races and religions, in rotation between the north of the Mediterranean in the city of Cordoba as a symbol of coexistence between religions, and in the southern Mediterranean in Alexandria, a capital of civilization.
2. To hold a joint conference in Paris between ADIC Egypt and ADIC France about Jerusalem entitled, “Memory and Reconciliation in Jerusalem.”