CALL FOR PAPERS

On 12th February 2025, the Federal Cabinet of Pakistan approved a policy statement on “Interfaith Harmony” and a strategy on “Religious Tolerance”. Both initiatives are very timely and much needed, considering the diversity of different religious communities, the need for their active participation in society and various incidents motivated by religious hatred and extremism that we have witnessed in the recent past. The Government of Pakistan’s initiatives inspire us to make these documents the theme for this year’s conference and to discuss and determine various implementation steps through thorough discussions with stakeholders and academics.
The introduction to the policy refers to the “root causes of growing extremism in society” (p. 3). This conference will focus on two aspects of the issue of religious extremism. Firstly, it will examine the root causes of religious extremism. Secondly, it will seek practical ways and means to implement this new policy statement on interfaith harmony by suggesting concrete ways to prevent religious extremism.

SUB-THEMES:

The sub-themes and panel discussions will center around the “Policy on Interfaith Harmony” and the “Strategy of Religious Tolerance.” Research papers are invited on the following sub-themes: 
1.    Community Engagement for Promoting Religious Tolerance
2.    Legislative Measures and implementation of laws to curb hate speech (on print, electronic and social media) and discrimination. 
3.    Combating extremism by promoting religious pluralism
4.    Spirituality as a resource to counter religious extremism
5.    The role of educational institutions in reducing extremism and promoting religious tolerance. 
6.    Revising Curricula to address extremism and promote respect for all religions
7.    Tackling extremism with the assistance of AI
8.    Misinterpretation of religious texts and religious extremism
9.    Manipulating religious sentiments for political agendas
10.    Role of Law enforcement agencies in countering extremism

Language

Authors are encouraged to submit their manuscripts in English and Urdu in MS Word format only.