tolerance

A diverse group of Christian and Muslim believers and international diplomats have met at a side event at the UN in Geneva in a celebration of diversity with key speakers shunning extremism and committing to tolerance as a gateway to peace.

The World Council of Churches General Secretary, the Rev Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, has urged an international, interreligious conference in Abu-Dhabi to use their religious influence and institutions to nurture tolerance and respect through the transcendent value and concrete practices of love.

More than 30 Church leaders from across Europe have signed a Christmas statement highlighting the plight of refugees, urging all nations and people to celebrate Christ's birth by working for a more welcoming and inclusive Europe.

The top United Nations rights official has warned political leaders who stoke fear and intolerance among their followers for the sake of their own ambitions are merely copying the behaviour of previous generations of once strong, but ultimately catastrophic, leaders and politicians.