Tolerance is economic formula: Minister for tolerance

Abu Dhabi - She was speaking at the Aspen Ideas Forum, a two-day gathering of global thought leaders, held at the New York University in Abu Dhabi.

Tolerance is an economic formula that offers safety, security and growth opportunities to people, and not just a religious value, Sheikha Lubna Khalid Al Quasimi, UAE minister of State for Tolerance has said.
"Religion is just one aspect of tolerance. When you talk about tolerance, you may think this all about values. But in reality, it is an economic formula," said Sheikha Lubna. She was speaking at the Aspen Ideas Forum, a two-day gathering of global thought leaders, held at the New York University in Abu Dhabi.
"UAE is considered as one of the most tolerant societies of the world. We have more than 200 nationalities co-existing here. We have Hindu and Sikh temples.
We consider the diverse population as our partners. It is not just about us and not others. They have come here to invest in our economy. If they win, we win," said Sheikha Lubna.
Expanding on UAE's efforts to build a cohesive society, the minister of tolerance said, in the 70s when oil was discovered, the government's priority was to provide, education and free health to the population.  "But it was not good enough to create social welfare. Hence in the 80s, we started economic diversification. When you do that, you have the right people to come in; and not just come in and go, but stay. And we have some of the nationalities living here for three generations," said the minister of tolerance.
Safety and security and maintenance of the rule of law were a further drawing force that encouraged  people to come to the UAE.
But as religion got politicised, Sheikha Lubna said, the emirate had to introduce new strategies to promote tolerance and social cohesion. Establishing a national programme for tolerance is one such.
She said the main aim of the programme was to protect and institutionalize UAE's legacy of tolerance.
"But in today's world, the rhetoric has changed, There is too much negativity. There is a lot that can be influenced through social media."
Elaborating on UAE's efforts to combat religious radicalism, Sheikha Lubna said her ministry has a two-pronged approach. "One is to focus on delivering opportunities to the youth, whether it be education, innovation and research. We work in coordination with various organisations that have progammes to fight radicalization. The idea is to direct the youth to the proper meaning of Islam, and also to be able to understand that if someone is trying to sell the wrong idea to you, you have a right reference. The second thing we focus is to have cohesive families," said the minister.
The first day of the forum also saw global leaders like Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times,  Niall Ferguson, author of 14 books and senior fellow at Stanford University  and Tony Blair, former Prime Minister of Britain, discussing the impacts of populism and preventing a global 'system shock'.
 

• Abu Dhabi