NEW YORK: The number of people fleeing their countries, as refugees or migrants, has reached a staggering 65.3 million.

At the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly, interfaith leaders also came to New York to chart a role for the interfaith community to help refugees.
King Abdullah International Center for Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Dialogue (KAICIID) organized, together with the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention, the World Council of Churches and the permanent missions of Italy and Spain, a consultation session under the title: “Bearing Witness: Combating Human Trafficking and Forced Migration.”
During the session, KAICIID announced a new initiative to help refugees in Europe.
KAICIID Secretary-General Faisal bin Muaammar told Arab News that the objective of the new initiative is to assist the Arab refugees in Europe.
“Our mission is to help thousands of refugees during this difficult transition by providing them with skills of dialogue, integration and coexistence because without these skills they will face a serious culture shock,” he said.
He said that European countries welcomed this initiative as their personnel who are helping the refugees are facing many difficulties because they are not familiar with the culture of these refugees.
That is why KAICIID’s initiative will provide cultural training to the Westerners who are dealing the refugees.
As such, KAICIID would be providing invaluable assistance to both refugees and host countries, and will serve as a cultural bridge.
One special focus of the KAICIID initiative is to activate the role of the religious leaders in solving the refugees’ problems especially women and girls. "We will provide training for them to raise their skills in holding a dialogue and their awareness of the events around them,” he said.
KAICIID will train both Muslim and non-Muslim refugees.
“We have to explain to the refugees and the personnel of the host countries that terrorism is against religion and that those who commit terrorist acts do not represent Islam, which calls for peace,” he said.
KAICIID has started training some cadres in Vienna in preparation for sending them to different European countries.
The UN conference is an opportunity to build partnerships with other international interfaith organizations to carry out the initiative.
The conference was attended by 300 interfaith and refugee activists from around the world.
He stressed the role of religious and interfaith leaders in building bridges between the refugees and the communities in the host countries.
KAICIID has been operating for four years now and the most important achievement is obtaining international recognition for highlighting the importance of dialogue between the followers of the different faiths and cultures.
“When we first started, people thought dialogue was not necessary, but as time passed, it became clear that dialogue between the adherents of different culture and faiths is an essential tool in solving regional and international problems. Now we are working on international level to avoid a clash of civilizations,” he said.
“It is clear that we are now living in a global village that is connected as never before because of the social media. Each person now can act as an editor in chief for himself or herself, and it is imperative for every one of us to reach out to the others and promote coexistence because this is the only way to achieve peace in the world,” he said, stressing that one of the biggest challenges before the world community today is to support the refugees.