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What is religion and belief?

Belief is a land of the mind when we consider something truthful even though nosotros are non 100% certain or able to bear witness it. Everybody has behavior about life and the world they experience. Mutually supportive beliefs may course belief systems, which may be religious, philosophical or ideological.
Religions are belief systems that relate humanity to spirituality. The following definition from Wikipedia provides a good overview of the many dimensions of organized religion:
Organized religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions take narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to explicate the origin of life or the universe. They tend to derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle from their ideas about the cosmos and human being nature. […] Many religions have organised behaviours, clergy, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, congregations of laity, regular meetings or services for the purposes of veneration of a deity or for prayer, holy places (either natural or architectural), and/or scriptures. The practice of a faith may also include sermons, commemoration of the activities of a god or gods, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture. However, at that place are examples of religions for which some or many of these aspects of structure, belief, or practices are absent.¹

Behavior in the spiritual dimension of life have existed since time immemorial. Many human societies accept left us historical evidence of their systems of belief, whether it was worship of the sun, of gods and goddesses, cognition of good and evil or of the sacred. Stonehenge, the Bamiyan Buddhas, the Almudena Cathedral in Madrid, Uluru at Alice Springs, the Bahá'í Gardens of Haifa, Fujiyama, the sacred mount of Japan, Kaaba in Saudi arabia or the Golden Temple in Amritsar all acquit testament to the human experience of spirituality, which may be an objective reality or a result of the human yearning for an explanation of the significant of life and our role in the world.
In the simplest sense, organized religion describes "the relationship of man beings to what they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual or divine".² Information technology is usually accompanied by a set of organised practices which foster a community of people who share that faith. Every bit discussed above, belief is a broader term and information technology too includes "commitments which deny a dimension of existence across this world".^three

Religions and other belief systems in our environment have an influence on our identity, regardless of whether nosotros consider ourselves religious or spiritual or non. At the aforementioned time, other parts of our identity, our history, our approach to other religions and groups considered "different" volition influence how we interpret that religion or belief organization.

Question: What religions are practised in your country?

Religions and related social and cultural structures have played an important office in human history. As mental structures, they influence the way we perceive the world effectually us and the values we accept or reject. As social structures, they provide a supporting network and a sense of belonging. In many cases, religions have get the basis of power structures and have go intertwined with information technology. History, remote and contempo, is full of examples of "theocratic" states, be they Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jewish or other. The separation between state and organized religion is still recent and but partly applied: at that place are official state religions in Europe and de facto state religions. In most cases this does not pose a particular problem every bit long equally it is tempered past values of tolerance.

Statistics on organized religion or belief adherents can never be very accurate, because the dynamic nature of this design likewise every bit the fact that many people amongst us alive in contexts where liberty of organized religion and belief is not enjoyed. The statistics below are, therefore, intended to exemplify the multifariousness of the global flick. The figures indicate the estimated number of adherents of the largest religions^four:

African Traditional and Diasporic:	100 one thousand thousand
Baha'i:	7 million
Buddhism:	376 1000000
Cao Dai:	four million
Chinese traditional faith:	394 million
Christianity:	ii.1 billion
Hinduism:	900 one thousand thousand
Islam:	i.5 billion
Jainism:	4.2 million
Judaism:	14 million
Neo-Paganism:	1 1000000
Primal-ethnic (tribal religionists, ethnic religionists, or animists):	300 million
Rastafarianism:	600 one thousand
Shinto:	4 million
Sikhism:	23 milllion
Spiritism:	fifteen million
Tenrikyo:	ii million
Unitarian-Universalism:	800 thousand
Zoroastrianism:	2.6 1000000

The number of secular, not-religious, agnostic and atheists is estimated at 1.1 billion.

Question: Which religions are missing in this listing?

Unlike religions and behavior have long existed in the European region as well. In some historical periods, Europe has provided refuge to persecuted religious groups and allowed a diversity of religions and beliefs to flourish. At other times, nonetheless, European countries accept fallen prey to fanaticism and been engrossed in "religious wars", such as the Xxx Years State of war of 1618-1648 that led to the slaughter of ane-third of the continent's population.
The misuse, or abuse, of religious arguments has led to the justification of painful conflicts and wars, persecutions and intolerance. Regardless of how we empathize these historical legacies, a broad range of religions and beliefs exist in Europe and they have and keep to have an impact on our societies. In this way, faith and belief are important factors to consider in relation to immature people and youth piece of work considering, directly or indirectly, they have an bear upon on young people'due south identity and sense of belonging.

Freedom of faith or belief in human rights instruments

Everyone has the right to liberty of thought, conscience and religion; this correct includes liberty to modify his faith or conventionalities, and freedom, either alone or in customs with others and in public or private, to manifest his organized religion or conventionalities in teaching, practise, worship and observance.
Universal Declaration of Human being Rights, Article 18

This was after confirmed in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well equally in several regional bounden human rights documents, such every bit the African Charter on Human and People's Rights (Article eight) or the European Convention on Man Rights and Cardinal Freedoms (Commodity 9).
The UN Human Rights Committee emphasises that this freedom is "far-reaching and profound", that it "encompasses freedom of thought on all matters, personal conviction and the delivery to religion or belief, whether manifested individually or in community with others", that the liberty for conscience should be equal to that for religion and belief and that protection is for "theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right non to profess any religion or conventionalities".⁵ Accordingly, any serious belief or conviction – whether a person is Sikh, against hunting, pacifist, Mormon, vegan or ideologically driven by activism against climate change – can exist protected within this right.

This freedom in international law was historically focused on the religious liberty of minority communities. Today, laws securing freedom of religion and belief are no longer focused on the demand to maintain the condition quo in lodge not to undermine regional security, just spotlight a number of concerns including non-discrimination, equality and dignity. Championing this freedom has societal every bit well as individualist rationales, assuasive people the scope to (openly) seek, (vigorously) talk over and (freely) uphold the behavior that they cull, lonely or along with others. Achieving an enabling surroundings for this freedom requires non merely non-interference on the grounds of religion or conventionalities past the land but positive measures to be taken to reach and maintain such an environment in lodge at large. In do, this should include, for example, the possibility to make bachelor places of worship or to provide moral and religious education.

Question: Are you a member of whatever religious community? How did y'all get involved?

Equally with all other human rights, this liberty does not "trump" other freedoms and it sometimes finds itself in tension with other human rights, such as freedom of stance and expression and freedom from discrimination on the grounds of sex or sexual orientation. This is reflected for example in the manner Article 9 of the European Convention on Human rights is structured: there is an accented protection of the correct to religious belief, censor and thought, but the manifestations merely bask a qualified protection in so far as they practice not violate other homo rights.

European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

Article ix
one.  Anybody has the right to freedom of idea, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to alter his religion or belief, and freedom,
either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.
2.  Freedom to manifest one's religion or behavior shall be subject merely to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic
gild in the interests of public safety, for the protection of public gild, health or morals, or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Freedom of faith and conventionalities – including freedom to change religion – is essential to all of united states, in our search for meaning, our total development, our identity and our expression equally members of a community or communities. Whether we have a firm organized religion or conventionalities, whether we are undecided, or even if we do not really care much for organized religion or belief, this freedom matters to people and the societies they build.

^{Are there any communities in your country that do not enjoy the same level of liberty of religion and belief as others?}

Challenges to and violations of the liberty of religion or belief

Throughout religious history, many religious and societal features have been embedded in the surroundings where a particular religion was practised, and they are reflected in culture and politics. Many pieces of literature, poesy, fine art and music, apparel codes and ways of organising life together have been drawn from religions. Religion has made a stiff imprint on culture, which tin can be seen, for case, on holy days, at feasts, in marriage ceremonies, burying practices, pilgrimages, the wearing of religious symbols (e.g. jewellery or dress codes), or in physical alterations to the body, such as male person circumcision.
The influence of religions may become even stronger when nations adopt a country religion or religious credo. In such situations, religion and religious arguments may go dislocated with the political, economic or social reasoning.

The extent to which freedom of thought, conscience and religion allow distinctive practices of a community of believers to diverge from those of the rest of the society is often debated inside the human rights community. Examples of this include attitudes towards women in religious leadership positions, traditional ceremonies involving children, laws surrounding marriage, divorce or burying, prohibition on the delineation of divine beings or other religious figures, and and then on.

In such contexts, the homo rights bodies would criticise harmful practices, regardless of whether they were traditionally condoned by detail cultures, nations or religions. Such criticism is not an assail on civilisation, nationality or organized religion but an attempt to strike a residue betwixt the right to i's religions and conventionalities and other human rights, since several of these practices can event in serious human rights abuse. Harmful traditional practices include female genital mutilation, son-preference (which can manifest itself in sex-selective abortion, declining to care for newborn girls, discrimination in education in favour of sons, discrimination in diet), arranged or forced marriages, spousal relationship of children, dowry-related crimes and crimes justified by "honour", exclusion or limitation of some rights of non-adherents to a more powerful religious group in a given community, segregation according to religious lines, and so on. Such practices unduly impact women and children: invoking tradition is used to justify discrimination on the basis of gender and age. Furthermore, in several cases, situations which, from a man rights perspective, are a violation of human dignity, remain unrecognised, taboo and unpunished. Few of these practices are based on religious precepts; the fact that they are securely anchored in civilisation and tradition practise not make ending them any easier. Changes have to come through legislative change, education and empowerment.
Throughout history, religions have played a crucial role in imposing limitations on man action in order to protect the concrete and psychological integrity or dignity of other people. However, even though religious philosophies accept contributed to the development of a censor of human rights and nobility, the homo rights related to religion and belief are no more exempt from the tensions and contradictions that are nowadays in human rights instruments, than are other rights. Equally seen in the case of harmful traditional practices, sometimes convictions or beliefs are used to justify outright concrete harm with severe wellness consequences.

Question: Are there religious practices in your community/ies that y'all consider harmful?

Discrimination and intolerance
on grounds of faith or belief

Religious intolerance can be observed at different levels: among adherents of the aforementioned organized religion (intra-religious intolerance); between i religion or religious attitude and another, manifesting itself in various forms of conflicts between persons and groups of persons (inter-religious intolerance); in the form of confrontational atheism or confrontational theism, which are intolerant of free pick and exercise of other religions or conventionalities commitments; or in the form of anti-secularism. Religious intolerance is often confused with xenophobia and other forms of discrimination; sometimes information technology is also used to justify discrimination.
Nearly human being rights violations related to freedom of religion and belief are also related to freedom from discrimination. Discrimination on the grounds of religion and belief is reverse to human being rights simply it is yet experienced daily past many people across Europe. The fact that religion and belief are often dislocated with civilization, nationality and ethnicity makes information technology more complicated but also more than painful on an individual level: you may be discriminated against on the grounds of religious amalgamation even if y'all happen not to believe in the religion you lot are associated with.

Discrimination and intolerance impact negatively on society as a whole, and specially on young people who feel information technology. Such effects include:

• Depression self-esteem
• Self-segregation
• Internalised oppression
• Disengagement from school activities
• Non-fulfilment of their potential
• Attraction to violent extremist ideologies
• School drop-out
• Health problems / low^half-dozen

Religious intolerance is likewise used to feed hatred in, and to contribute to, armed conflicts, not so much because it is the cause of conflict but considering religious belonging is used to draw dividing lines, as armed conflicts in the Balkans and Caucasus demonstrate. The consequences of international terrorism and the "wars on terrorism" have been especially devastating in Europe and beyond, notably considering religious intolerance becomes mixed with xenophobia and racism.
No unmarried social group, organized religion or community has the monopoly of discrimination. Even though the levels of protection of the freedom of religion and belief vary significantly across the member states of the Council of Europe, religious intolerance and discrimination affects everyone in Europe.

Intolerance and bigotry
against Muslims (Islamophobia)

Of detail concern in several European countries is the ascension of Islamophobia, the fear and hatred of Islam, resulting in discrimination against Muslims or people associated with Islam. Islam is the virtually widespread faith in Europe afterward Christianity and the bulk organized religion in various member states of the Council of Europe. The hostility towards Islam as a faith and to Muslim people, particularly following the "wars on terror", has revealed deep-rooted prejudices against Muslims in many European societies. With the perception of the religion of Islam as being associated simply with terrorism and extremism, Islamophobia has contributed to negative views of Islam and Muslims, wrongly generalising militant religious extremism and ultra-conservatism onto all Muslim countries and Muslim people. This intolerance and stereotyped view of Islam has manifested itself in a number of means, ranging from verbal or written abuse of Muslim people, bigotry at schools and workplaces, and psychological harassment or pressure, to outright violent attacks on mosques and individuals, particularly women who wear headscarves.⁷ In this context, mass-media has played a part, offering at times representations of Muslim people which were distorted, if not outright stereotyped and defamatory.
Like other victims of discrimination grounded on religious affiliation, discrimination against Muslims may overlap with other forms of discrimination and xenophobia, such as anti-immigrant sentiments, racism and sexism.

Six recurring prejudices nigh Muslims

All the aforementioned:

Muslims are seen equally all being much the aforementioned as each other, regardless of their nationality, social form and political outlook, and of whether they are observant in their beliefs and exercise.
All are motivated past religion: It is idea that the unmarried most important thing about Muslims, in all circumstances, is their religious religion. So, if Muslims appoint in violence, for example, information technology is assumed that this is because their religion advocates violence.
Totally "other": Muslims are seen as totally "other": they are seen as having few if whatever interests, needs or values in common with people who do not have a Muslim background.
Culturally and morally inferior: Muslims are seen as culturally and morally inferior and prone to existence irrational and violent, intolerant in their handling of women, contemptuous towards world views unlike from their own, and hostile and resentful towards "the Due west" for no good reason.
Threat: Muslims are seen as a security threat, in tacit or open up sympathy with international terrorism and aptitude on the "Islamisation" of the countries where they alive.
Co-functioning is incommunicable: Every bit a consequence of the previous five perceptions, it is claimed that there is no possibility of active partnership between Muslims and people with different religious or cultural backgrounds.
Guidelines for Educators on Countering Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims, OSCE/ODIHR, Council of Europe and UNESCO.

Anti-Christian sentiments (Christianophobia)

Christianophobia refers to every form of discrimination and intolerance against some or all Christians, the Christian organized religion, or the practice of Christianity. Like other forms of discrimination based on religion, the perpetrators may be people from other religions – frequently the bulk religions – as much as secular institutions. Hostility confronting Christians manifests itself in attacks against places of worship, verbal abuse and, especially in countries where Christians are a minority, restrictions on edifice and sometimes preserving churches or monasteries.
Particularly worrying is the rising in attacks confronting Christians in the Eye East. A recommendation of the Parliamentary Assembly on this thing calls, amidst other things, for the need to "raise sensation about the need to combat all forms of religious fundamentalism and the manipulation of religious beliefs for political reasons, which are and then often the crusade of present day terrorism. Education and dialogue are two important tools that could contribute towards the prevention of such evils"⁸.

Question: Have you e'er experienced whatever bias towards yous considering of your religion or conventionalities? How did you react?

Antisemitism

Antisemitism – hostility towards Jews as a religious or minority group frequently accompanied by social, economical, and political discrimination – is an instance of the combination of racism and religious bigotry. Even though the straight targets of antisemitism are Jewish people, the motivation for discrimination and violence is not necessarily based on Judaism as a religion merely on Jews equally a people.
Reports from human being rights organisations regularly state an alarming ascent in the number of antisemitic attacks accompanied, in some countries, past the rise of openly antisemitic speech in the political arena. Events include attacks against Jewish schools, "while Jewish pupils were assaulted, harassed, and injured in growing numbers on their way to and from school or in the classroom, including by their classmates. Educators report that the term "Jew" has go a popular swearword among youngsters."⁹ Rather than being confined to extremist circles, Antisemitism is thus increasingly being mainstreamed.
In its Recommendation No. 9 on the fight against Antisemitism, adopted in 2004, the European Commission Confronting Racism and Intolerance recommends, amongst others, member states to ensure that criminal police force penalises antisemitic acts such as:
public incitement to violence, hatred, discrimination, public insults, defamation and threats aimed at a person or a grouping of persons on the grounds of their actual or presumed Jewish identity or origin
the public expression, with an antisemitic aim, of an ideology which depreciates or denigrates a group of persons on the grounds of their Jewish identity or origin
the public denial, trivialisation, justification or condoning, of the Shoah and of crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes committed against persons on the grounds of their Jewish identity or origin
the desecration and profanation, with an antisemitic aim, of Jewish holding and monuments
the creation or the leadership of a group which promotes Antisemitism.

Religious intolerance and discrimination is non limited to Antisemitism, Christianophobia or Islamophobia. Among the many forms of discrimination is the non-recognition of some religions and the departure of treatment between them. Religions and systems of belief can thus exist banned, persecuted or closely controlled because of their alleged "sectarian" nature or their irrelevance on the grounds of being "insignificant".
It is important to recall that liberty of religion and belief includes the right to change religion and the right not to adhere to, or declare, a organized religion.

Question: What happens if y'all decide to adopt a religion different from your family and community?

Despite the growing and widespread manifestations of religious intolerance, it is important to bear in mind that organized religion and man rights are perfectly compatible and that merely a human being rights framework tin can secure liberty of organized religion and conventionalities for all.
The history of Europe is, indeed, total of examples of violence and barbarity in the name of religion. These acts have been and are being committed by men and women, not commanded by religious precepts, just by people.
Fortunately, the history and the reality of our globe is too a living evidence of the optimism of religious variety: no single gild is mono-religious and no unmarried system of thought has ever prevailed, fifty-fifty nether the most extreme forms of totalitarianism. Furthermore, the examples of people accepting each other despite religious difference, and often united in diversity, are many more than those of intolerance.

The work of the Council of Europe

The Council of Europe, White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue "Living Together as Equals in Nobility" (2008) recognises that a range of religious and secular conceptions of life have enriched the cultural heritage of Europe and notes the importance of inter-religious, intra-religious and other dialogue for the promotion of agreement betwixt different cultures. It also emphasises that the Council of Europe "would remain neutral towards the various religions whilst defending the freedom of idea, censor and organized religion, the rights and duties of all citizens, and the respective autonomy of state and religions".¹⁰
Promoting religious tolerance and inter-faith dialogue is likewise ane of the priorities of the Council of Europe's youth policy. A number of events organised under the All Different – All Equal campaign in 2007-2008 developed recommendations and action plans for promoting inter-religious dialogue in European youth work, including the Istanbul Youth Declaration on Inter-Religious and Intercultural Dialogue in Youth Work¹², and the Kazan Action Plan¹³. All of these documents stress the crucial role of young people and youth organisations in contributing to the change towards religious tolerance.

The sphere of teaching may be a platform for tensions of human rights related to organized religion and belief, every bit in cases where the educational content has been criticised every bit limiting the liberty of religion and belief, or in cases where religious symbols used past schools or by students have resulted in conflicts. At the same fourth dimension, education is also 1 of the almost important spheres of life where stereotypes and prejudices can be counteracted. In this spirit, ODIHR, the Council of Europe and UNESCO published the Guidelines for Educators on Countering Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims.¹⁴ This document is intended to support teachers, instructor trainers, didactics policy experts as well as not-governmental organisations active in the field of non-formal education in their piece of work confronting Islamophobia.

Religion and belief at the European Court of Human Rights

Folgerø and others v. Kingdom of norway (2007)

Parents successfully appealed to the court in Strasbourg to avert mandatory religious classes of one particular denomination of Christianity. The court institute that the land was in violation of Commodity 2 of Protocol no. ane, which reads, "No person shall be denied the right to education. In the practice of any functions which it assumes in relation to education and to teaching, the Country shall respect the right of parents to ensure such didactics and teaching in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions".

Lautsi v. Italian republic (2011)
Ms Lautsi's children attended a country school where all the classrooms had a crucifix on the wall, which she considered opposite to the principle of secularism by which she wished to bring up her children. She complained before the Courtroom that this was in breach of Article 9 (freedom of thought, censor and organized religion) and of Article two of Protocol No. 1 (right to education).
The Courtroom constitute no violation; it held in particular that the question of religious symbols in classrooms was, in principle, a matter falling within the margin of appreciation of the state, provided that decisions in that expanse did not atomic number 82 to a form of indoctrination and there was nothing to suggest that the authorities were intolerant of pupils who believed in other religions, were not-believers or who held non-religious philosophical convictions.

Ercep v. Turkey (2011)
This case concerned the refusal by the applicant, a Jehovah'south Witness and conscientious objector, to perform military service for reasons of conscience and his successive convictions for that reason.
The Court found a violation of Article ix and a violation of Article 6 (right to a fair trial). It
invited Turkey to enact legislation concerning conscientious objectors and to introduce an alternative form of service.

The Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities also protects faith as an element of the identity of minorities, "The Parties undertake to promote the conditions necessary for persons belonging to national minorities to maintain and develop their culture, and to preserve the essential elements of their identity, namely their religion, language, traditions and cultural heritage" (Article five) and prohibits forced assimilation.

Youth work and religion and belief

Religion is an outcome that many young people deal with in their daily lives at home, in public, at piece of work or at school. Youth work can help to make religious differences a factor of cultural enrichment for young people instead of being a source of confrontation, especially through the lenses of mutual understanding, tolerance and credence of difference.

Whether working at a local, regional or international level, youth workers need to be aware of the potential part and influence of organized religion and belief on the process of any given activity, as well equally on the planned objectives of the action. Accepting diverseness is a good starting point; building on diversity every bit a source of strength is an excellent manner to keep. A growing number of youth organisations are actively working in the field of inter-religious dialogue, promoting a dialogue betwixt equals, and beingness cocky-critical of their ain religious traditions, with the aim of increasing understanding.

Taking into consideration differences of conventionalities and practice within the group, before and during the activity, can contribute to a better atmosphere in the group from the start. Knowing nigh some of the rituals and practices of dissimilar religions can be very useful and important for the good performance and success of youth events. Consideration of dietary laws, places and times for prayer, the religious calendar and daily practices of unlike religious groups (e.g. the Sabbath, Friday prayers, Ramadan, Sunday celebrations, holidays) might help the organisers of youth activities provide a respectful and peaceful atmosphere as well equally avoid problems of travel and of timing and efficiency of activities. The particularities of the place of the activity and the expectations of the hosting environment are every bit important, in society to show respect for the needs of the group participants.
A degree of sensitivity towards religious multifariousness inside the group would create a sure positive and motivating attitude and curiosity towards the religious practices and beliefs of others. This might also aid to promote mutual respect and understanding, while helping to overcome any strong prejudices related to religious beliefs and practices.

Question: What importance does religious tolerance have in your work with young people?

There is a large corporeality of youth work that is organized religion-based, and there are many organized religion-based youth organisations. The Council of Europe'southward youth sector works closely with a multifariousness of international youth organisations that are faith-based and encourages co-operation amidst them. Study sessions and training activities at the European Youth Centre regularly include organisations such as:

• Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe
• European Alliance of YMCAs
• European Baha'i Youth Council
• European Fellowship of Christian Youth
• European Matrimony of Jewish Students
• Forum of European Muslim Youth and Educatee Organisations
• International Federation of Catholic Youth Organisations
• International Movement of Cosmic Agricultural and Rural Youth Europe
• International Young Catholic Students – International Movement of Catholic Students
• Islamic Briefing Youth Forum for Dialogue and Co-operation
• Pax Christi Youth Forum
• Syndesmos – World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth
• Syriac Universal Alliance
• The European Young Women's Christian Association
• Globe Pupil Christian Federation

Some of these organisations got together inside the framework of the European Youth Forum and constituted the Faith-Based Group of youth organisations in social club to acquire about each other, promote multifariousness and fight discrimination and hatred. Integrated by the European Peer Preparation Organisation, the European Marriage of Jewish Students, the Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe, the Forum of European Muslim Youth and Student Organisations, the International Federation of Catholic Youth Organisations, the International Movement of Catholic Students, Pax Christi International and the World Student Christian Federation, the Adept Grouping produced, in 2008, a Tool Kit on inter-religious dialogue in youth work – Living Faiths Together. The Tool Kit, published by the European Youth Forum, provides information nigh monotheistic religions and proposes several methodologies and activities to sympathise and de-construct prejudices and stereotypes related to faith and to promote inter-religious dialogue. The tool kit may exist downloaded from the Internet site of the European Youth Forum (world wide web.youthforum.org) or from the site of the co-operating organisations.

Endnotes

1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faith (accessed on 9 July 2012)
2  Religion (2007) Encyclopædia Britannica at: world wide web.britannica.com/eb/article-9063138
3 LindaWoodhead, with Rebecca Catto: "Religion or conventionalities": Identifying problems and priorities. Equality and Human Rights Committee, 2009, p. three: world wide web.equalityhumanrights.com/uploaded_files/research/research_report_48__religion_or_belief.pdf
4 Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents: www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html
5 General Comment 22 of the UN Human Rights Commission on Commodity 18 of the ICCPR
6 OSCE/ODIHR, Council of Europe, UNESCO, Guidelines for Educators on Countering Intolerance and Discrimination against Muslims, 2011
7 FAIR (Forum Against Islamophobia and Racism), bachelor at: www.fairuk.org/introduction.htm
eight Recommendation 1957 (2011)  of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe "Violence confronting Christians in the Center E"
9 OSCE-ODIHR and Yad Vashem, Addressing Anti-Semitism: Why and How? A Guide for Educators, 2007
10 Council of Europe, White Paper on Intercultural Dialogue "Living together as equals in dignity", Launched by the Council of Europe Ministers of Strange Affairs at their 118th Ministerial Session (Strasbourg, seven May 2008), p. 23, available at: www.coe.int/t/dg4/intercultural/Source/Pub_White_Paper/White%20Paper_final_revised_EN.pdf See also San Marino Annunciation of 2007
eleven www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/edc/Source/Pdf/Coordinators/2006_14_CDED_ReligiousDiversity.pdf
12 "Istanbul Youth Declaration on Inter-Religious and Intercultural Dialogue in Youth Piece of work", Symposium Inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue in Youth Work, Istanbul, Turkey, 27-31 March 2007: www.coe.int/t/dg4/youth/Source/Resources/Documents/2008_Istanbul_Declaration_en.pdf
13 "Kazan Action Plan", International Youth Forum "Intercultural Dialogue and its Religious Dimension", Kazan, Republic of Tatarstan, Russian federation, thirty November  – 4 December 2008: www.coe.int/t/dg4/youth/Source/Resources/Documents/2008_Kazan_Action_Plan_en.pdf
14 Guidelines for Educators on Countering Intolerance and Bigotry against Muslims, OSCE/ODIHR, Council of Europe, UNESCO, 2011: www.coe.int/t/dg4/educational activity/edc/resources

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Source: https://www.coe.int/en/web/compass/religion-and-belief

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