BAU Global Chair Enver Yücel Spoke at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Meeting

Enver Yücel at the UN: "Hate speech against different beliefs and religions must be removed from textbooks"

BAU Global Chair Enver Yücel received great acclaim for his speech at the UN meeting also attended by United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Yücel said, "Hate speech against different beliefs and religions must be removed from textbooks."

The "UN Alliance of Civilizations Group of Friends Ministerial Meeting", held in New York, was attended by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN Alliance of Civilizations High Representative Miguel Moratinos, BMW Group Vice President of Communication Strategy Bill McAndrews and the foreign ministers of various countries. Delivering a speech titled "The Importance of Education in the Alliance of Civilizations" at the meeting, Turkish educator Enver Yücel began by thanking UN High Representative Moratinos for the opportunity to share his observations on education. Yücel stated, "At the root of the problems we face around the world lies the inability of people to live together in peace, and the use of different beliefs and cultures for other purposes and interests."

"We must invest in strong education systems that support life skills and social cohesion."

Emphasizing that diversity based on differences of race, religion and sect is unfortunately seen today not as a richness but as a reason for othering, Yücel stated, "Although we see this less in developed countries, the problem is more striking in regions where access to education is limited. I would like to thank, above all, the President of the Republic of Türkiye, Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and former Prime Minister of Spain, Mr. Zapatero, for launching the Alliance of Civilizations project so that members of different cultures and beliefs can live together in respect, tolerance and peace. The project should develop further and become even more lasting from now on."

Noting in his speech that investing in strong education systems that support learning, life skills and social cohesion is of great importance for overcoming today's problems, Yücel said, "I believe that the greatest factor and the greatest power in this regard is quality education. As an educator who has dedicated himself to this cause, I can say that if we educate our children from a young age to respect human dignity, differences and diversity and develop a sense of belonging to a common humanity, a very different future awaits us. At the heart of global citizenship education lie values that will raise supporters of more peaceful, tolerant, inclusive, safe and sustainable societies. As the founder of an education network providing education at every level to more than 200,000 students, we cooperate with United Nations specialized agencies and institutes to carry out projects on the culture of living together and to create and implement curricula. The most important issue in the world, I say again, is the absence of a culture of living together. To achieve this goal, a global citizenship program must enter the agenda and education curricula of all countries. Likewise, in line with the 2030 targets, the Sustainable Development Goals should be added to countries' curricula and their principles embraced."

Sharing the important work he has carried out in Türkiye on this subject, Yücel said, "First of all, the River Flowing West project, which we produced as a documentary on civilizations and which is currently taught at our university as a history of civilizations course, presents an inclusive understanding of civilization on a global scale. The fundamental idea we put forward is that civilizations and religions all exist for humanity, and no superiority of one over another can be accepted."

"We enable our students to engage in intercultural exchange"

Stating that he shares the vision put forward by UN Alliance of Civilizations High Representative Miguel Moratinos, particularly in the field of education, BAU Global Chair Enver Yücel said, "We must include courses and topics in our curricula that reflect this vision. It is important to implement student exchange programs similar to Erasmus in Europe within a scope that fits the Alliance of Civilizations vision. I would like to add that we are already contributing to this vision through our projects and work. We have integrated global citizenship, the culture of living together and the sustainable development goals into our curricula in our educational institutions at every level. By granting scholarships at our schools to students from various African countries, we enable them to engage in intercultural exchange with one another. In addition, for ten years we have been hosting summer schools in Istanbul every year, attended by students of different languages, religions and cultures from various universities around the world."

Stating that Mr. Moratinos's preventive diplomacy approach to conflict prevention is of great importance for educators, Yücel concluded his speech by saying, "Our young people play an important role in preventing conflicts in the long term. With an inclusive approach to conflict prevention, civil society, women, young people and religious leaders should be given a role alongside policymakers. Finally, what I want to point out beneath this whole vision is that people and countries may take pride in their history and their heroism, but as a requirement of global citizenship education, hate speech directed at the other side must be eliminated. Hate speech against different beliefs and religions must be removed especially from the textbooks taught in our schools. Only then will our future be better. We will have left a far more beautiful world to our children and grandchildren."

The meeting, sponsored by Türkiye and Spain, was held in Conference Room 2, where the "Global Call to Protect Religious Freedom" meeting hosted by US President Donald Trump had taken place the day before.