Oman gift to promote religious understanding

A major collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the Sultanate of Oman which aims to improve public understanding of the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Islam and Christianity was marked at a signing ceremony today. Her Excellency Dr Rawya Saud Al-Busaidi, the Omani Minister of Higher Education (pictured left), led a distinguished Omani delegation to meet the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz (pictured right) and other senior members of the University. They signed and sealed agreements in both Arabic and English to endow permanently, through a generous benefaction from the Government of the Sultanate of Oman, a new professorship that has been established by the University. The "Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths and Shared Values" will be a member of the Faculty of Divinity and will become the Academic Director of the Cambridge Inter-faith Programme (CIP). CIP undertakes high-level research and creative public education about and between religions, with a focus on the Abrahamic faiths. The world has recently witnessed the re-emergence of religion as a key force in the public sphere. The need for such a programme, fostering inter-faith understanding, is rapidly evolving into a global imperative for both religious and secular society.