The Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair for Dialogue at Kufa University, Dr. Hassan Nadhem presented a lecturer at Bitzer College in Los Angeles on February 18, 2020. The lecture was part of the well-known Spring Lectures Series at MCSI, that have been organized by the Director of the MCSI, Dr. Ahmed Alwishah.  It dealt with the topic of dialogue, its philosophy, and its reality in Iraq. Dr. Nadhem briefly talked about the history of violence in Iraq from the time the Ba’th Party took power until the moment of the protests on October 1, 2019 and the killing and kidnapping that accompanied it.

The lecture focused on the work of governmental and non-governmental dialogue institutions in Iraq, and provided examples of programs designed in this regard.

Furthermore, he discussed the concepts of tolerance in the sense presented by the Enlightenment philosopher, John Locke in his work A Letter Concerning Toleration, as well as the concept of the “human face” and “Face to Face Dialogue” in Emmanuel Levinas’ philosophy. Finally, the lecture tackled Hans-Georges Gadamer’s concept of “fusion of horizons.”  All of this was linked to projects designed to counter violence and sectarianism in Iraq.

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