Abu Dhabi: As part of the UAE’s efforts to spread the message of tolerance, an entire pathway was inaugurated on World Tolerance Day, and aptly given the name ‘Tolerance Path’.
Located at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre in Abu Dhabi, Tolerance Path allows worshippers and visitors to embark on a unique experience and provides an exceptional journey of exploration, as they learn about the UAE’s aspiration to spread the values of tolerance and peace in the country and throughout the world.
Saeed Abdullah Al Shehhi, Director of Worshipers and Visitors Services Department, said that this “pictorial narrative” extends over a length of more than 300 meters underground, and provides visitors of the mosque with visual stories that narrate a pioneering achievement in the field of coexistence, tolerance and cross-cultural convergence.
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Tolerance Path is divided into three sections, which retells the UAE’s rich history that involves the concepts of coexistence and tolerance that was established by the founding father Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Amal Bamatraf, Director of the Cultural Communication Department at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Centre, said the launch of Tolerance Path represents one of the many initiatives of the centre’s strategy to promote the message for tolerance, “especially as it is directed to the mosque’s visitors who come from different cultures.”
The first part of the tour narrates the vision of the UAE’s founding father that inspired the idea of establishing the mosque, which would act as a platform for tolerance and civilized dialogue. The narrative composition also highlights the similarities between people of different cultures and how they lived peacefully and in coexistence, which represents the path that the UAE has always followed.
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The second part of the tour takes visitors to the architectural wonders of beauty and creativity, which reflects tolerance, peace and the coexistence and meeting of cultures.
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Image Credit: Supplied
The third and final section reviews the efforts that the mosque has made that promotes the values of tolerance, coexistence, volunteering and social responsibility, which stemmed from a series of programmes and initiatives that bridged various cultures together, including state visits and the historic interfaith meeting held in 2019.