In Amman, Christian and Muslim children sing for peace and coexistence
Local Caritas and Salesian Sisters sponsor a project involving 40 children, 20 Jordanian Christians and 20 Syrian Muslim refugees, in two classes, one for singing and one for the flute. The course began in June three times a week, up to four in July. The goal is to create an concessionally mixed choir.
Amman (AsiaNews) – Caritas Jordan has launched a project to teach children to sing and play musical instruments. The goal is to spread through music a message of peace and coexistence in the Middle East and the world whilst building bonds of friendship and solidarity.
Since early June, 20 Jordanian Christian children and 20 Muslim refugee children from Syria meet three times a week for singing and flute lessons. For the founders of the new choir, the goal is to build and bring peace by involving "young Syrian Muslim refugees."
The children are divided into two classes, one for singing and one for the instrument. Although the summer heat makes it harder to concentrate and study, the pleasure of learning makes up for it.
Teachers say that the budding musicians are slowing learning to master the flute, its technical aspects, sound, tonalities, and intensity. The apprentice singers are applying themselves to vocalisation exercises.
The future artists are just starting but their desire is promising. Launched on 1st June thanks to the local Caritas, the lessons are provided free of charge. This month, they will be offered four times a week.
The children, both Jordanian Christians and Syrian Muslims, come from backgrounds with few resources. Learning music at this pace is therefore an opportunity for everyone to learn something. It will also help refugee children and their parents to integrate better.
According to the United Nations, Jordan hosts at least 600,000 refugees. For Jordanian authorities, the figure is even higher, 1.4 million, which is equivalent of 20 per cent of the Jordanian population. One fifth of refugees live in the Azraq and Zaatari refugee camps, in northern Jordan, whilst most of the others are in the country’s cities.
The local Caritas has also played a leading role in helping Iraqi Christian refugees, who arrived in the summer of 2014 after the Islamic State (IS) group seized Mosul and Nineveh.
The Sisters Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesians of Don Bosco) are also behind the initiative. As Sister Rasha noted, the choir is meant to send a message of peace and harmony between Christians and Muslims through "the language of music", which is always "filled with expressions".
The goal is to create a concessionally mixed choir that can continue to train so that one day it can perform outdoors and in theatres.
Some of the teachers belong to the "Fountain of Love" choir, also known outside the country for the different religious backgrounds of its members.
This initiative shows the commitment of the Christian community and of government authorities to the integration and coexistence between believers of the two great monotheistic religions.
Moreover, at a meeting of the Churches of the Middle East in Amman in September of last year, the Hashemite kingdom was cited as an positive example in a region marked by violence, wars and extremism.
Still, the country’s peace and stability are based on a precarious balance that risks to collapse at any time. In fact, there is growing opposition between those who support a secular state and those who want to transform it along (Muslim) confessional lines and impose Islamic law.
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