Biography Narrative

Md. Abu Taher is currently an assistant professor at the Department of World Religions and Culture at the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. He earned his B.A. Hons. in history, and his M.A. and M.Phil. in world religions and culture. He was also awarded a postgraduate diploma in youth development and work under the Commonwealth Youth Programme. He has written over a dozen research articles from different perspectives that were published in national and international journals. He has ten years’ working experience in interreligious and intercultural dialogue and has attended many seminars, workshops, training programmes and conferences on dialogue in different parts of the world. Abu is a regular presenter and facilitator of interreligious harmony and peacebuilding workshops in Dhaka. He has special interest in the area of contemporary issues in religion, interfaith dialogue, peace movements, conflict transformation and violence mitigation.

He is a member of several local and international interreligious and intercultural organizations, such as the International Association for Religious Freedom Bangladesh, United Religious Initiative Bangladesh, Asian Conference Religion and Peace and Vanguard of Light. He has also founded a youth development-based social and humanitarian organization in his hometown for disadvantaged youth. He is very committed to socio-religious work and creating a peaceful environment within his community. His interests include service to humanity and interacting with people of different faiths and cultures. He believes in the famous motto, “Religions for Peace.”

Interreligious Activities and Initiatives

Educate the Educators on IRD

This project is designed to enhance the capacity of teachers of mid level school in Bangladesh on interfaith and intercultural dialogue techniques. As part of this programme all the teachers will have a dialogue with Muslim, Hindu and Christian religious leaders. They will also learn the techniques of managing students from various religious groups; they will learn to manage the conflict situations based on religion. The goal of this project is to promote and aware the impotence of interreligious dialogue in the local context of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh religious extremism is an uprising issue; therefore training on IRD for peacebuilding is very timely and important for the country.