The Youth Forum for Reconciliation & Tolerance holds the first meeting of its English-language reading club

Following up the activities of the Youth Forum for Reconciliation and Tolerance at Pal-Think for Strategic Studies, the Youth Forum organised the first encounter of the English-language reading club within the events of the project of educating youth democratically and politically, funded by the European Endowment for Democracy (EED) — with the attendance of Dr Musheer Amer, director of the public-relations department at the Islamic University and professor of linguistics and discourse analysis, and a number of university students interested in the English language. The encounter was opened by the Forum's activities coordinator, Abdel Rahim Abu Warda, giving a sketch of the Pal-Think for Strategic Studies institution and its most important projects, and acquainting the attendees with the Youth Forum for Reconciliation and Tolerance, its activities, and the English-language reading club. He affirmed that the principal goal of the reading club is developing the youth's English and strengthening their capacities in addressing the outside world, through reading articles and books and watching videos taking up political and historical issues and the biographies of influential historical personalities.

For his part, Dr Musheer Amer focused on the importance of the English language and speaking it with the outside world, and praised the club's idea, commending the Pal-Think institution for these wonderful ideas. He pointed to his own experience with reading in English and how he began through small groups of friends and colleagues in scattered places — which had the great effect of increasing his attachment to the language and passion for it. He showed the importance of these clubs in developing reading skills, especially in the case of reading new topics opposed to the reader's thinking, and how one can critique them, add to them or refute them, and express one's opinion on them. He likewise explained the reader's relationship with the English language and how one can form a bond with it so as to be able afterwards to express what passes through one's mind in that same language — which Dr Musheer considers among the strongest of relationships between reader and language.

In closing, Dr Musheer Amer urged the youth to continue in such activities, and encouraged the club's members to explore the English language and choose the suitable book for reading, so that the greatest possible benefit arises from the manner of writing, the text's coherence, and the ideas put forward.