A/HRC/25/58/Add.2 subsequently adopted by consensus.1 The resolution introduced, inter alia, Interfaith Harmony Week, which has since been celebrated every February. 12. The same holds true for the Arab region. Being itself a country with a vast majority of Sunni Muslims, Jordan has taken the lead in promoting peaceful interreligious coexistence in the region. This includes initiatives to enhance the awareness of religious pluralism, which has shaped the Arab region since times immemorial. Representatives of religious minorities with whom the Special Rapporteur had a chance to communicate on these issues unanimously expressed their appreciation of the State’s commitment to this area. As an example, they referred to a conference on the theme “Challenges of Arab Christians”, hosted in Amman on 3 and 4 September 2013, during which King Abdullah II received Christian leaders from the entire Arab region to hear their concerns and discuss with them the long-term prospects of Christianity in the Middle East. 13. Jordan is also perceived as a voice of religious moderation in a regional environment where religion has in recent years become increasingly politicized. Experience from different parts of the world shows that harnessing religion for narrow purposes of power politics nearly always results in setting groups of people against one another, thus often poisoning relations between communities that had previously coexisted peacefully.2 Moreover, amalgamating religious messages with mundane political purposes may also undermine the spiritual attractiveness of religion in the eyes of many people. When discussing this topic, representatives of the Government and various religious communities repeatedly expressed their concern that the politicization of religion in conjunction with religious extremism, which has been marginal in Jordan to date, could become increasingly influential. Against this background, they all acknowledged and appreciated Jordan’s role as a voice of religious moderation in the region, as evidenced in the “Amman message” of 2004 (http://ammanmessage.com/), which presents Islam as a religion of open-mindedness that promotes amicable relations with adherents of other faiths. 14. Jordan has hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees who have left their home countries as a result of conflict, civil wars and concomitant humanitarian disasters. Unfortunately, it is to be expected that even more will seek refuge in the country. When visiting the refugee camp in Zaatari near the border with the Syrian Arab Republic, the Special Rapporteur witnessed first-hand the difficult circumstances in which Syrian refugee women, men and children live, and which affect their freedom of religion or belief. People use tents as provisional places of prayer, while religious leaders play a key role in managing family affairs and other community issues, all with the support of UNHCR. Reportedly, virtually all of the inhabitants of the camp are Sunni Muslims, and places of worship for other denominations, however provisional, do not exist. Accommodating even a minimum degree of religious diversity in a refugee camp without creating religious divisiveness among refugees, many of whom are traumatized by recent experiences of extreme hostility, remains a huge challenge that the Special Rapporteur discussed with representatives of UNHCR. He had a particularly moving experience when visiting a Roman Catholic parish school in the Karak governate, where refugee children received additional education in mathematics, grammar and languages (Arabic and English). These children, whose families had fled the Syrian Arab Republic, needed additional tuition, which was provided during the afternoon to enable them to keep up with their regular public school courses. The teachers and assistants who provide this extra education do not receive any salary and act on a purely voluntary basis. The religious or denominational 1 2 6 Resolution 65/5. See A/HRC/25/58, paras. 28 and 66.