We are a not-for-profit think tank and registered Charity with a focus on promoting understanding between cultural and religious groups. Gibraltar has a unique multi-cultural society born from the cession of its territory 300 years ago following the end of the Spanish war of succession to the British Crown under the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht. Indeed
all the former inhabitants of Gibraltar have been expelled following the ratification of the Treaty and since then all the inhabitants of Gibraltar have arrived from immigrations either relating to the British garrison as well as merchants from Morocco and all over Europe. The result today is a truly diverse society where no individual or social group can claim to be more legitimate than another on the Rock and by implication tolerance of one another is more than a necessity; it is a condition of social peace. It is undeniable that the level of religious tolerance visible in Gibraltar remains a success that is worth studying and should be emulated universally. We plan to structure a Think Tank which will endeavour in trying to nail the reasons behind this success by bridging the different communities of Gibraltar and getting them to understand one another. Ultimately our hopeful goal is to be able to export this model universally. We named the group “Understanding Gibraltar” its aim is first and foremost to universalise the exceptional status quo of tolerance existing today in Gibraltar. It seems that much of the issues which the world in this century is still facing relate to misunderstandings and perhaps the political instrumentalisation of this hardship to understand the other. By opening the door to one another on the scale of our community we wish to get rid of all misunderstandings, therefore the effort will be stressed always on encouraging questions which are not usually asked precisely because they are deemed sensitive.
