Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen

It is an honor to participate in this first high-level meeting of international organizations to advance dialogue.

Allow me to express my deep appreciation to the Government of Azerbaijan, the Minister of Culture and Tourism, and the five co-organizers, as well as my colleagues from other international organisations, for their constructive support for the World Forums on Dialogue.

The World Forums are an essential platform to further advance dialogue to preserve diversity and secure peace. The Forums’ role in raising awareness of dialogue on the international agenda will speed dialogue’s success in improving human security and achieving sustainable development.

The organisations we lead all share a responsibility for human security. KAICIID began five years ago to promote a new approach to that challenge. KAICIID’s mandate is to bring together religious leaders and policy makers to find their own solutions that benefit all.

We enable religious leaders to help policymakers confront both religious and ideological extremism, as well as terrorism.

Until now, the world tried to address these challenges by relying only on secular political systems. Or in crisis, we turn to military force. As a legacy of the superpower era, religion was not given an equal voice in problem solving. As the security and refugee situation globally worsens, we need new approaches. We need to include the use of interreligious dialogue to make sure our solutions are inclusive and sustainable.

Over five and a half BILLION people have a religious identity or tradition. They follow spiritual and moral principles based on religious teaching. 80% of the world’s population has a religious identity or tradition. Inclusive solutions clearly need to reflect their common values.

People associated  with religion are potential advocates for tolerance and respect. For that reason, KAICIID invests in promoting interreligious dialogue to unite different religions in securing social cohesion. That outcome is an essential contribution towards human security and inclusive development.

Religious leaders and policy makers work too often in isolation. We tend to see policy makers as responsible for human security. And we assume religious leaders are solely responsible for spiritual and humanitarian welfare.

Today’s complex challenges can be addressed more effectively if these two domains are linked. In developing sustainable solutions for integration, violent extremism, climate change and economic inequality, we cannot afford to work in isolation any longer.

I have seen interreligious dialogue in action bringing together people of different religions in the Arab World, in Myanmar, and in Nigeria.

There are many challenges to human security around the world. We began uniting religious leaders against violence in the name of religion in summer 2014.

We are working with religious leaders and policy makers to preserve religious diversity in the Arab World. It is a thousand year old treasure – if we do not act to preserve it, it cannot be recovered again for generations. The loss to the region would be horrific.

Policy makers and religious leaders are alarmed by online extremism and incitement to hatred and violence. We launched social media training in the Arab World. Now over 300 social media advocates are learning to coordinate campaigns and to encourage hundreds of thousands of their online followers to push back hate speech, promote respect and acceptance.

In our Fellows program we trained over a hundred mid-career teachers who are training tomorrow’s religious leaders. They live and work in conflict regions.  

During their training, the Fellows apply for microgrant support for projects. Thus far 60 projects have trained another 3,000 dialogue advocates. If the practice of interreligious dialogue can spread quickly using just microgrants, imagine the benefits if we all invest in dialogue.

This week in Amman we are launching the Arab World’s first network of Islamic and Christian Religious Faculties. This Network incorporates interreligious dialogue training in the curricula of 16 influential Christian and Muslim religious education institutions in the Middle East. These institutions can anchor interreligious dialogue in the teaching of religious leaders to push back extremism and to maintain social cohesion.

We also work in other conflict regions. In Myanmar, we helped to kick start a Buddhist-Muslim NGO about a year ago. The NGO supports dialogue training for peaceful Buddhist-Muslim relations. 

One of the advocates and trainers we support is a prominent Buddhist monk. This past month he publicly supported a preaching ban for a Buddhist monk who was practicing hate speech against Muslims. A necessary and brave initiative.

In Nigeria, KAICIID activated a Christian-Muslim platform in 2016. The platform is now working on draft legislation to criminalize hate preaching regardless of denomination.

These examples show that linking religious leaders and policy makers can lead to concrete outcomes that strengthen human security. I welcome your support in fostering the cooperation between religious leaders and policymakers. With this process, religious leaders and government policy makers can find more inclusive and more sustainable approaches to today’s challenges. Thank you