Parliament of the World’s Religions

Opening Plenary

15 October, Salt Lake City, USA

KAICIID Director General’s

Opening Remarks

Governor Herbert,

Imam Malik,

Esteemed religious leaders,

Excellencies

Interfaith leaders,

Ladies and Gentlemen.

On behalf of our Secretary General, His Excellency Faisal Bin Muaammar, it is a great honour to be here with you today, representing the International Dialogue Centre, or KAICIID. We are the only intergovernmental organisation governed by religious representatives.

Seeing this impressive assembly, I am deeply aware of the great debt our organisation owes to the pioneering leaders who made dialogue among religions a reality. Many of these leaders are among us here today.

Many of you have committed your lives to promoting dialogue and cooperation. We share a common bond: to build lasting bridges between religions and cultures.

Your movement, our movement, the Interfaith Movement, is rich, diverse, and inclusive. It combines the strengths of different organizations, different methods and different philosophies. At the International Dialogue Centre, we too embrace diversity as a gift. And we see dialogue as an opportunity to bring about sustainable, positive change.

KAICIID was founded in 2012 by the Republic of Austria, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Kingdom of Spain, with the Holy See as the Founding Observer.

 For an intergovernmental organisation, our governance is unique. Our Board of Directors includes nine representatives of five of the world’s religious traditions – Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism. The Board designs and supervises all our programmes.

This structure gives us a unique ability to bring together politics and religion.  As you know, dialogue between policy makers and religious leaders is essential for building sustainable peace. Our programmes create a space for this dialogue in conflict areas around the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen, my message to you today is this: KAICIID’s programmes and training support the work you do. We want to partner with you and to complement your good work. Our goal is to amplify your voices in advocating dialogue and building peace.

As you are all aware, religious identities are being manipulated by certain political and religious leaders who abuse religious teachings and values to incite violence.  These growing conflicts threatens peaceful coexistence. For that reason, now dialogue is needed more than ever.

Allow me to give you a few examples.

Our International Fellows Programme trains the next generation of religious leaders in dialogue and peacebuilding.

Through social media trainings, we are helping dialogue practitioners to challenge voices of hatred and division.

The growing refugee crisis in the Middle East and in Europe tells us that we must urgently use Dialogue for Peace.  KAICIID’s initiative United against Violence in the Name of Religion is fostering dialogue and cooperation between religious leaders and governments, particularly in Syria and Iraq.

It began in November, 2014, when we gathered leaders of Christian, Muslim, and other religious and ethnic communities from the Arab world. With one voice they denounced any violence in the name of religion. Since then, this initiative has grown. Peace is being built today at the local level through religious communities.

KAICIID brings religious leaders and policy makers together in dialogue. Political leaders need the wisdom and the commitment of religious communities to transform conflict and enable reconciliation. In the Central African Republic, for instance, a country torn by war, we are helping religious communities and civil society acquire an active role in rebuilding the country.

We are building platforms for dialogue experts in Nigeria, Iraq and the Central African Republic to directly engage with key political and religious figures.

Here at this historic Parliament session we hope to learn from you. We hope you will take the opportunity to visit us at our booth and exchange your experiences with us.

Let us join efforts to promote dialogue and reconciliation throughout the world.

Thank you.