Leaders and thinkers gather at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026 to explore how interfaith dialogue can foster understanding, cooperation, and lasting peace across diverse communities.
At Davos, faith leaders argued that interfaith dialogue is not a “soft” add-on to diplomacy but a prerequisite for durable peace because it rebuilds trust, empathy, and moral legitimacy. Mohammed Al-Issa framed the religious leader’s responsibility as defending “life and human dignity” and rejecting the misuse of religion to legitimize violence: “Silence in the face of injustice and oppression is not neutrality, it is complicity.” He called for “stripping… sanctity” from atrocities and warned that remedial peace, while necessary, is fragile and can leave “pain and resentment” unless societies invest earlier in “preventive peace” through education, families, and spiritual platforms that inoculate against dehumanization.
Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt emphasized religion’s long-term perspective and the shared Abrahamic premise that humans are “brothers and sisters.” He illustrated the cost of independence, recounting leaving Russia rather than endorsing war: religious leaders must not become “a tool in the hands of a secular state.” For dialogue to work, he argued, it must involve legitimate authorities (not “liberal fringes”), be consistent internally and externally, and remain politically independent.
Both linked Gaza’s global spillovers—rising Islamophobia and antisemitism—to the urgent need for joint action. “Fighting Islamophobia and anti-Semitism is an interest of both,” Goldschmidt said, pointing to practical coalitions like the Muslim Jewish Leadership Council.
Good morning and a very warm welcome to all of you here in Davos, and also to those participants who are listening to us online. Our session will be in English and also provide a translation in Arabic. If you want to share your thoughts. Please use the hashtag web 26 for World Economic Forum I. We are living in a time of rising conflicts and increasing numbers of wars. And as we see currently in Gaza, peace cannot only be implemented from above, it cannot be implemented by politicians. It needs more and so to say, if we look at the situation, what it needs most is trust. It needs forgiveness, hope and faith. So if we look at history, religious leaders have always played a traditional role in promoting and securing peace. So the Gaza peace plan includes a commitment to establish an interfaith dialogue as an opportunity also to change mindsets, to promote tolerance. And most importantly, I think, hope. This is of great importance because peace in the Holy Land remains one of the most urgent moral responsibilities of our time. This conflict has caused enormous human suffering in the region, but it also affected communities all over the world Christian communities, Muslim communities and Jewish communities. Which role can religious leaders play today in the peace process in Gaza, but also in other countries? I am glad to welcome to our session our two distinguished religious leaders who will share their perspectives with us. His Excellency Mohammad Al-issa, the Secretary General of the Muslim World League from Saudi Arabia, and His Eminence Pinchas Goldschmidt, Chief Rabbi and president of the Conference of European Rabbis from Germany. A very warm welcome to you. So I would like to invite Your Excellency, Mohamed Al-issa to the stage and start with his keynote on the question, which is the moral responsibility of a religious leader today. Welcome.
Thank you. Bismillah. Alhamdulillah. And.
Welcome to this important meeting to talk about the moral responsibility of religious leaders in the ongoing conflicts that can be summarized in the following points. First of all, the sincere understanding and tangible realization among religious leaders that life and human dignity, including the protection of souls and legitimate freedoms, are noble values to which every human being is entitled, as a matter of general principle that we all believe in. Any violation of this shared human principles, which represents the true essence of our spiritual and human values, constitutes a moral failure with grave consequences. In this context, we say silence in the face of injustice and oppression is not neutrality, it is complicity. Second, stripping the immunity or sanctity from all acts of tragedy and disasters, religious leaders must come back. Rhetoric that justifies those tragedies in the name of religion, especially exposing the exploitation of religious texts as tools to ignite unjust wars or deny legitimate rights. It is, it is vital to remember that most unjust wars throughout human history and even today, either have religious roots through the false interpretations of certain religious leaders, or involve leaders who are were instrumentalized to justify and incite them. There is no doubt that spiritual discourse exerts a powerful influence over believers, driving many to sacrifice themselves for it. Herein lies the importance and the danger, as anyone who has studied ancient and modern history knows this fact to contribute effectively at at various levels, we have been engaging with the United Nations and other organizations for for ten years as we continue to work with all parties. And we are still continue to work with all parties to address this issue through practical initiatives and programs that are constantly measured. We were delighted with the responsiveness of United Nations leadership as they opened their doors to us in New York, Geneva, Nairobi to launch three pivotal initiatives with their practical programs, and they relate to preventive peace. And we have established academic labs at major centers and international universities around the world that train young people and grant them diplomas. The mission of this peace is to work on proactive efforts against killing, destruction and psychological trauma. It is the true promoter of friendship between nations and peoples due to its strength and stability, as it relies fundamentally on planting deep seated convictions within the conscience of current and future generations. In contrast, while remedial peace is important, it is frequently we believe in remedial peace. It is important. It is frequently accompanied by anxiety and fragility as well, and furthermore, sometimes and furthermore and sometimes remedial peace involves concessions that move beyond graceful tolerance and into submission and painful losses faced upon one of the parties. This can means that pain and resentment remains in the hearts of future generations, despite the peace. Third, religious leaders must support, must support, justice and reconciliation. They must not show blind bias towards power or private interests over the truth and logic. A failure that has throughout human history ignited the spark of clash, conflict, and hostility between nations and people. When whenever religious leaders fall into this trap, they lose their credibility and legitimacy and only serve to fan the flames of conflict. And perhaps they are even the foundation of their ignition to reach an ideal level of interfaith dialogue for for cooperation and for maintaining peace and rebuilding trust, we must build a strong, enduring bridges based on shared humanity and unity of our common goals. This cannot be achieved without without sincere intentions and commitment to the true values of the religions we all proclaim. Fourth, building trust begins with empathy for the pain of others and the acknowledgement of rights. This requires a living conscience that speaks through spiritual values. That especially in conflicts, these values must never treat others, particularly in the context of conflict, as having less priority than others due to perceived religious, ethnic, or civilizational superiority, and such logic holds no, and such logic holds no weight when discussing rights and just solutions. Indeed, it holds no weight in any sound logic. True religion was revealed to preserve lives, not to justify their destruction. True religion was revealed to preserve lives, not to justify their destruction. Destructions. It came to honor the human being, not to offer them as sacrifice at the furnace of hatred and arrogance. Indeed, there is no sanctity and no immunity for the shedding of innocent blood. Any violence justified in the name of religion is an insult to that religion. Any text taken out of context to legitimise killing is a betrayal of that text. The dehumanization of the other is the first step towards every human catastrophe, and even the chaos of our world. Justice is indivisible and there is no selectiveness or indignity and mercy. There is no classification in innocent blood on the basis that there is a blood that is honorable, noble, and superior, and blood that is less than that. We are all equal in the sanctity of blood. True religious leaders are not spokesperson for power, but rather they are the guardians of virtue and justice and advocate of dialogue and peace. In this point.
I need this noon over and over that we are all in one.
Yes, yeah. It is important to point out that as we live in tragic contexts regarding Gaza and the Palestinian rights in general, from our religious position, we commend the New York Declaration issued last September by the High level meeting for the peaceful settlement of the Palestinian Question and the implementation of the two state solution chaired by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the French Republic. And and it's also supported by the United General Assembly by a majority of 142 votes. Yes, yes, it was a big majority. 142 Voice thank you. Thank you very much.
Your wise words, Your Excellency. Yes. The question what role religious leaders can play in today's world also goes to His Eminence, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt. And I invite you to the stage to share your thoughts.
It has been 26 years since Davos. WEF has started inviting religious leaders, realizing that as our century started, it was marked by religion. Nine over 11 was the turning point. If we're talking about the last century, which was a secular century, this century is marked by religion and involvement of religion in politics and in wars, and responding to you, Catherine, what can religious leaders do? Religions are, by definition, long term ideas. We're talking about religions which exist more than 1000 years, in our case more than 4000 years. And religions like to talk not only today, but also of yesterday and tomorrow, and have the long term perspective. And the idea which unites all the Abrahamic religions is the idea that man and woman were all created from one source, from one man, we all brothers and sisters. And as His Excellency said, the dehumanization of the other goes contrary to biblical teachings. And I would like to take a special moment to talk about also what His Excellency said, that religious teachers and religious leaders are being used by the powers to to support wars. I myself served as the Chief Rabbi of Moscow for 30 years, and when the war against Ukraine started, we were demanded by the Kremlin to support the war. And I refused, and I left Russia, and I abdicated because I couldn't support an unjust war. Unfortunately, 95% of other religious leaders of other religions all went along and supported the jihad against Ukraine. So what is our duty today? We are speaking about the conflict in the Middle East, which is is influencing the whole world. The whole world has changed since the 7th of October. Great human suffering. And the question is, how do we stop this? How do we start a new beginning? Now? His Excellency mentioned the two state solution. Our organization, the Conference of European Rabbis. My predecessor, Lord Jakobovits, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, was one of the first Jewish leaders who said that a two state solution is the right solution. However, when in 2005, Israel disengaged from Gaza and went on the way to create a Palestinian state, this this attempt went totally wrong and ended up with the 7th of October. And we have to restart from scratch. And how do we do it? We had initial discussions with His Excellency and also with the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pizzaballa. When I met him the last time he told me, he told me there are the keys to a new Middle East, are in the hands of two powers in the Middle East. One is Saudi Arabia, and the other one is Israel. And it is in the hands of those two regional powers to recreate a middle East, which will be peaceful, where there's going to be security and sovereignty and not failed states, which are going to be used by a terror regime like Iran and a radical Islamic regime like Iran to create mayhem, death and destruction for everyone in the Middle East. So it is my great hope that together with our partners and we see our friend, His Excellency, also the partner, to be able to help the new Middle East and also to bring peace and understanding between all the different religions. Thank you.
Thank you very much for these wise words. Please take a seat here. Yeah. What I like very much in your speeches was that you pointed out that religious leaders need to be independent from politics. The spiritual value that you bring to the peace process. So, my question to Your Excellency, Mohamed Issa, you have been working to preventive peace all over the world. So can you share with us your idea? How can we ensure that this fragile peace doesn't collapse back into violence?
Allah be as-salaam. Al Hua al haqiqa. And it wa. Cattle or damar. Athar hadha Hua salam Hua muslim wala wala nazar li.
But we always work on remedial peace. We want preventive peace that we want this war to end and destruction to end. And we also want we want these people to not have negative, sentiments towards others. Remedial peace, as I said, is very important, but it comes after this destruction. Maybe there are some concessions, not concessions related with, beautiful tolerance that I talked about, but concessions are forced sometimes. And this means that some sentiments, there are negative residuals and that and cannot be rectified. Preventive peace prevent this from the very beginning. That's why we promote the educational aspects and the bringing in and spiritual aspects from the very beginning to promote friendship and cooperation between nations and people. From the very beginning, we need to instill the values of peace and respect towards others. And also, what does difference mean in this world? And also we instill the value of peace, which is just and comprehensive. We want a culture within them, a culture of me and you, because then in such, issues, there will be conflict. That's why I just spoke in my speech about and the Declaration of New York, which is related to of the two state solutions and all the peaceful settlement of the question of Palestine. And it's a United Nation Project initiative which came from the General Assembly of the United Nations with the support of 142 countries, which rectified this issue in a very comprehensive way. And we also want a future, rectification for to promote this peace, this preventive peace from the very beginning, from the before the war start. We want a solution, with peace, preventive peace, which this comes with education, with family playing a big role and also the platform of influence play a big role. And especially the platforms of spiritual influence. They should be very unbiased and should be in the very, logic and just. And human beings are brothers and sisters from the that's the principle. They are the one family we must understand this to to live on this planet with peace that is respected by everyone from the very beginning, in a preventive way, before the wars even start. So there is no clash and conflict when we have been working that on ten years now, and we are still continuing to work on that with the support from the United Nations and also the other organizations and centers that are governmental and civil society institutions, and we have achieved big success across the world to promote this preventive peace. And maybe in future meetings, I can give long. I know my time is very limited, but we can give, in Africa, in Asia, in Asia, and also and even in Europe. We have worked on preventive peace. We have done projects in this, and we have partners from the United Nations. And don't forget other big think tanks who are our partners in this regard.
I think that interfaith dialogue is possible. You both are demonstrating in this session. But the question is, how can we make sure that it succeeds? So I would like to know from Your Eminence, what do you think is necessary for this?
There are conditions for inter-religious dialogue to succeed. Condition number one, that the real leaders talking to each other and many times inter-religious dialogues. You have the liberal fringes on both sides who are sitting together. They don't represent anyone besides themselves and their secretaries, and the real religious leaders do not speak to each other. That's condition number one. Condition number two is sincerity in the past. And, you know, religious leaders, when they spoke to their own, to their own flock, they said one thing. When they were at an inter-religious meetings, they said another thing. The internal message and the external message were totally different. Today, it's much harder to do it because of Google Translate. And everything is can be, projected all over the world. It became much harder. But still, there are religious leaders who basically say one thing when they speak to their own people and another thing when they speak. So sincerity. And there has to be one message. And internally and externally, that's the second condition for inter-religious dialogue. And the third one is, as mentioned, independence, religious independence, religious leadership not to be a tool in the hands of a secular state.
Thank you very much. As I mentioned at the beginning, this conflict Gaza has created enormous human suffering, and it has also affected communities all over the world. So what we face today is a rising Islamophobia, a rising anti-Semitism, sorry to say so. As you mentioned, time is short, but I would like to give you the opportunity to comment on this, please.
Of course, what is related with the with the hatred that, that created a clash and conflict, that resulted in sometimes and throughout human history, many wars, this hatred when when it deepens, when in a way that we see at the moment which is very negative, it only escalates with conflicts and clash and also grudges. Of course, we completely reject regardless of their label, regardless of their label, and regardless of the followers of faith. We support that there is understanding and there is respect for the followers of faith and for their dignity of existence and regardless of their faith. And we don't have any exception. Not at all. We must respect all followers of faith. But but there is a very important point. The followers of faith. They should not, to employ their negative behaviors. We, whether they are related with with hatred or practices related with violence or even terrorism or even any other negative behavior. And I'm addressing all followers of faith from all faiths, any approach, negative approaches that you may practice as long as it depends on or it emanates from their own beliefs, from their own interpretation of texts, then religious leaders in their in their religion, they must counter that and must clarify the fact. And they should not just watch these negative practices from the followers of faiths. And because these practices promotes hatred further and be abusive towards the followers of faiths, the followers of faiths must always call for peace or for dialogue. So they so that our world live like everyone wants in peace and harmony. That that is everyone content with through dialogue which is logical and effective. And also, I would like to point out that there is unfortunately many escalations related to, with this hatred that is practiced and is recorded and documented. But and these are very well documented facts that some followers of faith. That that from the same faith have practiced this, negative practices and people only watched these negative and they did not, make statements to stop such negative behaviors from followers face. So, so these practices were went and challenged. There need to be courage, and there need to be a true presence in the right time. And we would like to reiterate on this.
Very much, Your Eminence. Especially in Germany, you are facing a rise of anti-Semitism, but we are facing this all over the world. So I would like to hear what is your perspective on this?
The 7th of October has created turbulence in the whole world, a tremendous rise of anti-Semitism, organized, state sponsored in many instances in universities on the streets, and a rise of 500%, maybe some instances, to 1,000% of anti-Semitic acts. And there has also been a reaction of Europe, I think, the rise of the extreme right in many European countries is a response to the insecurity felt by the old European so-called Europeans regarding the new immigrants who came from the Middle East. So I think that fighting Islamophobia and anti-Semitism is an interest of both religions and both communities. And when we do it together, it's going to be much more useful. We have created under also the Saudi umbrella. More than ten years ago, the Muslim Jewish Leadership Council, and which was successful. And we believe that we have to go this way if we want to make sure that every European can live in peace and walk in peace in the street.
Thank you very much. Unfortunately, we don't have much time, so. But I would nevertheless want to have your perspective on the future. What is your outlook on the role of religion, the role of religious leaders? What is the perspective that you see for the future?
Of course, we must be optimistic. We must be optimistic with the future. And there is there is a positive movement from religious leaders across the world. There are many meetings and conferences. We we have launched within the United Nations, initiative called about the preventive peace is called Building Bridges between the East and the West. This, initiative is very amazing, which put the foundation for promoting friendship between nations and people and also consolidate the concept of peace, which is just for everyone. And this initiative was attended by religious leaders and also by those with interest, from outside the field of faiths, be it governments and parliamentarians and also civil society institutions. And there have been a speech by the United Nations general secretary and also the, also the representative of Alliance of Civilizations. This gives hope, of course, such a meeting. We also launched, many, many labs in the most prestigious universities and centers across the world related with promoting, understanding about faiths and intellectual awareness about such issues, which we must respect. And we know the importance of and the danger of being lenient in such issues. And in these centers and labs we have erected across the world. And also we have worked on curricula for teachers with different levels in the school to promote this peace that we believe everyone. That is very important. And to answer your question, we are very optimistic. With good there are mistakes and there are letdowns, but we should not feel despair about these mistakes and let downs.
Your eminence, the last word go to you.
I'm over time, but okay.
We are a bit over time. But we give you the last words.
As Jews.
Interesting.
We are optimistic always. We have to be optimistic because we have no other choice. And we believe that what we see in the world today, we're seeing what is happening in the streets of Iran, that the people of Iran don't want this radicalized, instrumentalized religion, and they don't believe in that. These are the people who give us hope, and these are the people who have to be supported by us because it is radicalized religion and weaponized religion, which is the greatest threat today in our human society. So seeing what's happening in the streets of Iran and how the world is supporting Europe, the United States is supporting, we haven't heard from the UN, very little from the UN, but that's not surprising. And we hope that at the end of the time, it's always light. Which which, will win over darkness.
Thank you very much. I think already the session and your meeting and the exchange of your ideas gives us hope that interfaith dialogue can work, can contribute to a process of peace. What I learned from you is that, first of all, religious leaders have to stay away from governments, that they have to follow their spiritual path. That seems to me very important, and important is also what they can create in the human beings. But so to say, it has to be the religious leaders to make this point who stand up for this peace process, and they have to be sincere in their ideas. They have to create interfaith dialogue. And this has to be sincere. I think that's important. And it leaves me with a very positive feeling that religious leaders can really contribute to the really necessary peace process, not only in the Holy Land, but all over the world. And you mentioned Ukraine. I think here it is as evident important as well. So thank you very much for this very, very truthful insight and your perspectives. Thank you for this.
Thank you.