The R20 Summit, the first official engagement group on religion in the history of the G20, has announced the launch of a forum titled “Building Bridges Between the East and the West: For a More Understanding and Peaceful World and More Coexisting and Harmonious Communities.”
Secretary-General of the Muslim World League, Mohammed Al-Issa said the forum is part of the interfaith group recently adopted by the G20 presidency as part of the activities of the group formed by the world’s 20 largest economies.
The forum will discuss several pressing issues, including the inclusion of religious minorities, the refugee situation, and divisive religious, intellectual, and cultural issues, along with relevant political matters.
“The forum will constitute the biggest, most important and most welcoming and professional platform between the East and the West,” stressed Al-Issa.
“It will witness the participation of senior specialists in the religious, intellectual, social and political fields, namely political parties and parliamentary committees dealing with humanitarian and social affairs,” he added.
In keeping with the aims of the forum, the R20 Summit is expected to issue decisions on the establishment of scientific chairs at universities in the East and West, in addition to mechanisms that ensure positive communications between them.
Several academics, institutions, research and supervision centers, and orientalists will also participate in the event through the presentation of research, studies, and reports.
The forum will include the participation of senior academics from Harvard University, including colleagues of late Samuel Huntington, the author of a thesis titled “Clash of Civilizations” that caused widespread controversy as a result of its argument that future wars will be fought not between nations but based on cultural and religious identities.
Al-Issa received the Norwegian Bridge Builder Award in 2021, the World’s Religions Peace Award from Sri Lanka in 2019, and the Italian Galileo International Award in 2018 for his efforts in promoting religious and cultural harmony worldwide.
