The Secretary-General of the Muslim Council of Elders Judge Mohamed Abdelsalam has taken part in the 8th ‘International Meeting of Dialogue and Prayer for Peace among World Religions’ in the Italian capital, Rome. 

During his speech at the event, Judge Abdelsalam stressed that religions are faultless and shouldn’t be associated with wars or conflicts since they were sent to be a mercy for humanity and to provide safety and peace for all. He also pointed to the important need to spread dialogue while also searching for joint human values between people through noble instilled religious values while also keeping them away from fanaticism, hate and extremism. 

Judge Abdelsalam added, “Some are attempting to distort religious teachings for political purposes in order to create division, conflict and war while spreading hate, extremism and discrimination against others. His Eminence Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayeb the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar and Chairman of the Muslim Council of Elders alongside His Holiness Pope Francis, Pontiff of the Catholic Church strongly opposed this danger with their historic co-signing of the Document on Human Fraternity in Abu Dhabi which also represented a joint urgent appeal to humanity.”

Abdelsalam concluded that the Grand Imam and Pope Francis publicly declared that religions are innocent from any form of extremism, hate or discrimination while calling on the international community to stop using religions to fuel hate, extremism and blind fanaticism. This call he added, "must be used to further revive human fraternity and to promote a culture of mutual respect amongst all people".