Chief Rabbi tells audience of 1,000 in the UAE: ‘Salam aleikum, Shalom aleichem’
Ephraim Mirvis touched down in the United Arab Emirates this morning for the first visit to an Arab state in his office’s 318-year history.
The Chief Rabbi marked the first official visit to an Arab state in his office’s 318-year history by hailing the vision of political leaders who signed the Abraham Accords.
Ephraim Mirvis touched down in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday before delivering his historic address to the Abu Dhabi Forum for Peace. He was given prime position seated next to the Forum’s founder, Sheikh Abdullah bin Bayyah, one of the most revered Muslim scholars on earth.
Greeting the 1,000 guests from 70 countries with the words “Salam aleikum, shalom aleichem,” the Chief Rabbi described the gathering as a “sacred moment”.
Quoting several passages from Genesis in Hebrew, he said they emphasised the fact the world must strive for a warm peace and that interfaith ties are most effectively built between those who remain proud adherents of their own faith.
“Abraham was absolutely committed to his own family, community and religion, and because of that he was respected outside of his religion, because he believed that he had a religion for the sake of every single human being on earth.
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“That is the very tone and atmosphere within this hall right now as we gather together proud of our own faiths and at the same time, reaching beyond, in friendship and warmth, towards others.”
The idea of peace between the UAE and Israel and a growing local Jewish community would have been unimaginable just three years ago, he said.
But the Accords with the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco opened “a window to strengthen Jewish-Muslim relations”.
He added: “I am only standing here because of brave leaders… who reached for the stars.”
The second United Synagogue rabbi to have hosted an imam at his shul when he led Kinloss, Chief Rabbi Mirvis hoped the example set by historic treaties would extend to other countries. But he said more needed to be done to bring people together at a grassroots level. “Where we are up to is not good enough. We have harmony between faith leaders but it has to filter down.
“It is good and pleasant for brothers to sit together in peace in this hall but we want this to happen between all Jews and all Muslims and all Christians.”
During the historic trip, the Chief Rabbi will also hold talks with senior Emirati officials and the Rashad Hussain, the US State Department’s ambassador for international religious freedom and the burgeoning Jewish community.
The Forum was established in 2014 by Sheikh bin Bayyah, chair of the UAE’s Fatwa Council, a former vice-president of Mauritania.
The 87-year-old uses authentic Muslim texts to challenge extremism. At the epicentre of the sheikh’s work is the so-called Marrakesh Declaration. Created to address the oppression of minorities in Muslim countries, the document draws on traditional texts and the Charter of Medina – which protected minorities at the time of the Prophet Muhammad – as well as the far more recent Universal Declaration of Human Rights to affirm equality between peoples.
After the Arab Spring and the emergence of Daesh, bin Bayyah established the FFP in the belief that such a global response – the first of its kind to tackle extremism – was essential. Organisers hold that the growth of extremism owes much to an education gap among some teachers charged with “applying decontextualised texts to the modern world”. It was later extended to involve dialogue with other Abrahamic faiths, paving the way for the involvement of rabbis and priests including Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Archbishop Justin Welby, who both joined by video link in 2022.
The Chief Rabbi applauded bin Bayyah’s contribution to peace as “absolutely monumental. We stand in awe at all your achievements to date”. He also heaped praise on the founding father of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and current president Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
For this first time, this year’s conference included a significant delegation from the UK, including the Board of Deputies’ Michael Wegier and Amanda Bowman, Imam Qari Asim, theologian Usama Hasan, campaigners Akeela Ahmed and Dilwar Hussain, the Church of England’s Siriol Davies and Rev Anthony Ball, canon of Westminster Abbey.
Among the speakers over the three-day conference was former CCJ chief Elizabeth Harris-Sawczenko, who advises the forum’s fledging UK branch and the British government’s adviser on political violence, Lord Walney. The event’s theme was ‘Globalised conflict and universal peace: urgent need for partnerships’.
Sheikh bin Bayyah told delegates that the Covid pandemic illustrated how connected and interdependent the world is.
He added: “Whether on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday, we must deliver the message of peace to our congregations and audience on different continents and in various languages. This message must be disseminated to all people. It should be taught in schools, preached in temples, and invoked in the arenas of conflict and on battlegrounds.”
Ari Gordon, US director of Muslim-Jewish relations at the American Jewish Committee, described the Chief Rabbi’s appearance as a “watershed moment. It was moving to see the warm greeting Chief Rabbi Mirvis received from Sheikh Bin Bayyah and even more so the enthusiastic applause from hundreds of Muslim scholars upon hearing his call
from Jewish tradition for cooperation across lines of faith.
For the Jewish delegates, his voice on the main stage was ennobling, and for those who have little exposure to Jews or Judaism it opens a path to learn more and correct misconceptions”. Former Ireland Chief Rabbi David Rosen, one of the most significant Jewish figures on the interfaith scene, described the visit as “an important stage in advancing Jewish-Muslim relations globally” that “strengthens the achievements and blessings of the historic Abraham Accords”.
Opening the session, the UAE’s minister of tolerance Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan said encouraging people to get to know each other would enable them to take on challenges like economic recession, the environment and terror together.
Opening up communication with everyone, he suggested, was key to the “successful march of the country”. Dr Mohammed Al-Issa, Secretary General of Muslim World League, spoke of the primacy of the word ‘peace’ in the Koran and insisted those who portrayed conflict as being in the name of Islam were guilty of “fraud”.
In a hard-hitting address, he said that sometimes the necessary religious knowledge needed to counter hateful narratives were lacking or there was fear to stand up publicly. Some platforms claiming to counter such narratives failed to do so, he suggested.
Board of Deputies chief executive Michael Wegier said he hoped conversations at the forum – whose executive director is Brit Zeshan Zafar – would lead to tangible projects with Muslim leaders in the UK and globally. He said: “This is an amazing opportunity to hear and mingle with, religious leaders from the Middle East and Africa. Events like this remind us of the possibilities that peace can bring.”
The event was also addressed by former US Ambassador to Oman Marc Sievers, who now heads AJC in Abu Dhabi.
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