Third Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies to discuss critical challenges, risks facing Islamic nation

The challenges and risks facing the Muslim world, as well as seeking to spread peace through traditional Muslim teachings, will be the focus of an international meeting held in Abu Dhabi.

More than 400 intellectuals, scholars, thinkers, researchers, youths and opinion-makers will convene on 18th December in Abu Dhabi for the third Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies, to discuss critical challenges and risks facing the Islamic nation.

The organising committee expressed its hope that the meeting would provide a fitting platform for delegates to share experiences and experiments for instilling the culture of peace as a value and daily common practice in Muslim societies.

This year's session will build on efforts of the two previous meetings to spare the nation from risks, as well as moral and material discord and damage, by grooming a new generation working to promote and maintain peace as a key priority for making a difference and change for the better.

Over two days of discussions, the forum will seek to explain the relationship between the concept of the contemporary nation state, and the state in Islamic tradition.

Participants will also explore the best ways to find peaceful solutions to imminent risks facing Muslim communities, and repercussions from these risks in other parts of the world. They will also seek to create a viable peaceful trend in Muslim communities to counter violence, extremism and intolerance.

The two-day forum will be held under that patronage of H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, and the chairmanship of Shaykh Abdallah bin Bayyah, President of the Forum.

The Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies was launched in 2014 in response to the unprecedented violence and devastation spreading throughout the Muslim world in recent years, leaving vast regions on the brink of implosion.

With the generous support of the United Arab Emirates, more than 250 Islamic scholars and Muslim intellectuals convened in Abu Dhabi in 2014 to make the inaugural forum a ground breaking success. The conference captured the attention of intellectuals and decision makers throughout the Muslim world and in the West, and established itself amongst prestigious international organisations.

However, in the wake of the inaugural forum, violence and devastation continued to spread throughout Muslim societies. The imminent threats faced by so many Muslim communities today underscores the critical importance of the recommendations put forth by the 2014 forum, the essence of which are to counter violence, fundamentalism and extremism, regardless of its background, motives, or theological justifications, and to cultivate peace in Muslim societies.

The objective of the inaugural Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies was to declare war against war in order to bring about peace upon peace – to extinguish the flames of violence, to rescue those who are engulfed in conflict, and to de-escalate tensions throughout the Muslim world.

The goal of the second forum was to re-establish the priorities of Muslim societies by rehabilitating intellects to a more thorough understanding of the salience of peace in Islam, the shariah, and traditions.